Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2012

EF0 tornado, Huscher, Kansas, April 27, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Cloud County on April 27, 2012, touching down at 4:38 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
April 27, 2012
Touchdown
4:38 PM CDT (21:38 UTC)
Lifted
4:42 PM CDT (21:42 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cloud County
Touchdown point
39.454, -97.641
Lift-off point
39.470, -97.610
Record number
1204271538-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Supercell thunderstorms developed along a warm frontal boundary that was draped from near Concordia, Kansas to near Emporia, Kansas. Storms that developed moved northeast and as they encountered the warm front they were able to exhibit low level rotation and 2 brief weak tornadoes were confirmed during the evening. Otherwise, sporadic thunderstorm wind damage and large hail reports were more common.

A tornado touchdown was reported with what appeared to become a rain wrapped tornado. Time of touchdown and path length determined based off of radar and the chaser report. No damage was reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:23 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 23:32 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:15 UTC23:32 UTCTornado WatchTOP
20:44 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
21:06 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
21:23 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningTOP
21:53 UTC22:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
22:16 UTC22:36 UTCTornado WarningTOP

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. April 27, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2012-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -58097, lifted condensation level 1420 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2012-04-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 272 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-58097 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1420 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
272 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
417 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:38 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:35 UTCHAIL 0.25Glen ElderMitchell, KSZERO VISIBILITY IN HEAVY RAIN AND PEA SIZE HAIL ON HWY 24 BETWEEN GLEN ELDER AND CAWKER CITY
20:06 UTCHAIL 1.25Glen ElderMitchell, KSHAIL FALLING AT GLEN ELDER RESERVOIR.
20:08 UTCHAIL 1Glen ElderMitchell, KS
20:33 UTCHAIL 14 W BeloitMitchell, KSQUARTER SIZE HAIL AT SOLOMON RAPIDS
20:47 UTCHAIL 0.755 Ne BeloitMitchell, KS
21:12 UTCHAIL 13 W DelphosOttawa, KS
21:18 UTCHAIL 1DelphosOttawa, KSHAIL COVERING THE GROUND.
21:20 UTCHAIL 1.755 N DelphosCloud, KS
21:38 UTCTORNADO4 Wnw AuroraCloud, KSBRIEF TOUCHDOWN REPORTED.
22:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W AgendaRepublic, KS3 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMB BLOWN DOWN.
22:44 UTCHAIL 0.88CliftonWashington, KS
22:47 UTCHAIL 0.753 S CliftonClay, KS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 27, 2012

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 271:44 AM MDTEF2Bent, CO6.2300$25,000
April 271:49 AM MDTEF2Prowers, CO2.0200$500,000
April 271:58 AM MDTEF2Prowers, CO19.12007$500,000
April 272:35 AM MDTEF1Kiowa, CO2.21001$40,000
April 272:40 AM MDTEF2Kiowa, CO0.750$30,000
April 274:43 PM CDTEF0Phillips, KS4.440
April 275:59 PM CDTEF0Morris, KS0.010

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.