Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2012

EF0 tornado, Edson, Kansas, May 30, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Sherman County on May 30, 2012, touching down at 3:00 PM MDT and reaching 10 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
May 30, 2012
Touchdown
3:00 PM MDT (21:00 UTC)
Lifted
3:20 PM MDT (21:20 UTC)
On the ground
20 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sherman County
Touchdown point
39.430, -101.410
Lift-off point
39.430, -101.410
Record number
1205301500-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cluster of thunderstorms formed during the afternoon hours and moved southeast across portions of northwest Kansas and extreme southwest Nebraska. The storms produced one landspout tornado and hail up to the size of golf balls.

Employee reported a small landspout tornado that eventually dissipated after 20 minutes. Little movement noted and tornado remained over open fields with no known damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:00 UTC and running to 00:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:00 UTC00:46 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
21:24 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. May 30, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2012-05-30Temperature 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 -66720, lifted condensation level 2727 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2012-05-30The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-66720 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2727 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 163 km from the path. May 31, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2012-05-31Temperature 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 -50540, lifted condensation level 3248 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2012-05-31The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-50540 J/kg
Surface CAPE
118 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3248 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:01 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
21:00 UTCTORNADO5 Nnw BrewsterSherman, KSEMPLOYEE REPORTED A SMALL LANDSPOUT TORNADO THAT WAS ON THE GROUND UNTIL 320 PM MDT.
21:15 UTCHAIL 0.5BrewsterThomas, KS
21:30 UTCHAIL 111 Nnw LevantThomas, KS
21:36 UTCHAIL 13 N BrewsterThomas, KS
21:40 UTCHAIL 1.75BrewsterThomas, KSMOSTLY QUARTER SIZED HAIL WITH A FEW LARGER STONES.
21:44 UTCHAIL 114 Se LudellRawlins, KS
22:20 UTCHAIL 1.7510 Nnw WinonaThomas, KS
22:25 UTCHAIL 1.253 W MonumentLogan, 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 May 30, 2012

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3010:34 AM EDTEF1Carteret, NC0.6250$600,000
May 305:55 PM CDTEF0Cottle, TX0.730
May 305:59 PM CDTEF0Cottle, TX0.430
May 306:00 PM CDTEF0Cottle, TX0.320
May 306:13 PM CDTEF0Cottle, TX0.630
May 306:27 PM CDTEF0Foard, TX2.0400
May 306:38 PM CDTEF0Runnels, TX0.125
May 306:47 PM CDTEF0Concho, TX0.125
May 307:14 PM CDTEF0Cottle, TX4.8200
May 307:20 PM CDTEF0Concho, TX0.125
May 307:25 PM CDTEF0Hodgeman, KS0.375
May 307:35 PM CDTEF0Hodgeman, KS0.230

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.