EF1 tornado, Morganville to Vining, Kansas, May 18, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 18, 2013

Touchdown

10:35 PM CDT (03:35 UTC)

Lifted

10:45 PM CDT (03:45 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Clay and Washington counties

Touchdown point

39.486, -97.278

Lift-off point

39.581, -97.233

Record number

1305182135-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• Hedge Trees uprooted appears to be end of visible damage. Considered end point of tornado track.
• Outbuildings destroyed but machines not moved or damaged.
• Irrigation Pivots overturned

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

After 9pm CDT a squall line developed across north central Kansas and evolved into a bow echo. Widespread 60 to 80 mph winds with pockets of 80-100 mph winds occurred across a large part of Ottawa, Cloud, Clay, Geary, Washington and Riley counties between 10pm and 12 am Saturday night. At least 2 small tornadoes were confirmed that evening however most of the damage was due to straight line winds that in some cases were measured in excess of 100 mph.

Small tornado skipped northeast and produced EF1 damage at a home along Parallel road on the Clay and Washington county border. Outbuildings were destroyed and grain bins were blown away. Ponderosa pines were sheared off near the stump in a narrow path to the northeast.

The small tornado moved northeast of Parallel Road out of Clay County and dissipated after approximately 1 mile producing minor EF0 damage to trees.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:25 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:29 UTC and running to 04:11 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 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.

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:35 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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