EF0 tornado, Smith Center to Cora, Kansas, May 27, 2013

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 27, 2013

Touchdown

6:32 PM CDT (23:32 UTC)

Lifted

6:36 PM CDT (23:36 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Smith County

Touchdown point

39.817, -98.831

Lift-off point

39.816, -98.824

Record number

1305271732-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Brief Touchdown. Reported by NWS Employee. EF0. 75 mph wind. 10 yards wide. no damage.

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

This event occurred on a Monday, which was also Memorial Day. The first and most intense thunderstorm of the day developed over northern Phillips county just after 4:30 pm CDT. This was the southern storm in a line segment of supercell storms, which exhibited multicell characteristics. This line extended northeast across the border into southern Nebraska. During the following four hours, this storm tracked east across Phillips, Smith and Jewell counties. Numerous storm chasers followed this storm. The initial storm report came from the rear flank of the storm, over Phillips county. It was here that the RFD produced winds estimated around 60 mph. As the storm moved east, two weak, brief tornadoes were spotted just northwest and northeast of Smith Center. A rain-wrapped EF-3 tornado, described as a wedge, then followed, tracking just north of Lebanon and Esbon. The tornado track was roughly 6 miles long and at its widest point, was nearly one mile wide. Even though this tornado was over rural areas, it still managed to produce damage. The worst damage was to a home that lost its roof and part of its second story. ||On radar, the hook echo was short and stubby. Because of this, there was substantial rain within the mesocyclone, which made it difficult to see the tornado except in its immediate vicinity. The Tornado Intercept Vehicle endured a direct hit from the tornado, with video confirmation. As this storm continued into Jewell County, no more reports of wind damage or tornadoes were received. However, the hail dramatically increased with multiple reports of hail to the size of tennis balls. The largest hail was yet to occur. Near Montrose, hail a little large than grapefruit size was reported (5 and 1/4 inches). After 7:00 pm CDT, other multicell storms developed, mainly affecting Mitchell county. These storms only produced a single report of 1 inch hail northwest of Beloit.||With the 8 am CDT Severe Weather Outlook, the Storm Prediction Center upgraded North Central Kansas to a moderate risk for severe thunderstorms. A weak short-wave trough was approaching the region, embedded within a broad upper-level trough, over the western United States. A quasi-stationary front, oriented in an east-west fashion, extended across Nebraska. During the early morning hours, a mesoscale convective system tracked through eastern Nebraska southeastward into Missouri. This MCS laid down an outflow boundary that extended across northern Kansas, to a lee-side low. It was to the north of this outflow boundary that storms initiated. At the time of initial thunderstorm development, temperatures were in the lower to middle 80s to near 90, with dewpoints in the middle 60s. This resulted in an extremely unstable atmosphere, with MLCAPE between 3000 and 4000 J/kg. Deep layer shear was 40 to 50 knots, which was more that strong enough for supercell storm structures.

This tornado touched down in open land northwest of Smith Center and was only on the ground for a few minutes. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be near 75 mph, but this tornado caused no damage.

This tornado briefly touched down north of Bellaire. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be near 75 MPH, but this tornado caused no damage.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:50 UTC and running to 03:32 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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

15 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.