EF3 tornado, Lindsey to Bennington, Kansas, May 28, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 28, 2013

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)

On the ground

60 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Ottawa County

Touchdown point

39.038, -97.709

Lift-off point

39.030, -97.667

Record number

1305281645-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Road too muddy to reach farm however EM provided information of damage to outbulidings and trees that reflected 90-100 mph winds.
• Power Poles snapped. Most poles snapped along K18 highway from 130th road to 1/2 mile east of frontier road.
• Home with shed garage blown off. Home had damage to siding and brick chimney was knocked off about halfway up...appeared to be from debris impact. Home was moved off foundation slightly but was old and anchors to slab looked weak.
• Power Poles snapped All power pole damage was high end EF1 low end EF2.

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

Supercell Thunderstorms developed along a stationary boundary and produced large tornadoes during the afternoon and evening of May 28th 2013. 2 tornadoes occurred in Nemaha county Kansas and at least 1 violent long lived tornado occurred in Ottawa County Kansas. Amazingly no serious injuries and no fatalities were reported. Later that night slow moving storms dumped 5 to 10 inches of rain across parts of Brown and Nemaha counties in Kansas.

A large tornado developed around 545pm CDT and proceeded to move slowly east for approximately 2 miles before turning back to the west and south toward highway 18. The tornado was lost in rain and was not visible after approximately 630 pm however mobile doppler radar supplemental data indicates that this tornado likely persisted through around 645 pm CDT. This tornado was nearly 1 mile wide at times and NWS damage survey found EF3 damage indicators suggesting winds to around 150 mph. 2 mobile doppler radars were within 5-6km of this tornado and did sample winds around and above 100m well in excess of 166 mph. In fact they measured winds of 247 mph at 100m! Nothing close to EF5 damage was revealed on the survey. However, given the lack of damage indicators available within the track of the tornado we have incorporated the mobile doppler wind data into our assessment of the tornado strength and we believe that this tornado contained at least EF4 winds in excess of 166 mph. We acknowledge the current directive which states that one cannot rate tornado intensity by non-damage data sources so we will enter this in as EF3 however we are stating in the comments that this was a violent tornado with most likely EF4 intensity at some point during its life. Amazingly no serious injuries or fatalities were reported. However there were approximately 100 head of cattle that were killed by the tornado.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:29 UTC and running to 02:54 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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.

Salina (SLN), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:45 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

24 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.