EF0 tornado, Chetopa, Kansas, April 3, 2015

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

April 3, 2015

Touchdown

2:17 AM CDT (07:17 UTC)

Lifted

2:18 AM CDT (07:18 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Labette County

Touchdown point

37.036, -95.145

Lift-off point

37.036, -95.144

Record number

1504030117-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ICT and NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Brief touchdown and a dust swirl in open country.

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

A small compact complex of severe thunderstorms developed near the border of Colorado and Kansas during the late evening hours of April 2nd, 2015. This severe thunderstorm continued to develop and intensify as it moved east into Central Kansas and took on bow echo-like characteristics. This bow-echo storm later produced quite a punch with damaging straight-line winds and large hail reported across much of Central and South Central Kansas. As the bow-echo approached Sedgwick and Harvey counties, channeled microbursts developed and caused significant straight-line wind damage. Power was knocked out to over 28,000 residents in the northern sections of Wichita for almost 5 days. Wichita and Maize schools cancelled classes on Friday, April 3rd, due to the power outages. This dangerous storm continued to move through South Central Kansas during the early morning hours, and took on supercellular characteristics as it moved into Southeast Kansas producing hail up to the size of grapefruits.

Very brief tornado touchdown over open country. A dust cloud at the surface was noted. Tornado width was 50 yards.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:02 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:09 UTC and running to 07:43 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 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.

Coffeyville (CFV), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:14 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 2015 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.