Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Deerhead to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, April 8, 2015

From Deerhead to Medicine Lodge, this EF0 tornado ran 16.2 miles across Barber County on April 8, 2015, touching down at 6:49 PM CDT and reaching 250 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
April 8, 2015
Touchdown
6:49 PM CDT (23:49 UTC)
Lifted
7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)
On the ground
14 minutes
Path length
16.2 miles (26.1 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Barber County
Touchdown point
37.191, -98.950
Lift-off point
37.240, -98.662
Record number
1504081749-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A warm front lifting north and a dryline advancing in from the west were the triggering mechanisms for thunderstorms during the late afternoon and evening.

At times there was continuous contact with the ground (where tree damage was observed and it was at its largest). Otherwise, the contact with the ground was intermittent.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:41 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:52 UTC and running to 02:03 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:00 UTC02:35 UTCFire Weather WatchDDC
20:52 UTC02:03 UTCTornado WatchDDC
21:52 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:15 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningDDC
23:41 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:07 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:35 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningDDC

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 19:32 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 115 km from the path. April 8, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-04-08Temperature 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 -93376, lifted condensation level 784 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-04-08The 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 155 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-93376 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
784 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 115 km from the path. April 9, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2015-04-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 15 joules per kilogram, CIN -409, lifted condensation level 2152 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2015-04-09The 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 351 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
15 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-409 J/kg
Surface CAPE
357 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2152 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
351 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
466 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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
21:55 UTCHAIL 0.88Nnw HardtnerBarber, KSMOST OF THE HAIL WAS PEA SIZE.
22:15 UTCHAIL 0.756 Ese ButtermilkComanche, KS
22:16 UTCHAIL 0.884 Se ButtermilkComanche, KSTHE HAIL NEARLY COVERED THE GROUND.
22:16 UTCHAIL 0.887 S Medicine LodgeBarber, KS
23:10 UTCHAIL 0.75ProtectionComanche, KS
23:25 UTCHAIL 1.757 S WilmoreComanche, KS
23:26 UTCTORNADO8 E ButtermilkComanche, KSTHE TORNADO WAS OBSERVED BY SEVERE STUDIOS LIVE FEED.
23:40 UTCHAIL 1.56 Nw AetnaComanche, KS
23:55 UTCTORNADO10 Nne AetnaBarber, KSA LARGE CONE TORNADO WAS OBSERVED AT 655 PM. IT LIFTED AROUND 700 PM.
23:55 UTCTORNADO9 Nne AetnaBarber, KSTHE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY BUT WAS OBSCURED BY RAIN AT THE TIME OF THE REPORT.
23:58 UTCTORNADO9 S Lake CityBarber, KSTHE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 3 MINUTES.
00:20 UTCHAIL 1.56 Ese Lake CityBarber, KSTHE HAIL WAS VERY HEAVY FOR ABOUT TWO MINUTES AND COVERED THE GROUND COMPLETELY.
00:21 UTCHAIL 1.255 Se Lake CityBarber, KSMOST OF THE HAIL WAS ABOUT THE SIZE OF PENNIES.
01:00 UTCTORNADO5 Sw ZendaKingman, KSBRIEF, ROPE TORNADO
01:05 UTCHAIL 2.751 S NashvilleKingman, KSFROM TWITTER WITH PICTURE
01:11 UTCHAIL 1.5ZendaKingman, KSQUARTER TO HALF-DOLLAR SIZED HAIL.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 8, 2015

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 83:30 PM CDTEF1Washington, MO4.1300
April 86:24 PM CDTEF0Comanche, KS1.975
April 88:15 PM CDTEF0Barber, KS0.650
April 88:32 PM CDTEF0Sedgwick, KS3.175
April 88:43 PM CDTEF0Kingman, KS0.775
April 88:58 PM CDTEF0Custer, OK0.230

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.