EF3 tornado, Nickerson, Kansas, July 13, 2015

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

July 13, 2015

Touchdown

6:34 PM CDT (23:34 UTC)

Lifted

6:56 PM CDT (23:56 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.6 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$270,000

Counties

Rice and Reno counties

Touchdown point

38.190, -97.990

Lift-off point

38.133, -98.058

Record number

1507131734-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ICT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 165 mph.

• Tornado was 150 yards wide. Looking west.
• Power poles in background already replaced. Tornado 350 yards wide. Looking west-southwest.
• House not anchored. 350 yards wide. Looking northwest.
• Tornado was 150 yards wide.

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

A strong tornado moved southwest from Rice into Reno county causing significant damage to two different homesteads. One home was completely demolished while another took a glancing blow. Numerous trees were uprooted and those that were not had a significant amount of debarking. Several other storms moved across the area producing severe wind and hail.

A strong tornado moved southwest towards the town of Nickerson. One home was completely destroyed as it was blown off of its foundation. There were no anchor bolts present in the foundation (DI2 DOD9). The second more significant damage sight was where many trees were completely uprooted. Those that were not uprooted only had the main trunk left and it was completely debarked. The home took a glancing blow and only had minor damage. The family took shelter in an above ground shelter in their garage. The damage path for this portion of the tornado that moved out of Rice County was 350 yards wide.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:32 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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 Wichita radar (KICT), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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

10 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.