Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Robinson, Kansas, May 15, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Brown County on May 15, 2015, touching down at 7:41 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
May 15, 2015
Touchdown
7:41 PM CDT (00:41 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Brown County
Touchdown point
39.820, -95.450
Lift-off point
39.820, -95.450
Record number
1505151841-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Two brief weak EF0 tornadoes touched down with a low topped supercell during the evening of May 15th. No damage occurred.

Report of a brief tornado touchdown that lasted around one minute. No damage.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:14 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:23 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningTOP
23:44 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningTOP
00:14 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningTOP
00:44 UTC00:57 UTCTornado WarningTOP

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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.

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. May 16, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2015-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 840 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 1137 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2015-05-16The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
840 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2480 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1137 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 93 km from the path. May 16, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 768 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 632 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 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
768 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1049 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
632 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:39 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
23:22 UTCTORNADO2 Ese NetawakaJackson, KSNOT VERY WELL DEFINED TORNADO, BUT THE SPOTTER DID CONFIRM THAT HE COULD SEE IT ON THE GROUND.
23:24 UTCTORNADO2 Ese NetawakaJackson, KSNOT VERY WELL DEFINED TORNADO, BUT THE SPOTTER DID CONFIRM THAT HE COULD SEE IT ON THE GROUND.
00:02 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Nnw HortonBrown, KSSPOTTER REPORTED AT LEAST A WELL DEFINED FUNNEL CLOUD, BUT NO TORNADO ON THE GROUND.
00:12 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 N WillisBrown, KSSAW A BRIEF FUNNEL THAT HAS SINCE LIFTED. HE IS STILL SEEING DECENT ROTATION WITH THE WALL CLOUD.
00:41 UTCTORNADO2 W RobinsonBrown, KSBRIEF TORNADO REPORTED. LASTED A FEW MINUTES AND HAS SINCE LIFTED.

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 May 15, 2015

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 156:29 AM CDTEF1La Salle, TX2.3501$100,000
May 156:44 AM CDTEF0La Salle, TX0.830$50,000
May 1511:18 AM CDTEF0Duval, TX0.010
May 151:05 PM CDTEF0Nueces, TX0.225$25,000
May 151:20 PM CDTEF0San Patricio, TX1.4503$100,000
May 152:03 PM MDTEF0Adams, CO0.150
May 152:51 PM MDTEF1Adams, CO0.1100$15,000
May 153:34 PM MDTEF1Goshen, WY9.8400
May 156:22 PM CDTEF0Jackson, KS0.120
May 157:34 PM MDTEF0Cherry, NE0.120
May 158:08 PM MDTEF0Sheridan, NE0.010

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.