EF3 tornado, New Tabor, Kansas, May 6, 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

May 6, 2015

Touchdown

7:14 PM CDT (00:14 UTC)

Lifted

7:17 PM CDT (00:17 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Republic County

Touchdown point

39.858, -97.548

Lift-off point

39.879, -97.524

Record number

1505061814-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID and NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• old farm shed destroyed poor condition
• EF2 damage to home north of Scandia walls remained intact fairly well built structure
• storage grain bins destroyed
• irrigation pivot overturned possible end point. area NE inaccessible

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

Approximately 14 tornadoes were documented and confirmed via reports and radar data all occurring during the late afternoon and evening of May 6th. The tornadoes impacted Republic, Cloud, Washington and Clay Counties. In fact, 7 tornadoes alone occurred in Republic County. This was the largest one day outbreak of tornadoes in the past 10 years for NWS Topeka. The strongest tornado was an EF3 that destroyed a home south of Munden in Republic county. The longest was over 25 miles in length also across Republic county.

This strong but brief tornado touched down shortly before destroying a home around 715pm CDT a few miles south of Munden, KS. The tree damage suggested EF3 intensity while some debarking was also noted downwind or to the NE of the home. The structure itself was pull from the sill plate which had bolts every 6 feet per code. however it appears that an initial failure point was the garage door which faced south and the roof was attached to both the garage and main structure so it appears that a catastrophic failure caused the entire structure to be lifted off its foundation and deposited 50-150 yards to the NE of the foundation. Two cars in the garage were moved only slightly which indicates below EF4 type intensity in this event. The tornado must have weakened rapidly since only EF0-1 damage was noted 1/2-1 mile NE of the worst damage.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:42 UTC and running to 01:38 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:12 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

47 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.