Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Copeland to Montezuma, Kansas, May 7, 2015

From Copeland to Montezuma, this EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Gray County on May 7, 2015, touching down at 4:01 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 7, 2015
Touchdown
4:01 PM CDT (21:01 UTC)
Lifted
4:05 PM CDT (21:05 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gray County
Touchdown point
37.620, -100.540
Lift-off point
37.621, -100.537
Record number
1505071501-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms erupted along a stationary front during the afternoon. The initial storms produced land-spouts with subsequent storms producing hail and wind damage.

This was the second landspout out of five that occurred.

This was the third of five landspout tornadoes.

This was the fourth out of five landspout tornadoes.

This was the fifth of five landspout tornadoes. This one struck a farm doing low end EF1 damage to a well built 60 by 100 foot building, a tractor and home. Wind speeds estimated to be about 90 MPH.

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

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:51 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:51 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC
21:11 UTC21:32 UTCTornado WarningDDC
22:04 UTC22:27 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 19:46 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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 59 km from the path. May 7, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 627 joules per kilogram, CIN -201, lifted condensation level 1043 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 12:00Z on 2015-05-07The 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 78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
627 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-201 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1282 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1043 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 59 km from the path. May 8, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2015-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 29 joules per kilogram, CIN -142, lifted condensation level 1841 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 2015-05-08The 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 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
29 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-142 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1174 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Garden_city (GCK), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:54 UTC725510° 11 kt1010.8
20:54 UTC7355350° 7 kt1009.5
21:54 UTC735410° 4 kt1010.2
22:54 UTC7352210° 10 kt1010.2

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:00 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
20:45 UTCTORNADO5 Nw CopelandHaskell, KSMULTIPLE LANDSPOUTS KICKING UP DUST.
21:00 UTCTORNADO6 Wnw MontezumaGray, KSDAMAGE TO SHED AND GARAGE, TRACTOR WITH WINDOWS BLOWN OUT.
21:00 UTCTORNADO6 Wnw MontezumaGray, KS
21:00 UTCTORNADOCopelandGray, KSMULTIPLE LANDSPOUTS IN THE VICINITY OF COPELAND.
21:00 UTCTORNADOCopelandGray, KS
21:01 UTCTORNADO6 Nne CopelandGray, KSMULTIPLE LANDSPOUTS REPORTED IN THIS AREA.
21:01 UTCTORNADO7 Ne CopelandGray, KSMULTIPLE LANDSPOUTS REPORTED.
21:06 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD7 Nnw MontezumaGray, KS
21:17 UTCHAIL 1.754 N Dodge CityFord, KS
21:26 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ene CopelandGray, KSPOWER LINE DOWN ACROSS THE ROAD ON Z ROAD AND BETWEEN 8 AND 9 ROAD. POSSIBLY CAUSED BY LANDSPOUT.
22:09 UTCHAIL 15 Wsw KalvestaFinney, KSHAIL WAS COVERING THE GROUND.

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 7, 2015

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 73:45 PM CDTEF0Haskell, KS0.550
May 74:00 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.350
May 74:00 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.250
May 74:02 PM CDTEF1Gray, KS0.250$40,000
May 74:59 PM MDTEF1Baca, CO0.350$3,000
May 76:45 PM CDTEF1Wise, TX3.42001$250,000
May 76:36 PM MDTEF0Weld, CO0.150
May 77:45 PM CDTEF1Denton, TX12.7500$200,000
May 79:00 PM CDTEF0Wise, TX0.350

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.