EF0 tornado, Mullinville to Greensburg Arpt, Kansas, December 25, 2016

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

December 25, 2016

Touchdown

10:51 AM CST (16:51 UTC)

Lifted

10:59 AM CST (16:59 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kiowa County

Touchdown point

37.512, -99.328

Lift-off point

37.592, -99.272

Record number

1612251051-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Large cattle barn/quonset was damaged. Several feed bunks were lifted and carried west and others rolled out of the pens. Large round hay bales were blown off a stack and rolled 50 yards in several different directions. A 30 yard stretch of fencing was broken with dried vegetation removed from that area.
• Dead tree layin across the road. It fell southeast to northwest (southeast wind).
• Cattle wind breaks overturned to the north. Circulation was apparent via doppler radar at this point also.
• Outdoor metal shed was removed and carried at least 100 yards. Video was available. Wind speeds estimated at 70 MPH.

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

A very anomalous weather set-up was in place on Christmas Day across the area. Early morning dew points had risen to around 60 degrees F which is extremely usual and perhaps unprecedented for southwest Kansas for December 25. A squall line moved across the entire area and for a while produced QLCS brief tornadoes of which a few caused damage. High wind behind the Pacific front and dryline was observed during the afternoon.

This QLCS tornado moved out of Ford County at 10:31 AM. As it moved across Kiowa county at a rapid rate, it struck an outbuilding. This large cattle barn or quonset was damaged. Several feed bunks were lifted and carried west and others rolled out of the pens. Large round hay bales were blown off a stack and rolled 50 yards in several different directions. A 30 yard stretch of fencing was broken with dried vegetation removed from that area.

This QLCS damaged a few trees and destroyed a small shed and carried the debris around 100 yards.

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.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:24 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.

Pratt (PTT), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:47 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.

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 2016 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.