EF3 tornado, Bloom to (Ddc)Dodge City Arpt, Kansas, May 24, 2016

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 24, 2016

Touchdown

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

Lifted

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

On the ground

30 minutes

Path length

14.7 miles (23.7 km)

Path width

675 yards (617 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Ford County

Touchdown point

37.503, -100.135

Lift-off point

37.686, -100.208

Record number

1605241655-01

63 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 136 mph.

• Vortex, strongest passed just west of the double-wide manufactured home. The occupants took shelter in a reinforced storm shelter (partly above ground). The male received injuries when a piece of irrigation pipe penetrated the wall striking him in the back with concrete that was blasted inward. It appeared that the rebar kept the pipe from entering the structure and claiming a life.
• Pivot irrigation sprinkler damaged beyond recognition.
• The "center" of the tornado vortex passed just east of this point. A pickup (see just east of this point) was carried from the west side of the house, through the detactched structure and east/northeast. The detatched structure was the original farm house that was well constructed. Even though there was only EF1 damage to the newer brick home, the other structure sustained EF2 damage.
• Truck carried, rolled and slammed into the ground for 200 yards.

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

Severe thunderstorms erupted during the late afternoon ahead of a dry line. Numerous tornado producing supercell thunderstorms were observed. Dodge City, although with parts damaged by a tornado, escaped a major disaster as tornadoes near that location moved north and northwest, instead of moving northeast (as dictated by the upper steering winds).

Family took shelter in an underground unit and was able to survive. The modular home was completely destroyed. Two vehicles were thrown about 150 yards. Another truck was carried, rolled, thrown with the bed located 1200 yards from the original location. The two occupants in the home destroyed were in a reinforced concrete bunker but one received minor injuries when a piece of pipe was driven into the wall breaking out concrete. The steal rebar prevented the chunk of pipe from penetrating into the individual. Visually at one point this tornado appeared to be strong enough to cause EF4 damage.

Visually this tornado appeared to be much stronger, perhaps strong enough to produce EF4 damage. Damage was done to several irrigation pivot sprinklers and to a farm house (that was on the edge of the circulation).

During the initial stages of development, there was DOW data on this tornado. It intensified from 40 meters/second to 90 meters/second in a span of 21 seconds that lasted less than a minute at those velocities. This would have been enough to produce EF5 damage briefly, based on those velocities. As the tornado moved north into a housing addition just west of Dodge City, it showed multiple vortex characteristics and did EF2 Damage. One person was seriously hurt in a home that was heavily damaged. The tornado eventually went north-northwest and crossed into Hodgeman County at 18:12 CST as it turned northeast. As it crossed into Hodgeman County, it tossed a partially filled stock tank to the west, about a mile and an half from the original location in far northern Ford County.

This tornado developed and intensified very rapidly. It was witnessed by an off duty NWS employee along with numerous chasers, law enforcement personnel and storm spotters. It developed just southwest of the county landfill and destroyed the landfills office and shop, producing EF3 damage at point. Fortunately no one was at the facility at the time as it had closed for the day.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:41 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:22 UTC and running to 03:33 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.

Dodge City (DDC), 26 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), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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

43 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.