EF1 tornado, Codell, Kansas, May 8, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 8, 2016

Touchdown

7:27 PM CDT (00:27 UTC)

Lifted

7:33 PM CDT (00:33 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Rooks County

Touchdown point

39.137, -99.162

Lift-off point

39.174, -99.141

Record number

1605081827-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC and NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• several broken poles. debris in fence
• more toward center of tornado
• probably toward south end of tornado
• note steel transmission line in back. on county line. 1 or 2 others completely out.

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

Very large hail and a tornado occurred over north central Kansas on this Sunday afternoon and evening. Thunderstorms had developed over western Kansas by mid-afternoon and, by 5:30 p.m. CST, they began moving into north central Kansas. The storms were mostly short line-segments of multicell storms, but there was one supercell that lifted out of Ellis County into southeastern Rooks County. This storm was producing a tornado upon entering Rooks County, but the tornado quickly dissipated after crossing into the County. This supercell cycled and did spawn another short-track EF-1 tornado just northeast of where the previous tornado ended. This storm then merged with the developing squall line which swept east across the rest of north central Kansas. Severe hail was reported in many locations across Rooks, Osborne, and Mitchell Counties, the largest of which was 2 inches over west-central Osborne County. This line of storms exited north central Kansas by 11 p.m. CST. However, new severe thunderstorms were already developing to the southwest, apparently along the outflow boundary left by the preceding storms. These storms produced hail up to the size of golf balls in multiple locations between 11:15 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. CST. Cell training occurred with these storms and, when combined with the previous line, a CoCoRaHS observer measured 3.77 inches of rain which fell in less than 12 hours.||A low pressure center was located over western Kansas. A warm front extended east from this low through northern Kansas. This front lifted north into Nebraska during the afternoon hours. These storms developed in the vicinity of this front and in the warm sector. Prior to convective initiation, temperatures were in the middle 70s with dewpoints in the middle 50s. Mid-level lapse rates were very steep, between 8 and 8.5 degrees C/km, resulting in MLCAPE between 1500 and 2000 J/kg. Effective deep layer shear was between 35 and 40 knots. In the upper-levels, split flow was over North America, with a closed low over Wyoming and Colorado.

This tornado was the continuation and end of the tornado that started in Ellis County north of the town of Catharine. In Rooks County, the overall damage was minimal and confined to trees as the tornado lifted within a mile of the county line. The entire path length through the 2 counties was 7 miles. At its peak in Ellis County, the maximum wind speed was estimated to be 125 MPH.

This tornado, the second to affect Rooks County on this day, touched down approximately 4 miles south of Codell, moved northeast and lifted appoximately 2 miles southeast of Codell. Damage along its path was confined to trees, fencing and several power poles. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 110 MPH.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:15 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:45 UTC and running to 05:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:25 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

7 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.