Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2017
EF0 tornado, Ada, Kansas, April 15, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Ottawa County on April 15, 2017, touching down at 7:25 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 15, 2017
- Touchdown
- 7:25 PM CDT (00:25 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:28 PM CDT (00:28 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.7 miles (2.7 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Ottawa County
- Touchdown point
- 39.173, -97.865
- Lift-off point
- 39.188, -97.840
- Record number
- 1704151825-02
The damage survey
2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.
- Track left in bare field. Photo by Robert Thompson.
- Photo of tornado passing shed. Photo by Amanda Rensink.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A short-lived landspout tracked across open prairie and went through a tree grove with minimal damage in western Ottawa County on April 15th.
Multiple pictures were submitted of a landspout tornado from western Ottawa County as thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of April 15th.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:08 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:08 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | TOP |
| 00:54 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP |
| 01:54 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z
0.4 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. April 16, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1238 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -20 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2569 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1567 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 85 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 211 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 8.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.1 K/km
Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z
11.6 hours after it, 192 km from the path. April 16, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -236 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 55 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 936 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 4 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -12 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 44 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:23 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:04 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 Wsw Westfall | Lincoln, KS | REPORT IS ABOUT 3 NORTH OF INTERSTATE 70 |
| 00:25 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Ada | Ottawa, KS | DELAYED REPORT FROM APRIL 15. TIME ON GROUND: 7:25PM TO 7:28PM CDT, PATH LENGTH: 1.7 MILES, PATH WIDTH: 25 YARDS. THIS SHORT-LIVED LANDSPOUT TORNADO TRACKED ACROSS OPEN PRAIRIE AND WENT THROUGH A TREE GROVE WITH MINIMAL |
| 00:50 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 Sw Westfall | Ellsworth, KS | SPOTTER IS LOCATED AT MILE MARKER 228 ON INTERSTATE 70. |
| 01:01 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 N Wells | Ottawa, KS | |
| 01:09 UTC | HAIL 1 | Westfall | Lincoln, KS | |
| 01:10 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 3 Sw Westfall | Lincoln, KS | SPOTTER SENT REPORT VIA TWITTER OF PEA TO PING PONG BALL SIZED HAIL AND THERE WERE DRIFTS OF DIME SIZED HAIL. |
| 01:17 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 S Westfall | Lincoln, KS | |
| 01:29 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 6 Nne Lucas | Russell, KS | QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL REPORTED. |
| 01:45 UTC | HAIL 1 | 12 Se Lincoln | Lincoln, KS | QUARTER SIZED HAIL REPORTED 3 MILES NORTH OF INTERSTATE 70 AND COLT DRIVE. |
| 01:53 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 Wsw Lincoln | Lincoln, KS | |
| 01:54 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 N Wells | Ottawa, KS | |
| 02:08 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 S Lincoln | Lincoln, KS | LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS QUARTER SIZED HAIL ON KANSAS HIGHWAY 14. |
| 02:14 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 4 | 10 Sse Lincoln | Lincoln, KS | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS 4 INCHES OF RAIN HAVE FALLEN IN THE LAST TWO HOURS AND HEAVY RAIN IS STILL FALLING. |
| 02:30 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 8 S Lincoln | Lincoln, KS | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS WATER IS OVER ELK DRIVE AT KANSAS HIGHWAY 14. |
| 02:40 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 Ene Salina | Saline, KS | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS DIME SIZED HAIL WITH A FEW QUARTERS MIXED IN. |
| 02:50 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 8 Ne Ellsworth | Ellsworth, KS | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS LOTS OF PEA TO NICKEL SIZED HAIL. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 15, 2017
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.