Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2017

EF0 tornado, Rush Center, Kansas, April 15, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Rush County on April 15, 2017, touching down at 6:38 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
April 15, 2017
Touchdown
6:38 PM CDT (23:38 UTC)
Lifted
6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Rush County
Touchdown point
38.450, -99.260
Lift-off point
38.454, -99.250
Record number
1704151738-01

The damage survey

1 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 70 mph.

  • Short lived landspout observed by a trained spotter. Lasted about 5 minutes.

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

Thunderstorms developed along a weak cold front during the afternoon. A low pressure center in the Oklahoma panhandle helped lift moist air north interacting with the front. Behind the front upslope flow promoted additional thunderstorm activity.

This landspout did not damage anything.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:12 UTC03:36 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. 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 95 km from the path. April 15, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2017-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -533, lifted condensation level 1285 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 2017-04-15The 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 13 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 5 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-533 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1285 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
356 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 95 km from the path. April 16, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2017-04-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1292 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 2243 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 2017-04-16The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1292 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3060 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2243 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:39 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
23:38 UTCTORNADO3 Ese Rush CenterRush, KSSPOTTER REPORTED A SHORT-LIVED LANDSPOUT.
23:50 UTCTORNADO2 Wsw TimkenRush, KSPUBLIC REPORT OF A BRIEF TORNADO THAT TOUCHED DOWN FOR ONLY 4-5 MINUTES.
00:05 UTCTORNADO5 Nnw BurdettPawnee, KSPUBLIC REPORT OF A LANDSPOUT.
00:09 UTCHAIL 18 N HoisingtonBarton, KSTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS NICKEL TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL.
00:29 UTCHAIL 1.56 Nnw RozelPawnee, KS
00:31 UTCHAIL 1.254 Wnw GarfieldPawnee, KSPUBLIC REPORT OF QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL.
00:40 UTCHAIL 16 E SusankBarton, KSLOTS OF HAIL WHICH IS PEA TO QUARTER SIZED.
01:17 UTCHAIL 1.251 N SanfordPawnee, KS
01:19 UTCHAIL 12 Nw FrizellPawnee, KS
01:55 UTCHAIL 2.54 S LarnedPawnee, KSREPORT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA WITH PHOTO.
02:05 UTCHAIL 11 E Great BendBarton, KSTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS PEA TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL FOR THE PAST FEW MINUTES.
02:07 UTCHAIL 1.5LarnedPawnee, KS
02:23 UTCHAIL 13 Ne GarfieldPawnee, KS

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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 154:58 PM CDTEF0Otoe, NE1.550
April 157:05 PM CDTEF0Pawnee, KS0.250
April 157:25 PM CDTEF0Atchison, MO0.010
April 157:25 PM CDTEF0Ottawa, KS1.725
April 158:50 PM CDTEF1Jones, IA3.225$10,000

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.