EF0 tornado, Victor, Kansas, May 1, 2018

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

May 1, 2018

Touchdown

6:09 PM CDT (23:09 UTC)

Lifted

6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mitchell County

Touchdown point

39.250, -98.147

Lift-off point

39.250, -98.147

Record number

1805011709-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

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

Storms produced very heavy rain, localized hail and wind damage, and even a brief tornado over north central Kansas on this Tuesday afternoon and evening. Around 2 PM CST, several thunderstorms rapidly developed southwest-to-northeast across Rooks and Smith counties. These storms merged into a line as they moved east and gradually evolved into two multicell clusters. Each cluster tracked across portions of Jewell, and Osborne and Mitchell counties. The Jewell County storm become a very small bow echo, but with no wind damage reported. However, some wind damage did occur over southeastern Osborne County where wood framing and metal sheeting were blown off an outbuilding on one farm. A hay rake and two empty grain trailers were also blown over. Hail occurred in many places, with the largest 2 inches in diameter over south central Mitchell County. This same storm produced a brief tornado that resembled an elephant trunk. As these storms moved into northeast Kansas, other storms continued to initiate near Interstate 70 and began lifting into southern Osborne and Mitchell counties after 6 PM CST. The axis of storms stopped lifting north and repeated storm development occurred over southern Osborne and Mitchell counties, between 7 and 11 PM CST, resulting in total rainfall amounts between 2.50 and 5.18 inches. The highest amount of 5.18 inches fell just southeast of Tipton. Flash flooding occurred in low-lying spots from southeast Osborne across central Mitchell counties, with water over multiple county roads. Flooding resulted in a washout where bridge work was being performed in Mitchell county on Victor road, between P and Q roads.||A low pressure system was near Lake Superior with a slow-moving cold front extending southwest across Kansas to the Oklahoma Panhandle. In the upper-levels, southwest flow covered most of the U.S., with a trough over the West and a ridge over the Northeast. Just prior to thunderstorm development, temperatures were in the lower to middle 80s with dewpoints in the lower 60s. With mid-level lapse rates near 8 C/km, MLCAPE was 2000-2500 J/kg. Deep layer shear was 40-50 kts, which was more than sufficient for severe thunderstorms.

This tornado was captured by video and photograph by a storm chaser. The tornado was rated an EF-0, moving over an open field with an estimated wind speed of 75 MPH.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:58 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:48 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Moderate 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 19:55 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.

Concordia (CNK), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:11 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 2018 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.