Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2019
EF1 tornado, Longton, Kansas, September 21, 2019
This EF1 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Elk County on September 21, 2019, touching down at 6:12 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 of property damage.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- September 21, 2019
- Touchdown
- 6:12 PM CDT (23:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:14 PM CDT (23:14 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.2 miles (1.9 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Elk County
- Touchdown point
- 37.380, -96.120
- Lift-off point
- 37.380, -96.098
- Record number
- 1909211712-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Late in the afternoon and early evening of the 21st, three short-lived tornadoes struck Southeast Kansas. The first and third events were very brief, but the second caused minor damage in Elk County 2 miles west of Longton where it caused roof damage to a home and shifted an outbuilding from its foundation. Later that evening, an isolated severe thunderstorm lashed Russell County with very high winds where a 65-knot gust was measured at Russell Airport.
There was some roof damage to a home and an outbuilding was shifted from its foundation. There was also some damage to chicken coops. The time of the event was estimated.
This was a brief event that caused no damage.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:30 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 23:26 UTC | 23:47 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 00:00 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | ICT |
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 Marginal Risk. 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 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 (KTOP), 12:00Z
11.2 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. September 21, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 724 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -70 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 455 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 508 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 283 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 314 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 4.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z
0.8 hours after it, 185 km from the path. September 22, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1313 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -19 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1335 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 592 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 231 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 270 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.6
- Supercell composite
- 8.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The surface observations
Independence (IDP), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:35 UTC | 82.4 | 73 | 180° 13 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 21:55 UTC | 81.5 | 72.3 | 180° 13 kt | 20 | 1014.2 | |
| 22:15 UTC | 81.7 | 73 | 170° 13 kt | 1013.9 | VCTS | |
| 22:35 UTC | 82 | 72.5 | 170° 12 kt | 17 | 1014.2 | |
| 22:55 UTC | 81.5 | 72.7 | 160° 12 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 23:15 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 170° 14 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 23:35 UTC | 80 | 72.5 | 170° 8 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 79.3 | 72.7 | 160° 7 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 00:15 UTC | 78.6 | 72.3 | 160° 8 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 78 | 71.6 | 160° 8 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 00:55 UTC | 78 | 71 | 160° 8 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 01:15 UTC | 77 | 71 | 160° 7 kt | 1014.6 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Wichita radar (KICT), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:09 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:48 UTC | TORNADO | 8 N Cedar Vale | Chautauqua, KS | BRIEF TORNADO WITH NO DAMAGE REPORTED |
| 22:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.45 | Dexter | Cowley, KS | MESONET STATION DEXK1 DEXTER. |
| 23:12 UTC | TORNADO | 2 W Longton | Elk, KS | ROOF DAMAGE TO HOME AND OUTBUILDING WAS SHIFTED OFF THE FOUNDATION WITH SOME DAMAGE TO CHICKEN COOPS. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 23:16 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wnw Longton | Elk, KS | BRIEF TORNADO REPORTED JUST WEST OF LONGTON |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 21, 2019
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 21 | 4:48 PM CDT | Unrated | Chautauqua, KS | 0.5 | 25 | |||
| September 21 | 5:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Kanabec, MN | 1.2 | 80 | |||
| September 21 | 6:16 PM CDT | Unrated | Elk, KS | 0.5 | 25 | |||
| September 21 | 12:53 AM CDT | Unrated | Polk, IA | 1.6 | 25 |
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.