Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2019

EF0 tornado, Overbrook, Kansas, September 27, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Osage County on September 27, 2019, touching down at 7:56 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
September 27, 2019
Touchdown
7:56 PM CDT (00:56 UTC)
Lifted
7:58 PM CDT (00:58 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Osage County
Touchdown point
38.805, -95.520
Lift-off point
38.806, -95.517
Record number
1909271856-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief tornado occurred just to the northeast of the city of Overbrook around 8 pm on the evening of September 27th. Large tree limbs were snapped and did damage to the roof of a home.

A small brief tornado hit a home doing damage to large tree limbs which fell onto the home's roof. A large satellite dish that was bolted to a concrete pad was also tossed into a cornfield across the road to the northeast. Estimated winds around 85 mph.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:16 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:16 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTOP
00:04 UTC00:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
00:35 UTC01:09 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
00:50 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
00:58 UTC01:06 UTCTornado WarningTOP
01:39 UTC02:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
02:23 UTC03:06 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
03:14 UTC08:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningTOP

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.9 hours before the tornado, 24 km from the path. September 28, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2019-09-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2300 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 1926 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2019-09-28The 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 74 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
2300 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3413 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1926 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

11.1 hours after it, 24 km from the path. September 28, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2019-09-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 524 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2019-09-28The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
524 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
289 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.4
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:57 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
00:39 UTCHAIL 15 Ssw PaulineShawnee, KS
00:45 UTCHAIL 2BerrytonShawnee, KSREPORT VIA WIBW TV.
00:48 UTCHAIL 12 Nw RichlandShawnee, KS
01:15 UTCHAIL 0.88ClintonDouglas, KS
01:24 UTCHAIL 12 Sw LawrenceDouglas, KSREPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.).
01:24 UTCHAIL 12 Sw LawrenceDouglas, KS
01:27 UTCHAIL 0.752 S LawrenceDouglas, KSREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
01:28 UTCHAIL 0.751 S LawrenceDouglas, KSREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
01:32 UTCHAIL 0.752 Ne LawrenceDouglas, KSREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
01:34 UTCHAIL 0.751 E LawrenceDouglas, KSREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
01:35 UTCHAIL 13 Nnw VinlandDouglas, KS
01:48 UTCHAIL 16 Sse ScrantonOsage, KS
01:58 UTCHAIL 1.256 Sw OverbrookOsage, KS

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 27, 2019

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 278:22 PM CDTEF0Fulton, IL1.9100$85,000

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.