Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2021

EF0 tornado, Wellington, Kansas, July 17, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Sumner County on July 17, 2021, touching down at 7:27 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.

  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
July 17, 2021
Touchdown
7:27 PM CDT (00:27 UTC)
Lifted
7:28 PM CDT (00:28 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
Sumner County
Touchdown point
37.200, -97.400
Lift-off point
37.200, -97.400
Record number
2107171827-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Showers and thunderstorms dropped copious amounts of rain across the county warning area prompting several flood warnings and one flash flood warning in Montgomery county.

Landspout. A very brief touchdown of a landspout over open country. No damage occurred.

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
11:43 UTC12:19 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT

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 19:56 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 surface observations

Winfield (WLD), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:35 UTC70° 5 kt1016.3
22:40 UTC120° 4 kt1016.3
22:45 UTC0° 0 kt1016.3
22:50 UTC90° 7 kt1016.3
22:54 UTC897370° 8 kt1016.3
22:55 UTC60° 7 kt1016.3
23:05 UTC90° 5 kt1016.3
23:10 UTC100° 7 kt1016.3
23:15 UTC100° 7 kt1016.3
23:20 UTC120° 5 kt1016.3
23:25 UTC80° 5 kt1016.3
23:30 UTC90° 4 kt1016.3
23:40 UTC60° 7 kt1015.9
23:45 UTC80° 4 kt1015.9
23:50 UTC80° 5 kt1015.9
23:54 UTC897580° 5 kt1015.9
23:55 UTC80° 7 kt1015.9
00:00 UTC60° 8 kt1015.6
00:02 UTC887560° 9 kt1015.6VCTS
00:05 UTC60° 8 kt1015.6
00:15 UTC70° 5 kt1015.9
00:20 UTC60° 5 kt1015.9
00:30 UTC190° 4 kt1016.3
00:35 UTC 11 kt1016.6
00:40 UTC 11 kt1016.6
00:49 UTC80.669.8230° 11 kt201016.6
00:54 UTC8069220° 8 kt191016.9VCTS
00:55 UTC210° 8 kt1016.9
01:00 UTC190° 7 kt1017.3
01:05 UTC 11 kt1017.6
01:10 UTC180° 8 kt1017.6
01:11 UTC7971180° 8 kt1017.6TS
01:25 UTC 16 kt1017.9
01:26 UTC7869180° 14 kt251017.9
01:30 UTC 17 kt221017.9
01:35 UTC 10 kt1017.9
01:36 UTC7669160° 10 kt221017.9VCTS
01:45 UTC180° 5 kt1018.3
01:50 UTC170° 2 kt1017.9
01:51 UTC75.269.8160° 3 kt1017.9
01:54 UTC7569170° 4 kt1017.9
01:55 UTC160° 5 kt1017.9
02:00 UTC160° 8 kt1017.9
02:05 UTC170° 4 kt1017.6
02:10 UTC210° 5 kt1017.6
02:20 UTC0° 0 kt1017.6
02:25 UTC0° 0 kt1017.6

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

The radar

The Wichita radar (KICT), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:26 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
00:27 UTCTORNADO5 S WellingtonSumner, KSLANDSPOUT.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 17, 2021

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1710:25 PM EDTEF1Burlington, NJ7.8300

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.