Unrated tornado, Baldwin Arpt, Kansas, March 15, 2021

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

March 15, 2021

Touchdown

4:54 PM CDT (21:54 UTC)

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Douglas County

Touchdown point

38.802, -95.180

Lift-off point

38.802, -95.180

Record number

2103151554-01

Scattered t-storms developed on the afternoon of March 15th. While dewpoints were only in the upper 40s a boundary along with enhanced low level vorticity in the atmosphere could have helped facilitate the development of a brief tornado on this day. A photo was taken approximately 2 miles north of Baldwin City, KS that showed a possible tornado around 454pm CDT. No damage or other reports were received from anyone else regarding this funnel or small tornado.

Scattered t-storms developed on the afternoon of March 15th. While dewpoints were only in the upper 40s a boundary along with enhanced low level vorticity in the atmosphere could have helped facilitate the development of a brief tornado on this day. A photo was taken approximately 2 miles north of Baldwin City, KS that showed a possible tornado around 454pm CDT. No damage or other reports were received from anyone else regarding this funnel or small tornado.

A photo taken appeared to show a small funnel that likely was extending to the ground. No damage was reported with this feature and no other reports were received from this feature. It will be considered an EFU since the photo appears to suggest that some part of the circulation was likely near or on the ground.

A photo taken appeared to show a small funnel that likely was extending to the ground. No damage was reported with this feature and no other reports were received from this feature. It will be considered an EFU since the photo appears to suggest that some part of the circulation was likely near or on the ground albeit briefly.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

Lawrence (LWC), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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 2021 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.