Unrated tornado, Ludell to Herndon, Kansas, May 26, 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

May 26, 2021

Touchdown

5:19 PM CDT (22:19 UTC)

Lifted

5:23 PM CDT (22:23 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Rawlins County

Touchdown point

39.904, -100.943

Lift-off point

39.925, -100.921

Record number

2105261619-01

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GLD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Grain silo blown to right in picture

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

During the mid afternoon through mid evening thunderstorms developed over Northwest Kansas east of a dry line located near the Kansas Colorado border. A warm front was located just north of the Kansas Nebraska line near Benkelman that dipped southeast toward Hill City. The tornado threat was confined the near the warm front. Hail up to golf ball size was reported at a number of locations. The only report of thunderstorm wind damage was reported south of Hill City where a house lost a quarter to half of its shingles.

Trained spotters and off-duty NWS employees report large tornado northeast of Ludell, KS over open portions of Rawlins County. Spotter pictures show distinct tornado southwest of the location that was eventually hit by a separate EF-1 tornado northwest of Herdon.

A tornado hit a farmstead northwest of Herndon. At the farmstead, damage consisted of numerous snapped and uprooted trees, several farm structures damaged including torn off metal roofing, broken windows, and even a few metal support beams bent in. Several grain silos were damaged or removed from their foundation. Windows were broken in vehicles. A house suffered damage to shingles, a few broken windows, and a tree falling onto it. The tornado then proceeded north on County Road 27, snapping power lines and damaging a refurbished farmstead schoolhouse. As the tornado moved north, it also damaged some oil storage tanks, spreading the oil to the northeast in a field as it turned. The tornado crossed the field, and a damage path was observed on County Road 29. From there, there was no observable damage so it was determined the tornado ended at this location.

Tornado reported by trained spotter in far northeast Rawlins County. Radar used to pinpoint locations since NWS damage survey in area didn't find a distinct track.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:42 UTC and running to 04:17 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Atwood (ADT), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 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 2021 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.