Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2023

Unrated tornado, Horace, Kansas, July 4, 2023

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Greeley County on July 4, 2023, touching down at 4:49 PM MDT and reaching 75 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 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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
July 4, 2023
Touchdown
4:49 PM MDT (22:49 UTC)
Lifted
4:57 PM MDT (22:57 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Greeley County
Touchdown point
38.515, -101.752
Lift-off point
38.515, -101.750
Record number
2307041649-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A southwest to northeast corridor of storm activity occurred during the afternoon through early evening across Northwest Kansas. The largest hail reported from these storms was near Tasco. The dry, loose ground, combined with the thunderstorms winds produced near zero visibility near Monument and Selkirk. Wind gusts up to an estimated 90 MPH near Norton blew the roof off of a cabin. Lastly, a landspout occurred along the west edge of the thunderstorm activity north of Tribune.

Landspout tornado reported roughly four miles north of Tribune. The landspout formed on or just to the west of Highway 27, then slowly moved east. The landspout remained over open land, so no damage was reported.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:36 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
23:00 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
23:28 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. July 4, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2023-07-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 750 joules per kilogram, CIN -235, lifted condensation level 1726 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2023-07-04The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 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
750 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-235 J/kg
Surface CAPE
97 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1726 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 182 km from the path. July 5, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2023-07-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 504 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 2928 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2023-07-05The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 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
504 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
792 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2928 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:35 UTCHAIL 0.57 W Russell SpringsLogan, KS
21:35 UTCHAIL 0.57 W Russell SpringsLogan, KS
22:30 UTCHAIL 110 Nnw LeotiWichita, KS
22:30 UTCHAIL 110 Nnw LeotiWichita, KS
22:49 UTCLANDSPOUT4 N TribuneGreeley, KSDelayed report via social media. Landspout observed north of Tribune. Location and timing estimated.
23:00 UTCHAIL 0.25LeotiWichita, KSDelayed report of pea sized hail.
23:00 UTCHAIL 19 N SelkirkWichita, KSdelayed Facebook report of heavy quarter size hail. Time estimated from radar.
23:10 UTCHAIL 15 Wnw SelkirkGreeley, KS2 rounds of hail reported at location via social media with hail ranging up to quarter size.
23:10 UTCHAIL 15 Wnw SelkirkGreeley, KS2 rounds of hail reported at location via social media with hail ranging up to quarter size.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 50MarienthalWichita, KSdelayed report of around 50 mph wind gusts and pea size hail with storms. Time estimated via radar.
23:53 UTCDUST STORM7 Sse SelkirkWichita, KSdelayed report of a wall of dust before the rain. Time estimated via radar.
23:54 UTCTSTM WND GST 607 Sse SelkirkWichita, KSdelayed report of 60 mph winds with video. Time estimated from radar.
23:54 UTCHAIL 0.887 Sse SelkirkWichita, KSdelayed report of pea to nickel sized hail. time estimated via radar.
00:57 UTCTSTM WND GST 5411 Nw LakinKearny, KS
00:57 UTCTSTM WND GST 5411 Nw LakinKearny, KS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

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.