Unrated tornado, Holton to Whiting, Kansas, May 12, 2023

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 12, 2023

Touchdown

7:49 PM CDT (00:49 UTC)

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

39.640, -95.630

Lift-off point

39.640, -95.630

Record number

2305121849-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Cluster of cedars pretty ripped up’ power lines intact
• Brief tornado with photo evidence. No damage observed.
• Brief tornado with photo evidence. No damage observed, inaccessible area near Delaware River.

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

A cluster of thunderstorms developed along a dryline and moved slowly across parts of northeast Kansas during the late afternoon and evening of May 12th. At least 5 tornadoes were documented from these storms. A couple of the tornadoes did produce damage to structures in Jackson and Brown Counties.

A tornado touched down just north of Holton damaging a well constructed barn. Large portions of the roof were blown off and some of the walls were blown out from winds estimated to be up to 90 mph. The tornado skipped northeast across the county side and produced some tree damage as it moved towards Straight Creek.

A brief tornado was observed between Netawaka and Whiting around 7:38 PM. While photo evidence exists of the tornado kicking up dirt beneath its funnel, no damage was observed due to the brief and rural location. Exact location estimated based on photo and radar evidence.

A brief tornado that formed for around 30 seconds, in an inaccessible area near the Delaware River north of Whiting. Photo evidence exists from several observers of this tornado, but no damage was found do the brief and rural nature of this tornado. Exact location estimated based on photo and radar evidence.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:44 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:35 UTC and running to 02:56 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:08 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.

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:50 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 2023 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.