Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2023

EF0 tornado, Alamota, Kansas, May 4, 2023

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Lane County on May 4, 2023, touching down at 9:09 PM CDT and reaching 1 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
May 4, 2023
Touchdown
9:09 PM CDT (02:09 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lane County
Touchdown point
38.530, -100.300
Lift-off point
38.530, -100.300
Record number
2305042009-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

  • Brief tornado 2-3 miles north of Alamota KS. Video pictures of tornado exist but no DI objects impacted

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

What the Weather Service recorded

An isolated storm produced large hail and a brief tornado.

Reported by Off duty NWS Employee.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:01 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:36 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:16 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:41 UTC07:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningDDC
01:57 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
02:01 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningDDC
02:31 UTC07:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningDDC

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 00:52 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), 00:00Z

2.2 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. May 5, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2023-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1141 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 1422 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 2023-05-05The 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 161 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1141 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1700 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1422 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

9.8 hours after it, 91 km from the path. May 5, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2023-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 636 joules per kilogram, CIN -259, lifted condensation level 689 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 2023-05-05The 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 171 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.193958Sfc1 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
636 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-259 J/kg
Surface CAPE
550 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
689 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
171 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Scott City (TQK), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:15 UTC75.242.660° 10 kt191004.7
00:35 UTC77.244.2160° 6 kt1005.1
00:55 UTC7542.8150° 4 kt1004.7
01:15 UTC72.545.590° 11 kt161005.8
01:35 UTC70.349100° 12 kt281006.4
01:55 UTC70.749.3100° 7 kt1006.8
02:15 UTC68.748.460° 13 kt1007.1
02:35 UTC68.45370° 18 kt211008.5
02:55 UTC65.354.770° 16 kt1009.1
03:15 UTC63.754.550° 14 kt1009.1
03:35 UTC62.653.250° 14 kt1009.1
03:55 UTC6253.860° 15 kt1008.8

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:06 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
02:09 UTCTORNADO5 N AlamotaLane, KSOFF-DUTY NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTED CONE TORNADO IN PROGRESS.

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

The other tornadoes of May 4, 2023

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 48:45 AM PDTEF0Los Angeles, CA0.115
May 48:56 AM PDTEF0Los Angeles, CA0.715
May 47:06 PM CDTEF0Clay, TX0.120

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.