Unrated tornado, Oakley Muni Arpt, Kansas, March 24, 2024

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 24, 2024

Touchdown

5:05 PM CDT (22:05 UTC)

Lifted

5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Logan County

Touchdown point

39.094, -100.730

Lift-off point

39.106, -100.711

Record number

2403241605-01

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

• Videos and report of a tornado south of I-70.
• Likely end point of tornado per radar.
• Likely start point of tornado via radar. First report received one minute later.
• End point of tornado via radar and KDOT camera. The KDOT camera captured tumbleweeds moving into the tornado then gusting out as it dissipated on the south side of I-70.

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

A low pressure system and associated cold front moved across Northwest Kansas during the afternoon hours producing a line of thunderstorms that produced accumulating hail up to ping pong ball in size from Gove County to Norton County. The largest hail fell in the town of Seguin, Kansas in Sheridan County. Thunderstorm wind gusts of 50 to 63 mph were observed with the storms. The strongest gust was reported in the city of Norton. Localized blowing dust with visibility down to 50 feet was observed in Gove County; however, all nearby mesonets were reporting sub-severe thunderstorm wind gusts. Two brief EF-Unknown tornadoes also occurred south of Campus and I-70 in open fields.

Multiple reports with images of a landspout tornado in fields south of I-70 where it crossed from County Road 20 between County Roads BB and CC. No damage was observed. The tornado occurred over a duration of six minutes before dissipating.

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.

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 0.02 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.

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:04 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 2024 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.