Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2024
EF0 tornado, Hazelton, Kansas, May 25, 2024
This EF0 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Barber County on May 25, 2024, touching down at 7:15 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 25, 2024
- Touchdown
- 7:15 PM CDT (00:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:18 PM CDT (00:18 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.3 miles (2.2 km)
- Path width
- 1 yards (1 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Barber County
- Touchdown point
- 37.090, -98.400
- Lift-off point
- 37.108, -98.392
- Record number
- 2405251815-01
The damage survey
11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC and NWS ICT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.
- Estimated starting point via radar.
- Estimated end point based on radar data.
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
Hail and wind 05/25.
EF0 tornado developed in Hazelton and went NE 1 mile.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:27 UTC and running to 02:31 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:27 UTC | 02:31 UTC | Tornado Watch | DDC |
| 22:37 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC |
| 23:08 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC |
| 00:17 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | DDC |
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 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 20:09 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
0.3 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. May 26, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1898 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1906 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1730 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 65 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 208 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 235 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 2.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 9.4 K/km
Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z
11.7 hours after it, 152 km from the path. May 26, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 163 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -341 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1406 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -80 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 44 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:15 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:55 UTC | HAIL 1 | Medicine Lodge | Barber, KS | Report was from social media with pictures. |
| 23:55 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Medicine Lodge | Barber, KS | |
| 00:07 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 S Medicine Lodge | Barber, KS | |
| 00:07 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 S Medicine Lodge | Barber, KS | |
| 00:15 UTC | TORNADO | Hazelton | Barber, KS | EF0 tornado developed in Hazelton and went NE 1 mile. |
| 00:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Hazelton | Barber, KS | Report of suspected tornado. |
| 00:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Hazelton | Barber, KS | Report of suspected tornado. |
| 00:27 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 6 S Attica | Harper, KS | |
| 00:31 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene Corwin | Harper, KS | Delayed report of a tornado 10 miles west-southwest of Anthony. The spotter observed damage. |
| 00:32 UTC | HAIL 2 | 11 Nnw Waldron | Harper, KS | |
| 00:35 UTC | HAIL 1 | 5 S Corwin | Harper, KS | |
| 00:58 UTC | TORNADO | 10 W Anthony | Harper, KS | Trained spotter indicated a roof completely removed off of house. Power lines down as well. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 25, 2024
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | 4:59 PM EDT | EF0 | Beaver, PA | 0.1 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:16 PM CDT | EF1 | Archer, TX | 3.4 | 200 | $20,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Clay, TX | 3.4 | 100 | $2,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:42 PM CDT | EF2 | Eastland, TX | 2.5 | 70 | $100,000 | ||
| May 25 | 6:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Woodward, OK | 2.6 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| May 25 | 6:29 PM CDT | Unrated | Major, OK | 3.4 | 200 | |||
| May 25 | 7:29 PM CDT | EF2 | Harper, KS | 6.7 | 100 | |||
| May 25 | 7:54 PM CDT | Unrated | Love, OK | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| May 25 | 8:06 PM CDT | Unrated | Love, OK | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 9:39 PM CDT | EF3 | Valley View tornado, TX | 47.3 | 1,400 | 7 | 80 | $19 million |
| May 25 | 10:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Denton, TX | 1.4 | 800 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 25 | 11:19 PM CDT | EF3 | Claremore–Pryor tornado, OK | 23.9 | 2,000 | 2 | 23 | $45 million |
| May 25 | 11:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Collin, TX | 8.3 | 800 | $10,000 | ||
| May 25 | 11:23 PM CDT | EF3 | Collin, TX | 0.7 | 175 | $1.2 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:07 AM CDT | EF1 | Mayes, OK | 6.1 | 2,000 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:15 AM CDT | EF1 | Hunt, TX | 1.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 25 | 12:25 AM CDT | EF1 | Mayes, OK | 2.4 | 300 | $3.8 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:36 AM CDT | EF1 | Delaware, OK | 1.8 | 650 | |||
| May 25 | 12:59 AM CDT | EF3 | Decatur tornado, Oklahoma and Arkansas | 7.9 | 3,200 | 2 | $6.2 million |
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.