The potential for heavy snow at higher elevations in the western U.S. will continue for many spots through the weekend. In the meantime, the eastern half of the continental U.S. will transition to above normal temperatures ahead of a pair of cold fronts next week that will bring readings back to closer to normal as we approach Thanksgiving Day. Read More >
Nine tornadoes struck the Topeka National Weather Service County Warning Area during the late afternoon and evening hours of Thursday May 8th. One supercell produced five tornadoes as it crossed Osage and Douglas counties. The tornado with the longest path with this storm began 13 miles southwest of Lyndon and continued for 25 miles before ending six miles south of Overbrook. The worst damage with this tornado was rated F3 on the Fujita tornado damage scale. It produced extensive damage in Osage county and was 1/4 to 1/2 miles wide through most of its life.
The storm survey has now been completed, see the write up below, and there are some damage photos taken during the storm survey on May 9th at the end of this discussion.
Osage County
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| The Osage county tornado one mile west northwest of Lyndon about 6:51 pm CDT (photo by Adam Burnett). |
The Osage tornado a few minutes later located one mile northwest of Lyndon about 6:54 pm CDT (photo by Adam Burnett).
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Video still from Tim Marshall, taken in the vicinity of Lyndon in Osage County: |
Douglas County
The same storm produced an additional tornado just southwest of Lawrence which moved into the southwestern parts of the city. Dave Patrick sent us a very nice series of pictures taken of the Lawrence tornado:
Below is series of images in chronological order from the May 8th F2 tornado that hit southwest Lawrence causing extensive damage to the Aberdeen Apartments and many houses. All photos are courtesy of Dave Patrick. The red dot on the map is where Dave took the pictures from looking southeast through east-southeast as the tornado moves off to the northeast.
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The tornado shortly before it moved into the southwestern sections of the city of Lawrence (photo by Kris Tilford). |
Yet another tornado (brief touchdown) near Globe, SW Douglas County. Not the same tornado that hit Lawrence. Photo Courtesy of Roger Edwards.
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Preliminary tracks of the tornadoes across Osage and Douglas counties. Preliminary damage reports indicate that extensive damage was done to an apartment complex and numerous homes in southwest Lawrence. The tornado also destroyed outbuildings and power poles north and west of Lyndon in Osage county.
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A surface map from 4 pm on Thursday May 8th. The map shows a warm front across Northeast Kansas from Concordia to Topeka. Temperatures south of the warm front jumped dramatically. Between Salina and Concordia (about 50 miles) the temperature varied 25 degrees! A dryline can be seen across Central Kansas, just east of a line from Russell to Medicine Lodge. As the dryline moved through, dew point temperatures fell nearly 40 degrees! The tornadic storms developed along both the dryline and the warm front. |
A Storm Relative Velocity image from the Topeka WSR-88D. The image shows the tornadic circulation located about two miles west of Lyndon. The green colors represent air that is moving toward the radar while red colors represent air that is moving away from the radar. The bright green and bright red color pixels located next each other between Lyndon and Osage City indicate air that is spinning rapidly counter-clockwise.
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A reflectivity image from the Topeka WSR-88D. This image shows the tornadic storm with the classic "hook" echo. The tornado is located about 2 miles west of Lyndon at this time. |
A Topeka WSR-88D image from the evening of May 8th. The image shows four tornadic supercells. |
These images were taken in Lawrence and rural Osage county during the storm survey.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...RETRANSMISSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
224 PM CDT SAT MAY 10 2003
...TORNADO DAMAGE SURVEY COMPLETED...
A DAMAGE SURVEY...BOTH BY GROUND AND AIR...OF THE MAY 8 TORNADOES
WAS CONDUCTED BY TOPEKA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PERSONNEL TODAY.
RESULTS OF THE SURVEY SHOW THAT NINE TORNADOES WERE CONFIRMED ACROSS
THE TOPEKA NWS COUNTY WARNING AREA FOR THURSDAY MAY 8. THERE WERE NO
DEATHS BUT FOUR INJURIES WERE REPORTED. BY COUNTY THE BREAKDOWN
SHOWS ONE TORNADO EACH IN JEFFERSON, CLOUD, POTTAWATOMIE AND
ANDERSON COUNTIES...TWO TORNADOES IN OSAGE COUNTY...AND THREE
TORNADOS IN DOUGLAS COUNTY.
IN ANDERSON COUNTY...AN 800 YARD WIDE F2 TORNADO HAD ABOUT A 15 MILE
PATH FROM 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF COLONY TO 5 MILES NORTHEAST OF
KINCAID. PRELIMINARY REPORTS SHOW 3 INJURIES, SEVEN HOMES DESTROYED
AND SEVERAL DAMAGED.
IN DOUGLAS COUNTY...3 TORNADOES CONFIRMED...A BRIEF F0 TOUCHDOWN
ABOUT 4 MILES WEST OF GLOBE ALONG HIGHWAY 56. ABOUT 2 MILES
NORTHWEST OF LONE STAR...AN F1 TORNADO PRODUCED A BRIEF DAMAGE
PATH...WHILE AN F2 TORNADO HIT SOUTHWEST LAWRENCE FROM THE 27TH AND
WAKARUSA AREA NORTH ABOUT 3/4 OF A MILE. THE LAWRENCE TORNADO VARIED
IN WIDTH FROM ABOUT 75 YARDS TO ABOUT 250 YARDS WITH ONE INJURY
REPORTED AND 40 STRUCTURES DAMAGED...EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO 8 APARTMENT
BUILDINGS.
IN CLOUD COUNTY...A BRIEF F0 TORNADO HIT NEAR JAMESTOWN WITH NO
DAMAGE REPORTED.
IN JEFFERSON COUNTY...A BRIEF F0 TORNADO HIT NEAR OZAWKIE WITH NO
REPORTED DAMAGE.
IN POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY...A BRIEF F0 TORNADO HIT 4 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
WAMEGO WITH NO DAMAGE REPORTED.
IN OSAGE COUNTY...TWO TORNADOES CONFIRMED...THE FIRST, AN F1,
BEGAN ABOUT 3 MILES SOUTH OF READING...CONTINUED NORTHEAST 6 MILES.
THE SECOND, AN F3, BEGAN 13 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LYNDON AND
CONTINUED FOR 25 MILES BEFORE ENDING ABOUT 6 MILES SOUTH OF
OVERBROOK. THE TORNADO PRODUCED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE ACROSS IT'S TRACK
WITH A WIDTH THAT VARIED FROM 1/4 TO 1/2 MILE.
GRAPHICAL MAPS, TORNADO PHOTOS, RADAR AND OTHER MAY 8 TORNADO DATA
ARE AVAILABLE ON THE NWS TOPEKA WEB SITE AT: WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/TOP
$$
AKULOW
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
939 AM CDT FRI MAY 09 2003
TIME(LST) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0240 AM HOPE KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0249 AM HERINGTON KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0312 AM SOLOMON KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0338 AM CONCORDIA KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 CLOUD
0352 AM BUCKEYE KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0400 AM 11 E MANCHESTER KS .88 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0408 AM 1 NE UPLAND KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 DICKINSON
0417 AM MILFORD KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 GEARY
0429 AM KEATS KS 60 MPH TSTM GUST
05/08/03 RILEY NO DAMAGE.
0600 AM 2 S LE ROY KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 COFFEY
0633 AM 5 SW GARNETT KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 ANDERSON
0638 AM 1 S WELDA KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 ANDERSON
0712 AM 2 S LILLIS KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 MARSHALL
0720 AM 4 SW CENTRALIA KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 NEMAHA
0232 PM JAMESTOWN KS TORNADO
05/08/03 CLOUD SPOTTER REPORT NEAR
JAMESTOWN
0256 PM 2 W TALMO KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 REPUBLIC
0309 PM 3 E WAYNE KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 REPUBLIC
0350 PM 8 S HADDAM KS .88 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0400 PM 3 W LILLIS KS TORNADO
05/08/03 MARSHALL 110 YARD WIDE TORNADO
BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN
AND DESTROYED SOME
FENCE AND A SMALL TREE.
0403 PM 1 W MORROWVILLE KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0404 PM 4 S MORROWVILLE KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0407 PM 2 NNW WASHINGTON KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0417 PM MORROWVILLE KS 1.75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0420 PM HERKIMER KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 MARSHALL
0450 PM 1 W HANOVER KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 WASHINGTON
0502 PM 8 W EMPORIA KS 60 MPH TSTM GUST
05/08/03 LYON
0502 PM 8 W EMPORIA KS .75 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 LYON
0505 PM 4 SE WAMEGO KS TORNADO
05/08/03 POTTAWATOMIE PUBLIC REPORTED
0512 PM 1 W PAXICO KS 65 MPH TSTM GUST
05/08/03 WABAUNSEE
0531 PM 3 SSE READING KS TORNADO
05/08/03 LYON
0536 PM 6 S OSAGE CITY KS TORNADO
05/08/03 OSAGE SPOTTER REPORTED
0545 PM 1 W LYNDON KS TORNADO
05/08/03 OSAGE LARGE TORNADO REPORTED
BY SPOTTERS
0605 PM POMONA RES KS TORNADO
05/08/03 OSAGE HIGHWAY PATROL SPOTTED
NEAR POMONA LAKE
0610 PM 5 SW BURLINGTON KS TORNADO
05/08/03 COFFEY REPORTED BY EM
0617 PM GLOBE KS TORNADO
05/08/03 DOUGLAS REPORTED BY EM
0618 PM 5 SW PLEASANT GROVE KS TORNADO
05/08/03 DOUGLAS
0624 PM OZAWKIE KS TORNADO
05/08/03 JEFFERSON NEAR OZAWKIE
0626 PM 2 W LONE STAR KS TORNADO
05/08/03 DOUGLAS
0635 PM 2 S CLINTON KS TORNADO
05/08/03 DOUGLAS REPORTED BY SHERIFF
0637 PM NORTONVILLE KS 1 INCH HAIL
05/08/03 JEFFERSON
0638 PM LAWRENCE KS TORNADO
05/08/03 DOUGLAS JUST WEST OF 33RD AND
IOWA.
0640 PM LONE ELM KS TORNADO
05/08/03 ANDERSON REPORTED BY DISPATCH
0648 PM KINCAID KS TORNADO
05/08/03 ANDERSON HOUSE DESTROYED NUST
NORTH OF KINCAID
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