A State Record Tornado Outbreak? 
Preliminary Investigation of 23 May 2008 Supercells and Tornadoes

Mike Umscheid, National Weather Service, Dodge City, KS
Jeff Hutton, National Weather Service, Dodge City, KS

A cluster tornado outbreak of record proportions occurred across much of western Kansas and far northwest Oklahoma the afternoon and evening of 23 May 2008.  It is believed that 68 tornadoes occurred in Kansas between 2100 UTC the 23^rd and 0530 UTC the 24^th.  All told, around 77 tornadoes occurred during the afternoon and evening  of 23 May as a much smaller cluster of tornadoes occurred around the Colorado-Wyoming border area as well.  The 68 tornadoes would set a Kansas record for number of tornadoes in one outbreak, and perhaps sets a nationwide record for the number of tornadoes in a 24-hr period within one state.  Sixty-seven tornadoes occurred in South Dakota on 24 June 2003 which tied a previous state record set in 1967 when Hurricane Beulah spawned the same number of tornadoes across Texas.  This presentation attempts to examine each supercell and its associated tornadoes.  An identification scheme adapted after National Weather Service Norman, OK following the 3 May 1999 is presented.  Dodge City WSR-88D was upgraded to RPG Build 10 before the 23 May outbreak, so “super-res” Level II base data was available to examine many of the impressive tornado vortex signatures that were captured that day.   Four distinct phases of the outbreak were evident.  The first phase was the Dighton-Quinter sequence where several supercells trained over the same areas early on in the outbreak.  These tornadoes were extensively documented by numerous storm chasers.  The second phase was the Ness City-Ellis sequence where two supercells and other left-member splits from developing supercells farther south merged west of Ness City forming a powerful tornadic supercell.  Two tornadic supercells back-to-back caused damage in and around Ellis, KS.  The third phase was the KS-OK border area sequence of three long-lived significant tornadic supercells that produced  31 tornadoes during the evening hours, including several very large tornadoes, one of which resulted in two fatalities near Cairo, KS along highway 54.  The final phase of the outbreak included supercell storms that formed as a Pacific cold front intercepted the dryline to the west of ongoing supercells.  Four more tornadoes occurred from these storms across southwestern Kansas, one of them fairly large causing damage on the south side of Kinsley.