Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1958

F1 tornado, Doniphan County, Kansas, June 12, 1958

This F1 tornado ran 14.0 miles across Doniphan County on June 12, 1958, touching down at 6:45 PM GMT-5 and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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
F1, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
June 12, 1958
Touchdown
6:45 PM GMT-5 (23:45 UTC)
Path length
14.0 miles (22.5 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Doniphan County
Touchdown point
39.730, -95.380
Lift-off point
39.750, -95.120
Record number
250

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.

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 89 km from the path. June 12, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1958-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 514 joules per kilogram, CIN -203, lifted condensation level 1097 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1958-06-12The 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 210 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
514 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-203 J/kg
Surface CAPE
64 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1097 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
210 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
259 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 89 km from the path. June 13, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1958-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2758 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 903 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1958-06-13The 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 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
2758 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1218 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
903 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
233 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
13.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1958 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 12, 1958

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 123:07 AM GMT-5F0Lyon, KS0.110
June 123:30 AM GMT-5F2Lyon, KS0.110
June 125:00 PM GMT-4F1New Hanover, NC1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 124:00 PM GMT-5F0Clark, KS0.110
June 124:50 PM GMT-5F0Ford, KS0.110
June 125:00 PM GMT-5F1Stafford, KS0.110
June 125:08 PM GMT-5F1Pottawatomie, KS0.110
June 125:10 PM GMT-5F0Rice, KS1.550
June 125:30 PM GMT-5F2Wabaunsee, KS4.3200$5,000 to $50,000
June 125:42 PM GMT-5F2Edwards, KS0.1103$5,000 to $50,000
June 127:08 PM GMT-5F3Ballard, KY0.1103$5,000 to $50,000
June 127:45 PM GMT-5F0Gray, KS0.110
June 128:00 PM GMT-7F2Weston, WY1.0200$5,000 to $50,000

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.