Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1959

F0 tornado, Pratt County, Kansas, May 4, 1959

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Pratt County on May 4, 1959, touching down at 4:20 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
May 4, 1959
Touchdown
4:20 PM GMT-5 (21:20 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pratt County
Touchdown point
37.600, -98.770
Record number
128

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), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. May 4, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1959-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1923 joules per kilogram, CIN -132, lifted condensation level 851 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1959-05-04The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
1923 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-132 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1343 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
851 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
105 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 101 km from the path. May 5, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1959-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 168 joules per kilogram, CIN -181, lifted condensation level 991 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1959-05-05The 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 281 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.193958Sfc1 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
168 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-181 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
991 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
281 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1959 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 1959

45 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 410:12 AM GMT-5F0Chippewa, WI0.310
May 411:30 AM GMT-5F1Marathon, WI1.0200$50 to $500
May 412:15 PM GMT-5F2Jackson, WI1.033$5,000 to $50,000
May 412:45 PM GMT-5F0Langlade, WI1.0100under $50
May 42:25 PM GMT-5F0Osborne, KS0.510
May 43:30 PM GMT-5F1Jewell, KS to NE45.610$5,000 to $50,000
May 44:00 PM GMT-5F1Hall, NE18.210$500 to $5,000
May 44:17 PM GMT-5F1Stafford, KS19.210
May 44:17 PM GMT-5F1Stafford, KS19.210
May 44:30 PM GMT-5F1Merrick, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 45:00 PM GMT-5F0Hutchinson, SD0.110
May 45:00 PM GMT-5F2Custer, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 45:15 PM GMT-5F1Nance, NE9.810$500 to $5,000
May 45:30 PM GMT-5F1Saunders, NE0.1101$500 to $5,000
May 45:30 PM GMT-5F2Reno, KS10.610
May 45:30 PM GMT-5F1Dewey, OK7.2300$5,000 to $50,000
May 46:00 PM GMT-5F1Dewey, OK0.3100$500 to $5,000
May 46:30 PM GMT-5F2Alfalfa, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 46:35 PM GMT-5F1Barber, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 46:35 PM GMT-5F1Barber, KS1.010
May 46:45 PM GMT-5F2Harper, KS11.250$500 to $5,000
May 46:49 PM GMT-5F2Clay, KS3.8100$50,000 to $500,000
May 47:00 PM GMT-5F0Redwood, MN0.110$50 to $500
May 47:00 PM GMT-5F1Reno, KS8.450
May 47:30 PM GMT-5F1Clay, KS3.8100$500 to $5,000
May 47:33 PM GMT-5F0Sedgwick, KS0.110
May 47:55 PM GMT-5F1Kandiyohi, MN1.020$5,000 to $50,000
May 48:00 PM GMT-5F1Polk, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 48:00 PM GMT-5F0Nance, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 48:05 PM GMT-5F0Sedgwick, KS0.110
May 48:05 PM GMT-5F0Sedgwick, KS0.110
May 48:30 PM GMT-5F0Dickinson, KS0.110
May 48:30 PM GMT-5F0Morris, KS2.010
May 48:30 PM GMT-5F1Gage, NE9.510$5,000 to $50,000
May 48:30 PM GMT-5F2Beckham, OK9.62001$500 to $5,000
May 49:00 PM GMT-5F1Wabaunsee, KS11.3880$5,000 to $50,000
May 49:30 PM GMT-5F2Jackson, KS24.91,760$50,000 to $500,000
May 410:15 PM GMT-5F2Kay, OK5.7300$5,000 to $50,000
May 410:20 PM GMT-5F1Montgomery, IA7.9100$5,000 to $50,000
May 410:30 PM GMT-5F1Nodaway, MO24.4200$500 to $5,000
May 411:00 PM GMT-5F1Washita, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 411:20 PM GMT-5F2Audubon, IA4.1100$500 to $5,000
May 411:23 PM GMT-5F2Adair, IA4.5100$500 to $5,000
May 411:23 PM GMT-5F2Adair, IA5.1100$500 to $5,000
May 411:30 PM GMT-5F2Greene, IA14.2150$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.