Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1960

F2 tornado, Ness County, Kansas, May 4, 1960

This F2 tornado ran 6.1 miles across Ness County on May 4, 1960, touching down at 6:43 PM GMT-5 and reaching 1,000 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 of property damage.

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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
May 4, 1960
Touchdown
6:43 PM GMT-5 (23:43 UTC)
Path length
6.1 miles (9.8 km)
Path width
1,000 yards (914 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Ness County
Touchdown point
38.630, -100.070
Lift-off point
38.700, -99.980
Record number
143

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

11.7 hours before the tornado, 100 km from the path. May 4, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1960-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 286 joules per kilogram, CIN -271, lifted condensation level 761 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 1960-05-04The 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 226 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
286 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-271 J/kg
Surface CAPE
340 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
761 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
226 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 100 km from the path. May 5, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1960-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1488 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 974 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 1960-05-05The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1488 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1884 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
974 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 4, 1960

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 43:40 PM GMT-5F0Motley, TX0.110
May 44:20 PM GMT-7F3Sherman, KS7.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 46:40 PM GMT-5F1Tillman, OK1.010$500 to $5,000
May 46:40 PM GMT-5F1Tillman, OK1.050$500 to $5,000
May 46:45 PM GMT-5F2Ness, KS0.110under $50
May 47:00 PM GMT-5F2Cotton, OK4.9150$5,000 to $50,000
May 47:10 PM GMT-5F2Erath, TX0.333$500 to $5,000
May 47:20 PM GMT-5F1Erath, TX0.210$500 to $5,000
May 45:30 PM GMT-7F0Sherman, KS0.510under $50
May 47:30 PM GMT-5F1Comanche, OK0.1103$5,000 to $50,000
May 47:43 PM GMT-5F1Cotton, OK0.110
May 47:45 PM GMT-5F1Comanche, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 47:58 PM GMT-5F3Rogers, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 48:20 PM GMT-5F0Palo Pinto, TX1.020
May 48:20 PM GMT-5F3Tarrant, TX7.450012$50,000 to $500,000
May 48:45 PM GMT-5F2Cleveland, OK5.250$500 to $5,000
May 48:45 PM GMT-5F3Pontotoc, OK18.3106$50,000 to $500,000
May 48:55 PM GMT-5F3Oklahoma, OK5.14004$50,000 to $500,000
May 49:05 PM GMT-5F4Seminole, OK8.010$50,000 to $500,000
May 410:00 PM GMT-5F2Jackson, AR1.0417$5,000 to $50,000
May 410:00 PM GMT-5F1Parker, TX1.533$500 to $5,000
May 410:16 PM GMT-5F4Choctaw, OK30.81503$50,000 to $500,000
May 411:00 PM GMT-5F1Denton, TX2.067$5,000 to $50,000
May 412:15 AM GMT-5F1Hopkins, TX1.030$500 to $5,000

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.