Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1962

F2 tornado, Hamilton County, Kansas, May 17, 1962

This F2 tornado ran 12.6 miles across Hamilton County on May 17, 1962, touching down at 9:05 PM GMT-7 and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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
Date
May 17, 1962
Touchdown
9:05 PM GMT-7 (04:05 UTC)
Path length
12.6 miles (20.3 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Hamilton County
Touchdown point
37.980, -101.780
Lift-off point
38.170, -101.780
Record number
165

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), 00:00Z

4.1 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. May 18, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1962-05-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 757 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 1558 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 1962-05-18The 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 81 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
757 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2414 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1558 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

7.9 hours after it, 168 km from the path. May 18, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1962-05-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 741 joules per kilogram, CIN -81, lifted condensation level 946 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 1962-05-18The 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 174 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
741 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81 J/kg
Surface CAPE
843 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
946 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
4.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1962 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 17, 1962

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 173:22 PM GMT-5F0Cimarron, OK0.110
May 173:30 PM GMT-5F2Reeves, TX2.0673$50,000 to $500,000
May 173:30 PM GMT-5F0Reeves, TX0.517
May 172:30 PM GMT-7F1Baca, CO23.010$50 to $500
May 175:30 PM GMT-5F0Decatur, KS0.110
May 173:30 PM GMT-7F1Union, NM15.310$5,000 to $50,000
May 173:30 PM GMT-7F0Union, NM0.110$50 to $500
May 175:00 PM GMT-7F0Powell, MT0.110
May 177:30 PM GMT-5F1Phelps, NE0.110
May 176:00 PM GMT-7F2Harding, NM10.8101$5,000 to $50,000
May 176:35 PM GMT-7F0Sherman, KS0.110
May 176:35 PM GMT-7F0Sherman, KS0.110
May 1710:20 PM GMT-5F0Pierce, NE0.110
May 1712:30 AM GMT-5F1Yankton, SD0.110$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.