Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1963

F2 tornado, Marshall and Nemaha counties, Kansas, April 28, 1963

This F2 tornado ran 15.4 miles across Marshall and Nemaha counties on April 28, 1963, touching down at 5:10 PM GMT-5 and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 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
April 28, 1963
Touchdown
5:10 PM GMT-5 (22:10 UTC)
Path length
15.4 miles (24.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
Counties
Marshall and Nemaha counties
Touchdown point
39.800, -96.320
Lift-off point
40.000, -95.920
Record number
122

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

10.2 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. April 28, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1963-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 471 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 488 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 1963-04-28The 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 188 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
471 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
75 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
488 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
191 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

1.8 hours after it, 108 km from the path. April 29, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1963-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1581 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 1139 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 00:00Z on 1963-04-29The 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 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
1581 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2611 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1139 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
5.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of April 28, 1963

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 281:30 PM GMT-5F1Collin, TX1.0880$500 to $5,000
April 284:00 PM GMT-5F3Nemaha, NE4.930018$5,000 to $50,000
April 284:00 PM GMT-5F2Camp, TX0.110
April 284:00 PM GMT-5F0Kendall, TX0.110
April 285:00 PM GMT-5F2Colfax, NE13.1300$5,000 to $50,000
April 285:30 PM GMT-5F1York, NE1.3180
April 285:45 PM GMT-5F1Marshall, KS0.110
April 285:45 PM GMT-5F1Marshall, KS0.110
April 285:45 PM GMT-5F0Seward, NE1.510
April 286:00 PM GMT-5F2Jefferson, NE3.0400$5,000 to $50,000
April 289:30 PM GMT-5F2Bell, TX0.5503$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.