Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1967

F2 tornado, Mitchell and Cloud counties, Kansas, June 9, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 42.5 miles across Mitchell and Cloud counties on June 9, 1967, touching down at 6:35 PM GMT-5 and reaching 1,320 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 10, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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
June 9, 1967
Touchdown
6:35 PM GMT-5 (23:35 UTC)
Path length
42.5 miles (68.4 km)
Path width
1,320 yards (1207 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
10
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Mitchell and Cloud counties
Touchdown point
39.400, -98.100
Lift-off point
39.650, -97.370
Record number
407

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 190 km from the path. June 9, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1967-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 709 joules per kilogram, CIN -78, lifted condensation level 733 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 1967-06-09The 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 44 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
709 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78 J/kg
Surface CAPE
323 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
733 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
8.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 190 km from the path. June 10, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1967-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2186 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 1204 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 00:00Z on 1967-06-10The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
2186 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4217 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1204 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 9, 1967

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 99:42 AM GMT-5F0, FL0.110
June 910:25 AM GMT-6F0Goshen, WY0.110
June 911:50 AM GMT-6F1Denver, CO0.3150$5,000 to $50,000
June 912:56 PM GMT-6F0Adams, CO0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 94:18 PM GMT-6F0Bingham, ID0.517
June 96:00 PM GMT-5F1Lipscomb, TX2.037$500 to $5,000
June 97:55 PM GMT-5F2Thayer, NE48.5102$50,000 to $500,000
June 98:38 PM GMT-5F2Otoe, NE11.310$5,000 to $50,000
June 910:45 PM GMT-5F0Holt, MO0.110$50 to $500
June 912:00 AM GMT-5F2Clarke, IA7.8300$50,000 to $500,000
June 912:30 AM GMT-5F2Lucas, IA2.0400$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.