Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1979

F0 tornado, Brown and Doniphan counties, Kansas, March 29, 1979

This F0 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Brown and Doniphan counties on March 29, 1979, touching down at 5:30 PM CST and reaching 50 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 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
March 29, 1979
Touchdown
5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)
Path length
2.6 miles (4.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
Counties
Brown and Doniphan counties
Touchdown point
39.750, -95.370
Lift-off point
39.780, -95.300
Record number
63

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

11.5 hours before the tornado, 89 km from the path. March 29, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1979-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 870 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 675 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 1979-03-29The 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 218 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
870 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1642 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
675 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
220 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
7.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 89 km from the path. March 30, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1979-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1537 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1092 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 1979-03-30The 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 177 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
1537 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3795 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1092 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
177 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.6
Supercell composite
16.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

St. Joseph (STJ), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC6658160° 15 kt251000.3
23:00 UTC6757180° 15 kt251000.7
23:30 UTC170° 15 kt251000.7
00:00 UTC6756180° 15 kt251000.7
01:00 UTC6555180° 15 kt301000.7

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1979 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 29, 1979

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 291:20 PM CSTF2Okfuskee, OK2.030$5,000 to $50,000
March 292:15 PM CSTF0Collin, TX0.110
March 294:45 PM CSTF1Jack, TX0.110
March 295:45 PM CSTF4Nodaway, MO to IA18.850020$500,000 to $5 million
March 296:10 PM CSTF3Taylor, IA29.65001$500,000 to $5 million
March 295:15 PM MSTF0Douglas, CO0.220
March 297:05 PM CSTF3Union, IA57.05004$500,000 to $5 million
March 298:40 PM CSTF2Warren, IA9.360$50,000 to $500,000

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.