Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1981

F2 tornado, Shawnee County, Kansas, July 19, 1981

This F2 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Shawnee County on July 19, 1981, touching down at 9:45 AM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 9, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
July 19, 1981
Touchdown
9:45 AM CDT (14:45 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
9
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Shawnee County
Touchdown point
39.130, -95.650
Record number
594

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

2.8 hours before the tornado, 14 km from the path. July 19, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1981-07-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1085 joules per kilogram, CIN -117, lifted condensation level 826 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 1981-07-19The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
1085 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-117 J/kg
Surface CAPE
517 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
826 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
4.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

9.2 hours after it, 14 km from the path. July 20, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1981-07-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2807 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 997 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 1981-07-20The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
2807 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3042 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
997 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Topeka (Top) (TOP), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:00 UTC7771240° 7 kt1010.2
14:00 UTC7872280° 13 kt201010.8-TSRA
15:00 UTC7670290° 9 kt1011.5-TSRA
15:23 UTC310° 7 kt1011.5
16:00 UTC7671310° 4 kt1011.5-SHRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 19, 1981

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 195:11 PM CDTF1Trego, KS0.517
July 196:30 PM CDTF1Bon Homme, SD7.5102
July 199:10 PM CDTF1Stanton, NE3.650$50,000 to $500,000
July 1910:00 PM CDTF1Trego, KS0.517

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.