Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1981

F0 tornado, Johnson County, Kansas, June 20, 1981

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Johnson County on June 20, 1981, touching down at 6:58 PM CDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
June 20, 1981
Touchdown
6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Johnson County
Touchdown point
38.850, -94.750
Record number
466

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

12.0 hours before the tornado, 79 km from the path. June 20, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1981-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 638 joules per kilogram, CIN -194, lifted condensation level 1381 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 1981-06-20The 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 -12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
638 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-194 J/kg
Surface CAPE
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1381 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 79 km from the path. June 21, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1981-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3101 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1149 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 1981-06-21The 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 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
3101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5418 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1149 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.4
Supercell composite
15.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Olathe (Ojc) (OJC), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC120° 8 kt1009.1
00:00 UTC90° 8 kt1008.1

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 June 20, 1981

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 205:10 PM EDTF0Orange, FL0.120$5,000 to $50,000
June 206:45 PM CDTF1McLean, IL1.070$5,000 to $50,000
June 206:45 PM CDTF1McLean, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 207:00 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.130
June 208:21 PM EDTF2Berrien, MI1.5500$50,000 to $500,000
June 208:34 PM CDTF0McLean, IL0.110
June 208:34 PM CDTF0McLean, IL0.110
June 2011:30 PM CDTF1Pettis, MO1.050$500 to $5,000

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.