Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1982

F3 tornado, Crawford, Barton, Vernon, Cedar and St. Clair counties, Kansas and Missouri, March 15, 1982

This F3 tornado ran 70.0 miles across Crawford, Barton, Vernon, Cedar and St. Clair counties on March 15, 1982, touching down at 7:35 PM CST and reaching 600 yards wide. It killed 2 people and injured 8, and did $5 million to $50 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
March 15, 1982
Touchdown
7:35 PM CST (01:35 UTC)
Path length
70.0 miles (112.6 km)
Path width
600 yards (549 m)
Deaths
2
Injuries
8
Property damage
$5 million to $50 million
Counties
Crawford, Barton, Vernon, Cedar and St. Clair counties
Touchdown point
37.530, -94.800
Lift-off point
38.050, -93.700
Record number
49

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

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

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct
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.

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 00:00Z

1.6 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. March 16, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1982-03-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level NaN meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1982-03-16The 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 180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
434 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
NaN m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
370 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 12:00Z

10.4 hours after it, 107 km from the path. March 16, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1982-03-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -11402, lifted condensation level 1904 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1982-03-16The 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 105 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11402 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1904 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
105 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
133 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1982 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 15, 1982

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 153:15 PM CSTF1Calhoun, AL8.077$5,000 to $50,000
March 154:49 PM CSTF2Greenwood, KS1.0300$500,000 to $5 million
March 155:00 PM CSTF2Woodson, KS30.0500$500,000 to $5 million
March 155:10 PM CSTF1Seminole, OK0.510$5,000 to $50,000
March 155:57 PM CSTF3Pontotoc, OK6.060136$500,000 to $5 million
March 156:00 PM CSTF2Hughes, OK0.110$50,000 to $500,000
March 156:15 PM CSTF3Montgomery, KS6.030011$500,000 to $5 million
March 156:40 PM CSTF1Montgomery, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
March 156:40 PM CSTF2Osage, OK0.1101$50,000 to $500,000
March 156:45 PM CSTF1Osage, OK0.110$50,000 to $500,000
March 156:55 PM CSTF1Washington, OK0.110
March 157:02 PM CSTF2Washington, OK3.017757$5 million to $50 million
March 157:10 PM CSTF2Crawford, KS17.06003$500,000 to $5 million
March 157:10 PM CSTF2Nowata, OK12.0177$50,000 to $500,000
March 157:15 PM CSTF2Nowata, OK0.110$50,000 to $500,000
March 157:20 PM CSTF1Haskell, OK0.110$50,000 to $500,000
March 157:40 PM CSTF3Labette, KS30.016716$500,000 to $5 million
March 158:17 PM CSTF0Cherokee, KS0.110
March 158:45 PM CSTF3Crawford, KS to MO9.0400$50,000 to $500,000
March 159:45 PM CSTF3Benton, MO14.07001$500,000 to $5 million
March 1510:30 PM CSTF2Morgan, MO5.0600$50,000 to $500,000
March 1510:45 PM CSTF1Moniteau, MO5.0150$50,000 to $500,000
March 1511:05 PM CSTF0Callaway, MO24.0200$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.