Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1983

F0 tornado, Saline County, Kansas, May 27, 1983

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Saline County on May 27, 1983, touching down at 6:36 PM CDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 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
May 27, 1983
Touchdown
6:36 PM CDT (23:36 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Saline County
Touchdown point
38.920, -97.420
Record number
424

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, 154 km from the path. May 27, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1983-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 654 joules per kilogram, CIN -237, lifted condensation level 1125 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 1983-05-27The 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 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
654 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-237 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1125 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 154 km from the path. May 28, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1983-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2555 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1290 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 1983-05-28The 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 26 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
2555 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3470 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1290 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
12.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Salina (SLN), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC8373190° 10 kt1008.8
22:10 UTC180° 10 kt1008.8
23:00 UTC7370200° 5 kt1009.1TSPL
00:00 UTC6361220° 20 kt251009.1TSPL
00:20 UTC140° 10 kt1010.5
01:00 UTC6761170° 8 kt1010.2

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1983 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 1983

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 275:35 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS0.230under $50
May 275:50 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS0.230under $50
May 276:17 PM CDTF1Carroll, IA1.020$5,000 to $50,000
May 276:30 PM CDTF1Coffey, KS4.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 276:38 PM CDTF0Saline, KS0.217$50 to $500
May 276:44 PM CDTF0Coffey, KS0.217$500 to $5,000
May 277:10 PM CDTF1Guthrie, IA0.520$5,000 to $50,000
May 277:46 PM CDTF0Worth, MO0.113$500 to $5,000
May 278:30 PM CDTF0Greenwood, KS0.217$5,000 to $50,000
May 2710:37 PM CDTF0Ellis, OK0.150under $50

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.