Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1986

F1 tornado, Clay County, Kansas, May 16, 1986

This F1 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Clay County on May 16, 1986, touching down at 4:00 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 16, 1986
Touchdown
4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
39.370, -97.280
Lift-off point
39.400, -97.080
Record number
302

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:40 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:48 UTC14:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
19:48 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
20:40 UTC21:30 UTCTornado WarningTOP
21:33 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 139 km from the path. May 16, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1986-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1823 joules per kilogram, CIN -69, lifted condensation level 706 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 1986-05-16The 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 165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
1823 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-69 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1298 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
706 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
6.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 139 km from the path. May 17, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1986-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2634 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 769 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 1986-05-17The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
2634 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3484 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
769 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1986 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 1986

31 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 165:10 AM CDTF1Smith, KS18.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 164:55 PM CDTF1Comanche, KS0.2100$500 to $5,000
May 165:20 PM CDTF0Macon, IL0.210
May 165:20 PM CDTF0Sangamon, IL0.210
May 165:25 PM CDTF0Sangamon, IL0.210
May 166:00 PM CDTF0Swisher, TX0.230
May 166:04 PM CDTF0Briscoe, TX11.0100
May 166:12 PM CDTF0Swisher, TX22.0100
May 166:15 PM CDTF1Piatt, IL0.510$500 to $5,000
May 166:33 PM CDTF0Hall, TX0.230
May 166:33 PM CDTF0Donley, TX0.230
May 167:35 PM CDTF0Cottle, TX0.150
May 167:48 PM CDTF0Foard, TX5.0200
May 168:10 PM CDTF0Foard, TX5.0150
May 168:18 PM CDTF1Alfalfa, OK5.030$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:00 PM CDTF0Washita, OK0.223
May 169:10 PM CDTF0Custer, OK0.550
May 169:13 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.210
May 169:23 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 169:35 PM CDTF1Caddo, OK0.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:45 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.210
May 169:51 PM CDTF1Hardeman, TX2.0150$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:53 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 1610:30 PM CDTF0Caddo, OK0.250
May 1610:44 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK2.050$500,000 to $5 million
May 1610:50 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 1611:00 PM CDTF0Tillman, OK0.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 1612:09 AM CDTF0Lincoln, OK0.250
May 1612:10 AM CDTF1Garvin, OK0.573$50,000 to $500,000
May 1612:10 AM CDTF1Pottawatomie, OK0.573$5,000 to $50,000
May 1612:30 AM CDTF0Haskell, OK0.273$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.