Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1986

F0 tornado, Saline County, Kansas, September 10, 1986

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Saline County on September 10, 1986, touching down at 7:23 PM CDT and reaching 23 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
September 10, 1986
Touchdown
7:23 PM CDT (00:23 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Saline County
Touchdown point
38.830, -97.550
Record number
664

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:25 UTC01:00 UTCTornado 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), 00:00Z

0.4 hours before the tornado, 166 km from the path. September 11, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1986-09-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2093 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 820 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 1986-09-11The 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 175 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
2093 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1944 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
820 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
175 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
227 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.4
Supercell composite
12.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

11.6 hours after it, 166 km from the path. September 11, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1986-09-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 70 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 600 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 1986-09-11The 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 -83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 78 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
70 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
99 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
600 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
78 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 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 September 10, 1986

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 106:03 PM EDTF1Calhoun, MI3.8223$5,000 to $50,000
September 106:58 PM EDTF2Oakland, MI7.750$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.