Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1990

F1 tornado, Gray County, Kansas, April 25, 1990

This F1 tornado ran 25.0 miles across Gray County on April 25, 1990, touching down at 3:30 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
April 25, 1990
Touchdown
3:30 PM CDT (20:30 UTC)
Path length
25.0 miles (40.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Gray County
Touchdown point
37.600, -100.520
Lift-off point
37.950, -100.270
Record number
210

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
21:21 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:37 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

8.5 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. April 25, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1990-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 645 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1990-04-25The 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 -260 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
645 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-260 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 44 km from the path. April 26, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1990-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 445 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 1608 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1990-04-26The 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 112 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
445 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1500 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 1990

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 251:50 AM CDTF1Texas, OK2.050
April 254:30 PM CDTF2Parker, TX4.0300
April 254:44 PM CDTF4Parker, TX10.0880$500,000 to $5 million
April 255:07 PM CDTF0Ness, KS1.050$500 to $5,000
April 255:13 PM CDTF1Parker, TX0.210
April 255:20 PM CDTF2Wise, TX5.0100
April 255:50 PM CDTF0Gove, KS2.023$500 to $5,000
April 255:50 PM CDTF1Wise, TX0.210
April 256:00 PM CDTF3Ness, KS37.0500$500,000 to $5 million
April 256:05 PM CDTF2Wise, TX0.210
April 256:08 PM CDTF1Rooks, KS52.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 256:25 PM CDTF2Comanche, TX4.050$5 million to $50 million
April 257:55 PM CDTF1Comanche, TX2.050
April 258:00 PM CDTF0Red Willow, NE0.220under $50
April 2510:14 PM CDTF1Erath, TX4.050
April 2510:55 PM CDTF1Parker, TX0.210

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.