Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1990

F0 tornado, Smith County, Kansas, June 16, 1990

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Smith County on June 16, 1990, touching down at 6:38 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
June 16, 1990
Touchdown
6:38 PM CDT (23:38 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Smith County
Touchdown point
39.770, -98.850
Record number
735

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:36 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:36 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningTOP
00:43 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
00:56 UTC01:30 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:59 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 212 km from the path. June 16, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1990-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 95 joules per kilogram, CIN -529, lifted condensation level 772 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1990-06-16The 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 263 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
95 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-529 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
772 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 212 km from the path. June 17, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1990-06-17Temperature 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 -6092, lifted condensation level 1981 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1990-06-17The 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 -117 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
-6092 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1554 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1981 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-117 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Phillipsburg (PHG), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC9662210° 13 kt1003
23:00 UTC9856210° 15 kt1002.4
00:00 UTC9366330° 10 kt1002.4
01:00 UTC8660340° 14 kt1004.4

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

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 June 16, 1990

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 166:15 AM CDTF0Polk, IA0.117$50 to $500
June 167:07 AM CDTF0Jasper, IA0.217$500 to $5,000
June 161:33 PM CDTF2Wapello, IA6.553$50,000 to $500,000
June 164:40 PM CDTF0Holt, NE0.223$50,000 to $500,000
June 165:00 PM CDTF1Hancock, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:00 PM CDTF0Holt, NE0.123$50,000 to $500,000
June 165:10 PM CDTF0Harlan, NE0.740
June 165:15 PM CDTF1Harlan, NE15.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:25 PM CDTF1Franklin, NE2.050$500 to $5,000
June 165:30 PM CDTF1Sherman, NE4.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 166:10 PM CDTF1Clay, SD9.060$500,000 to $5 million
June 166:30 PM CDTF0Washington, MN0.110
June 166:35 PM CDTF0Nuckolls, NE0.530
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Platte, NE0.130$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Boone, NE0.530$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Webster, NE0.740
June 167:10 PM CDTF1Madison, NE1.530$500,000 to $5 million
June 168:07 PM CDTF0Washington, MN0.110
June 168:30 PM CDTF1Nuckolls, NE2.050$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:40 PM CDTF1Thayer, NE15.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:59 PM CDTF0Appanoose, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 169:17 PM CDTF0Appanoose, IA0.120$500 to $5,000
June 169:25 PM CDTF1Buena Vista, IA0.430$50,000 to $500,000
June 169:52 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 1610:40 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.220$50,000 to $500,000
June 1610:40 PM CDTF0Keokuk, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 1611:30 PM CDTF0Pottawattamie, IA0.320$5,000 to $50,000
June 1611:54 PM CDTF1Floyd, IA5.030$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.