Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1991

F1 tornado, McPherson County, Kansas, March 26, 1991

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across McPherson County on March 26, 1991, touching down at 7:20 PM CST 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
March 26, 1991
Touchdown
7:20 PM CST (01:20 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
McPherson County
Touchdown point
38.220, -97.780
Record number
133

The warnings

30 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:50 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:50 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningTOP
01:30 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningTOP
05:36 UTC06:30 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:14 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), 00:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. March 27, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1991-03-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 86 joules per kilogram, CIN -78, lifted condensation level 2959 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 1991-03-27The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 77 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78 J/kg
Surface CAPE
596 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2959 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
77 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
9.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hutchinson (HUT), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC7162170° 20 kt30998.3TSRA
01:00 UTC180° 10 kt998.3
02:00 UTC140° 10 kt997.3
03:00 UTC150° 20 kt995.3

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1991 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 26, 1991

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 262:07 PM PSTF0Kern, CA0.110
March 264:43 PM CSTF0Pratt, KS9.030
March 264:55 PM CSTF0Stafford, KS3.020
March 265:45 PM CSTF1Pratt, KS3.050$5,000 to $50,000
March 265:55 PM CSTF3Pratt, KS26.02201
March 266:25 PM CSTF0Dewey, OK0.120
March 266:45 PM CSTF4Reno, KS13.03005$5 million to $50 million
March 265:15 PM PSTF0San Joaquin, CA0.110
March 267:28 PM CSTF0Kingman, KS1.050$500 to $5,000
March 265:40 PM PSTF0Merced, CA0.110
March 267:45 PM CSTF2Alfalfa, OK9.0300$50,000 to $500,000
March 267:50 PM CSTF0McPherson, KS1.010$500 to $5,000
March 267:50 PM CSTF0Sedgwick, KS2.073
March 268:05 PM CSTF3Grant, OK to KS67.0500$500,000 to $5 million
March 269:12 PM CSTF0Kay, OK0.120
March 269:45 PM CSTF3Cowley, KS15.02006$500,000 to $5 million
March 2611:43 PM CSTF0Canadian, OK0.120
March 2611:45 PM CSTF2Allen, KS8.01001$500,000 to $5 million
March 2611:45 PM CSTF0Marion, KS8.010$500 to $5,000
March 2611:50 PM CSTF0Reno, KS1.050$50 to $500

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.