Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1992

F0 tornado, Jefferson County, Kansas, September 7, 1992

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jefferson County on September 7, 1992, touching down at 2:40 PM CDT and reaching 13 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
September 7, 1992
Touchdown
2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
13 yards (12 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jefferson County
Touchdown point
39.100, -95.230
Record number
1052

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:37 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:54 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:37 UTC19:54 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 06:05 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.

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 37 km from the path. September 7, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1992-09-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1496 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 718 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 1992-09-07The 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 213 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
1496 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
469 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
718 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
264 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 37 km from the path. September 8, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1992-09-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2290 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 924 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 1992-09-08The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 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
2290 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3244 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
8.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1992 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 7, 1992

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 76:45 PM CDTF1Chariton, MO0.543$50,000 to $500,000
September 77:00 PM CDTF0Marquette, WI0.123
September 77:20 PM CDTF2Green Lake, WI8.54001$500,000 to $5 million
September 77:40 PM CDTF2Cooper, MO10.260$50,000 to $500,000
September 79:30 PM CDTF0Callaway, MO0.220$500 to $5,000
September 79:30 PM CDTF1Callaway, MO0.320$5,000 to $50,000

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.