Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1993

F1 tornado, Finney County, Kansas, June 26, 1993

This F1 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Finney County on June 26, 1993, touching down at 11:07 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
June 26, 1993
Touchdown
11:07 PM CDT (04:07 UTC)
Path length
10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Finney County
Touchdown point
38.050, -100.770
Lift-off point
38.170, -100.620
Record number
618

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
10:14 UTC10:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
04:04 UTC04:37 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
04:11 UTC05:00 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 06:05 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

4.1 hours before the tornado, 79 km from the path. June 27, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1993-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1093 joules per kilogram, CIN -102, lifted condensation level 1550 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 1993-06-27The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
1093 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-102 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1440 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1550 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

7.9 hours after it, 79 km from the path. June 27, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1993-06-27Temperature 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 -539, lifted condensation level 1675 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 12:00Z on 1993-06-27The 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 136 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-539 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1675 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
325 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:26 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 26, 1993

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 262:20 PM CDTF0Decatur, KS0.220
June 262:50 PM CDTF0Valley, NE0.550
June 263:00 PM CDTF1Decatur, KS2.030
June 263:31 PM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.110
June 263:50 PM CDTF1Howard, NE1.073
June 264:20 PM CDTF1Custer, NE2.023$50 to $500
June 265:00 PM CDTF0Decatur, KS0.220
June 265:05 PM CDTF1Sherman, NE0.550
June 265:35 PM CDTF0McHenry, IL0.220$5,000 to $50,000
June 265:38 PM CDTF0Walworth, WI5.073$5,000 to $50,000
June 265:55 PM CDTF0Lafayette, WI0.123
June 266:05 PM CDTF0Kenosha, WI1.550$500 to $5,000

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.