Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1993

F0 tornado, Smith Center, Kansas, May 8, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Smith County on May 8, 1993, touching down at 3:51 PM CDT and reaching 23 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 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 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
May 8, 1993
Touchdown
3:51 PM CDT (20:51 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Smith County
Touchdown point
39.730, -98.850
Record number
285

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado touched down over open county and remained over open country until it dissipated.

This tornado briefly touched down in a field and then dissipated.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:44 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:44 UTC21:30 UTCTornado WarningTOP
21:27 UTC21:45 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 07:05 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.

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

8.9 hours before the tornado, 215 km from the path. May 8, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1993-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 31 joules per kilogram, CIN -270, lifted condensation level 816 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 1993-05-08The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
31 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-270 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
816 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.1 hours after it, 215 km from the path. May 9, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1993-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1219 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1993-05-09The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1219 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 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
19:00 UTC6849350° 12 kt1002.4
20:00 UTC6747.84340° 11 kt1002
21:00 UTC6950340° 11 kt1002
22:00 UTC6550340° 12 kt1002

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

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 May 8, 1993

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 82:57 PM CDTF0Baylor, TX8.080
May 83:46 PM CDTF0Smith, KS2.573$500 to $5,000
May 84:12 PM CDTF1Smith, KS2.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 85:05 PM CDTF0Cotton, OK0.850
May 85:08 PM CDTF0Clay, TX0.120
May 85:19 PM CDTF0Stephens, OK8.060$5,000 to $50,000
May 85:20 PM CDTF0Clay, TX0.120
May 85:25 PM CDTF0Jefferson, OK0.120
May 85:30 PM CDTF1Harlan, NE0.1150
May 85:48 PM CDTF0Jefferson, OK0.120
May 86:35 PM CDTF1Jefferson, OK0.240$500 to $5,000
May 86:42 PM CDTF1Clay, TX8.090$50,000 to $500,000
May 86:45 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.110
May 87:00 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
May 87:25 PM CDTF1Carter, OK5.0600$5,000 to $50,000
May 89:00 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.110
May 89:00 PM CDTF1Cooke, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
May 810:45 PM CDTF1Young, TX0.110

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.