Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1993

F0 tornado, Hoyt, Kansas, September 21, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Jackson County on September 21, 1993, touching down at 2:35 PM CDT and reaching 23 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 21, 1993
Touchdown
2:35 PM CDT (19:35 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
39.270, -95.730
Record number
1077

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado hit again in open county with no reports of damage.

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

The warnings

41 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:54 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:17 UTC19:00 UTCTornado WarningTOP
18:54 UTC19:45 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:27 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

7.6 hours before the tornado, 31 km from the path. September 21, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1993-09-21Temperature 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 -6431, lifted condensation level 1292 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1993-09-21The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
-6431 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1292 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

4.4 hours after it, 31 km from the path. September 22, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1993-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1569 joules per kilogram, CIN -150, lifted condensation level 983 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 1993-09-22The 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 260 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
1569 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-150 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
983 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
506 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
30.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Topeka (Top) (TOP), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC8368150° 19 kt261017.3
19:00 UTC8269160° 23 kt261015.2
20:00 UTC8070300° 20 kt271014.6
20:05 UTC7667300° 12 kt321014.9
21:00 UTC706450° 24 kt361014.9TSRA

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 September 21, 1993

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 2112:45 PM CDTF0Pottawatomie, KS0.330
September 211:40 PM CDTF0Pottawatomie, KS0.330
September 211:50 PM CDTF0Jackson, KS0.530$500 to $5,000
September 213:40 PM CDTF0Douglas, KS0.323
September 214:20 PM CDTF0Douglas, KS0.330$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.