Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1994

F2 tornado, Kismet, Kansas, April 9, 1994

This F2 tornado ran 25.0 miles across Seward and Meade counties on April 9, 1994, touching down at 4:25 PM CDT and reaching 1,700 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 8, 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
April 9, 1994
Touchdown
4:25 PM CDT (21:25 UTC)
Path length
25.0 miles (40.2 km)
Path width
1,700 yards (1554 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
8
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
Counties
Seward and Meade counties
Touchdown point
37.150, -100.770
Lift-off point
37.270, -100.320
Record number
88

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down 3.5 WSW of Kismet at 1535 CST and moved ENE across Highway 54 and east into Meade County where it ended at 1610 CST at a point one southeast of Meade. Speed of movement was 35 mph with total path length of 26 miles. In Seward County the tornado struck a car and mobile home 2 E of Kismet at 1540 CST. Two adults were in the car and one adult and five children were in the mobile home. All eight sustained minor injuries and the mobile home was demolished. The tornado had a maximum path width of 1,000 yards in Seward County, but expanded to a maximum width of a mile southeast of Plains in Meade County.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:22 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:49 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:06 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
21:22 UTC21:49 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:09 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), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 84 km from the path. April 9, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1994-04-09Temperature 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 -16154, lifted condensation level 720 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1994-04-09The 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 372 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16154 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
720 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
372 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
491 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 84 km from the path. April 10, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1994-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 44 joules per kilogram, CIN -176, lifted condensation level 670 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 1994-04-10The 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 18 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
44 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-176 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
670 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
77 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Liberal_muni (LBL), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC61.8852.8890° 13 kt171002
21:00 UTC6552.88100° 16 kt211001.4
22:00 UTC6147.8410° 12 kt1002
23:00 UTC56.8451350° 17 kt1004.1

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:24 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 1994 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 9, 1994

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 95:24 PM CDTF0Clark, KS0.5100
April 95:41 PM CDTF0Clark, KS1.0100
April 95:52 PM CDTF2Clark, KS0.8200$5,000 to $50,000
April 96:25 PM CDTF0Kiowa, KS0.123
April 97:50 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS0.310
April 911:10 PM CDTF0Jasper, MO0.250$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.