Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1994

F1 tornado, Colby, Kansas, June 8, 1994

This F1 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Thomas and Logan counties on June 8, 1994, touching down at 11:40 PM CDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 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 8, 1994
Touchdown
11:40 PM CDT (04:40 UTC)
Path length
4.0 miles (6.4 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
Counties
Thomas and Logan counties
Touchdown point
39.130, -101.050
Lift-off point
39.070, -101.050
Record number
501

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado observed by spotters knocked down power poles and moved south into Logan County.

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

The warnings

9 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:31 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:31 UTC05:30 UTCTornado WarningGLD
05:32 UTC06:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD

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 06:20 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

4.7 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. June 9, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1994-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1817 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 1458 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 1994-06-09The 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 4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
1817 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1702 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1458 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

7.3 hours after it, 179 km from the path. June 9, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1994-06-09Temperature 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 -416, lifted condensation level 639 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 1994-06-09The 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 118 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-416 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
426 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 June 8, 1994

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 81:50 PM MDTF0Morrill, NE0.520
June 82:20 PM MDTF0Scotts Bluff, NE0.520
June 83:23 PM MDTF0Dawes, NE0.520
June 84:30 PM MDTF0Garden, NE0.823
June 85:10 PM MDTF0Deuel, NE0.820
June 86:39 PM MDTF0Yuma, CO2.0100
June 87:08 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO7.0200
June 89:36 PM CDTF1Rawlins, KS3.0200
June 810:10 PM CDTF0Rawlins, KS1.050
June 810:20 PM MDTF0Kit Carson, CO0.120

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.