Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1995

F2 tornado, Colby to Menlo, Kansas, May 12, 1995

From Colby to Menlo, this F2 tornado ran 18.0 miles across Thomas and Sheridan counties on May 12, 1995, touching down at 3:15 PM CDT and reaching 1,500 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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
May 12, 1995
Touchdown
3:15 PM CDT (20:15 UTC)
Path length
18.0 miles (29.0 km)
Path width
1,500 yards (1372 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Thomas and Sheridan counties
Touchdown point
39.420, -101.050
Lift-off point
39.370, -100.700
Record number
338

What the Weather Service recorded

Intermittent tornado damage included farm residence and storage buildings roofs torn off, high voltage electricty towers destroyed,irrigation rigs over-turned, trees snapped. Extensive crop damage from tornado, highs winds, and large hail. Tornado moved nearly due east at 25 mph and entered Sheridan County. One woman was slightly injured while in her home during the tornado. A mobile home was completely destroyed.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:07 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:33 UTC20:05 UTCTornado WarningGLD
20:07 UTC20:40 UTCTornado WarningGLD
20:33 UTC21:05 UTCTornado 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 05:46 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

8.3 hours before the tornado, 194 km from the path. May 12, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1995-05-12Temperature 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 -62138, lifted condensation level 678 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1995-05-12The 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 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-62138 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
678 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.7 hours after it, 194 km from the path. May 13, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1995-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 267 joules per kilogram, CIN -129, lifted condensation level 796 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 00:00Z on 1995-05-13The 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 49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
267 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-129 J/kg
Surface CAPE
318 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
796 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
160 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Colby (CBK), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC7161100° 9 kt992.2
20:00 UTC6542280° 18 kt37992.6-TSRA
20:20 UTC6950280° 8 kt991.2
21:00 UTC7250260° 6 kt990.5
22:00 UTC675740° 11 kt18990.5

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

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:15 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 1995 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 12, 1995

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 121:00 PM CDTF1St. Mary Parish, LA0.5231
May 123:12 PM CDTF0Thomas, KS0.150
May 125:35 PM EDTF0Gilchrist, FL5.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 124:45 PM CDTF2Sheridan, KS0.8200
May 124:50 PM CDTF1Graham, KS0.250
May 126:20 PM CDTF0Ellis, KS0.150
May 126:24 PM CDTF0Rooks, KS0.123
May 126:45 PM CDTF0Rooks, KS0.123
May 127:18 PM CDTF1Russell, KS4.050
May 127:30 PM CDTF1Lincoln, KS1.050
May 127:50 PM MDTF0Douglas, CO0.250
May 129:01 PM CDTF0Ottawa, KS3.080

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.