Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1995

F3 tornado, Gray County, Kansas, May 15, 1995

This F3 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Gray County on May 15, 1995, touching down at 9:20 PM CDT and reaching 900 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 15, 1995
Touchdown
9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
900 yards (823 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Gray County
Touchdown point
37.970, -100.620
Lift-off point
37.970, -100.520
Record number
397

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:18 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
03:23 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningDDC
04:01 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 05:44 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

2.3 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. May 16, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1995-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1357 joules per kilogram, CIN -334, lifted condensation level 1335 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 1995-05-16The 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 127 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
1357 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-334 J/kg
Surface CAPE
880 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1335 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

9.7 hours after it, 63 km from the path. May 16, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1995-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 490 joules per kilogram, CIN -471, lifted condensation level 1757 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 1995-05-16The 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 193 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
490 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-471 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:17 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 15, 1995

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1510:45 AM CDTF0Shelby, TN0.523$500 to $5,000
May 1511:05 AM CDTF0Benton, MS0.220$5,000 to $50,000
May 153:53 PM EDTF0Newberry, SC0.130
May 156:00 PM EDTF0Berkeley, SC0.230$500 to $5,000
May 156:38 PM EDTF1Laurens, GA1.0123$5,000 to $50,000
May 156:39 PM CDTF1Winkler, TX0.880
May 155:45 PM MDTF0Kiowa, CO1.050
May 157:08 PM CDTF0Kearny, KS0.250
May 157:20 PM CDTF0Motley, TX0.110
May 156:24 PM MDTF0Greeley, KS0.120
May 157:30 PM CDTF1Kearny, KS1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 156:35 PM MDTF0Greeley, KS0.120
May 158:52 PM CDTF0Crane, TX0.240
May 159:15 PM CDTF2Gray, KS3.0300$50,000 to $500,000

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.