Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2000

F2 tornado, Weskan to Ruleton, Kansas, October 31, 2000

From Weskan to Ruleton, this F2 tornado ran 12.0 miles across Wallace and Sherman counties on October 31, 2000, touching down at 2:15 PM MST and reaching 240 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 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
October 31, 2000
Touchdown
2:15 PM MST (21:15 UTC)
Path length
12.0 miles (19.3 km)
Path width
240 yards (219 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Wallace and Sherman counties
Touchdown point
39.050, -102.070
Lift-off point
39.230, -101.880
Record number
863

What the Weather Service recorded

Large tornado as it approached Wallace-Sherman County Line. A few utility poles were ripped out by tornado before it moved into Sherman County.

Tornado destroyed abandoned house and garage as it entered southwest Sherman County from Wallace County. Tornado also ripped out utility poles and trees. It was likely the widest just after crossing the county line, and was briefly described as an "elephant trunk" tornado by storm spotters.

Tornado touched down on farmstead and took off the roof of a sheep barn, flipped a trailer, destroyed a small buildings, and broke some windows. In addition, the tornado tore out trees, fences, and a utility pole. No one was injured at the residence.

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 21:06 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:06 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD
21:26 UTC22:15 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.

Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. October 31, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2000-10-31Temperature 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 -85154, lifted condensation level 1248 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2000-10-31The 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 53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 79 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
-85154 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1248 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
79 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 135 km from the path. November 1, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2000-11-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 699 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2000-11-01The 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 -15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:13 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 2000 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 31, 2000

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 313:16 PM CSTF0Thomas, KS0.350
October 313:53 PM CSTF0Thomas, KS7.570
October 312:54 PM MSTF1Sherman, KS0.5100
October 313:01 PM MSTF0Sherman, KS0.5100
October 314:38 PM CSTF1Decatur, KS4.0120
October 314:48 PM CSTF0Red Willow, NE3.0100
October 315:00 PM CSTF1Hayes, NE9.0100$160,000
October 315:10 PM CSTF0Red Willow, NE3.070
October 315:38 PM CSTF1Frontier, NE9.0150$250,000
October 314:49 PM MSTF0Sherman, KS0.350
October 316:12 PM CSTF2Dawson, NE23.0220$120,000
October 316:15 PM CSTF0Rawlins, KS0.770
October 317:00 PM CSTF0Nemaha, NE2.040$30,000
October 317:00 PM CSTF2Custer, NE12.0250$1.0 million
October 317:35 PM CSTF1Loup, NE12.0250$750,000
October 318:08 PM CSTF1Mills, IA2.570$40,000

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.