Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2001

F0 tornado, Jetmore, Kansas, June 13, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Hodgeman County on June 13, 2001, touching down at 10:00 PM CDT and reaching 150 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
June 13, 2001
Touchdown
10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC)
Path length
2.5 miles (4.0 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hodgeman County
Touchdown point
38.250, -99.900
Lift-off point
38.250, -99.820
Record number
1003

What the Weather Service recorded

Nothing to damage. Probably stronger than f0.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:54 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:42 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
02:04 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningDDC
02:21 UTC03:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
02:54 UTC03:30 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:05 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Dodge City, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 13, 3:15 PM CDT, 6 hours 45 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 13, 3:15 PM CDT, 6 hours 45 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS
315 PM CDT WED JUN 13 2001

FORECAST CHALLENGES ARE THREAT FOR SEVERE LOCAL STORMS ALL AREAS
TONIGHT AND FRONTAL POSITION, THEN TEMPS THEREAFTER.

UPPER AIR ANALYSIS SHOWS MAIN UPPER TROF TO STILL COME OUT LATER
TONIGHT WITH COLD POOL AND GOOD UVVS. AHEAD OF THE UPPER TROF A COLD
FRONT HAS PUSHED EAST TO ASHLAND TO NEAR SAINT JOHN LINE AND IS
BEGINNING TO STALL OUT BASED ON 88D DATA. THE MODELS STILL HAVE
STRONG CYCLOGENESIS OCCURRING IN SOUTHERN COLORADO AS MAIN UPPER JET
MOVES ACROSS NORTHERN NEW MEXICO THIS EVENING. THIS LOOKS TO BE ON
TARGET AS STRONG PRESSURE FALLS ARE STARTING TO SHOW UP IN THAT
AREA. PRESSURE FALLS WILL HELP THE FRONT TO STALL AND THEN PUSH
BACK WEST AS A WARM FRONT AND MOIST LINE. THE FRONT MAY PUSH BACK
TO A LIBERAL TO JETMORE TO LACROSSE LINE THIS EVENING WITH
THUNDERSTORMS TRYING TO FORM ALONG IT. STRONG MID LEVEL WINDS
APPROACHING 50KTS ARE ALSO FORECAST TO MOVE OUT OVER FRONTAL
BOUNDARY AND WITH GOOD LOW LEVEL SHEAR. A FEW STRONG TORNADOS ARE
POSSIBLE ALONG FRONTAL BOUNDARY AS THE RESULT OF 1) BAROCLINICALLY
INDUCED LOWER TROPOSPHERIC CYCLONIC RELATIVE VORTICITY (SOLENOIDAL
TERM IN THE VORTICITY EQUATION) TILTED ONTO THE VERTICAL, AND
2) ENHANCED DIRECTIONAL VERTICAL WIND SHEAR, RESULTING IN STRONG MID
LEVEL MESOCYCLONES. OF COURSE THAT IS IF CAP IS BROKEN AND
THUNDERSTORMS FORM. RIGHT NOW NO CLOUDS ARE SHOWING UP ALONG THIS
BOUNDARY.

LATER ON TONIGHT MAIN UPPER TROF COMES OUT WITH GOOD UVVS AND
STEEPENING LAPSE RATES. WILL NEED TO CANVAS ALL AREAS WITH 50 TO 60
POPS, AND SOME SEVERE. WIND DIRECTION WILL BE HARD TO FORECAST WITH
FRONTAL BOUNDARY BACKING UP. COLD FRONT WILL THEN RE-SURGE THROUGH
ENTIRE AREA EXCEPT FOR MED LODGE BY 12Z. SEVERE LOCAL STORMS LOOK TO
BE A GOOD BET.

THEN ON THURSDAY THERE MAY BE SOME LINGERING THUNDERSTORMS AND
SHOWERS MAINLY EAST OF A LINE FROM COLDWATER TO PRATT SO WILL JUST
CONTINUE WITH SOME POPS TO COVER. ALSO MAIN UPPER LOW AND PVA STILL
MOVING ACROSS AREA AND HAVE DECIDED TO THROUGH IN A SMALL
THUNDERSTORMS POP IN THE NORTH CWA WITH COLD POOL. OTHERWISE TEMPS
SHOULD BE MUCH COOLER WITH MID 70S TO AROUND 80. WINDS SHOULD BE 20
TO 30 MPH IN THE MORNING THEN DECREASING BY LATE AFTERNOON.

THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY THE ATMOSPHERE DRIES OUT AND WINDS
DECREASE. WILL GO WITH LOWS MAINLY IN THE 40S WITH LOW DEWPOINTS
FORECAST IN THE 30S. THEN FOR FRIDAY HIGHS USING FCST SOUNDINGS MID
TO UPPER 80S LOOK REASONABLE AS WARM FRONT RETURNS AND ZONAL FLOW
SETS UP.

EXTENDED DISCUSSION...
MODELS CONTINUE TO SUGGEST RIDGING TAKING PLACE OVER THE CENTRAL
PLAINS LATE THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK. APPEARS THAT A
NORTHWEST FLOW WILL BE PRESENT ACROSS ERN CO/WRN KS SAT INTO EARLY
SUN SO MAY HAVE TO WATCH FOR SOME EMBEDDED WAVES MOVING ALONG THE
FLOW. AT THIS TIME WILL ONLY GO SLT CHANCE LATE SATURDAY AND OPT TO
KEEP FORECAST DRY ON SUNDAY.

CONFIDENCE FROM MONDAY ON DECREASES RAPIDLY WITH ALL MODELS SHOWING
A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT MOVEMENT OF THE WESTERN CONUS UPPER LEVEL
SYSTEM. FAVORING NO SINGLE MODELS THIS AFTERNOON AND BASED ON
BLOCKING PATTERN DEVELOPING OVER THE NORTH ATLANTIC AND SPLIT FLOW
DEVELOPING OVER THE PACIFIC WILL KEEP CONDITIONS WARM BUT INTRODUCE
POPS BACK INTO THE FORECAST BY MID WEEK.

PRELIMINARY GUIDANCE FOR COORDINATION ONLY. OFFICIAL FORECASTS ARE
CONTAINED WITHIN THE DODGE CITY ZONE FORECAST.

DDC 057/078 049/086 055 510
GCK 055/077 048/086 053 510
EHA 055/078 048/089 055 510
LBL 055/078 049/088 055 510
HYS 059/076 048/083 054 620
P28 066/080 055/086 058 630

.DDC...NONE.

KRUSE/RBS

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

3.0 hours before the tornado, 53 km from the path. June 14, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2001-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 901 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 2625 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 2001-06-14The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
901 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2104 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
325 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 53 km from the path. June 14, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2001-06-14Temperature 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 -77355, lifted condensation level 1564 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 2001-06-14The 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 -185 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77355 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1564 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-185 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:01 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 2001 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 13, 2001

39 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 139:07 AM CDTF0Jefferson Parish, LA0.125$10,000
June 132:22 PM EDTF0Richland, SC0.140
June 134:50 PM CDTF0Jones, MS0.3100
June 135:11 PM CDTF0Hamlin, SD0.125
June 135:40 PM CDTF0Grant, MN0.525
June 136:12 PM CDTF0Big Stone, MN0.525
June 136:51 PM CDTF0Cuming, NE0.530
June 136:53 PM CDTF3Todd, MN12.01003$5.0 million
June 136:59 PM CDTF0Grant, MN0.525
June 137:00 PM CDTF0Douglas, MN0.125
June 137:12 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MN0.150
June 137:12 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MN0.150
June 137:18 PM CDTF1Lincoln, MN0.5100$50,000
June 137:44 PM CDTF0Todd, MN0.125
June 137:45 PM CDTF4Ruby–Seward tornado, NE8.04002$1.0 million
June 138:00 PM CDTF2Morrison, MN4.050$200,000
June 138:10 PM CDTF2Crow Wing, MN5.0880
June 138:20 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MN0.150
June 138:32 PM CDTF0Todd, MN0.125
June 138:42 PM CDTF0Lancaster, NE0.130
June 138:46 PM CDTF1Lincoln, MN2.0100$2,000
June 138:46 PM CDTF1Republic, KS8.0300$120,000
June 138:52 PM CDTF0Osceola, IA0.150
June 138:55 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE0.130
June 138:58 PM CDTF0Republic, KS5.0100$40,000
June 138:58 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS0.130
June 139:00 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS2.050
June 139:05 PM CDTF1Thayer, NE3.0150$500,000
June 139:12 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS7.0250
June 139:20 PM CDTF1O'Brien, IA7.0200$200,000
June 139:20 PM CDTF0Monona, IA0.130
June 139:25 PM CDTF0Furnas, NE0.530$10,000
June 139:25 PM CDTF0Thayer, NE0.520
June 139:28 PM CDTF0Pawnee, KS0.130
June 139:31 PM CDTF0Fillmore, NE0.220
June 139:45 PM CDTF0Rush, KS9.0150
June 1310:10 PM CDTF0Ida, IA0.150
June 1310:18 PM CDTF0Cherokee, IA0.150
June 1310:45 PM CDTF0Thayer, NE3.050

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.