Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2002

F0 tornado, Winona, Kansas, August 11, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Logan County on August 11, 2002, touching down at 8:20 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
August 11, 2002
Touchdown
8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Logan County
Touchdown point
39.070, -101.250
Lift-off point
39.070, -101.250
Record number
264

What the Weather Service recorded

Brief touchdown...no known damage

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:16 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:36 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
01:16 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD
01:59 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
02:17 UTC03:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:47 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

1.3 hours before the tornado, 186 km from the path. August 12, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2002-08-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2276 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 2144 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 2002-08-12The 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 -5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
2276 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3413 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2144 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
8.6
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 186 km from the path. August 12, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2002-08-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 770 joules per kilogram, CIN -469, lifted condensation level 1255 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 2002-08-12The 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 504 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
770 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-469 J/kg
Surface CAPE
373 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1255 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
504 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
619 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:21 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 2002 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 11, 2002

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 114:00 PM CDTF4Stutsman, ND1.0300$650,000
August 118:05 PM CDTF0Mahnomen, MN0.225$10,000
August 118:40 PM CDTF0Red Willow, NE0.125
August 118:45 PM CDTF0Clearwater, MN0.225
August 118:55 PM CDTF0Clearwater, MN0.225
August 1110:44 PM CDTF1Ford, KS6.550
August 1111:00 PM CDTF1Hodgeman, KS0.250

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.