F0 tornado, Holcomb, Kansas, June 15, 2002

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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 15, 2002

Touchdown

4:08 PM CDT (21:08 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Finney County

Touchdown point

37.830, -100.980

Lift-off point

37.830, -100.980

Record number

750

This landspout tornado did no damage.

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

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:30 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.

NWS Dodge City, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 15, 3:33 PM CDT, 35 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS
333 PM CDT SAT JUN 15 2002

DAYS 1-2...

CONVECTION INCREASING IN AREAL COVERAGE ACROSS SOUTHWEST KANSAS THIS
AFTERNOON. GOOD AMOUNT WAA AT 85H LVL PRESENT FROM 12Z ANALYSIS
AHEAD OF THESE DEVELOPING STORMS. THESE STORMS SHOULD MOVE QUICKLY
SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE CWA THIS EVENING AS S/W TROF CROSSES CNTL KS.
ANOTHER WAVE CROSSING OUR WRN CONUS RIDGE DROPPING SOUTH INTO CO
WHICH SHOULD ENHANCE PCPN OVER ERN CO. WITH GOOD INSTAB PRESENT HERE
AS WELL, ALONG WITH MOISTURE EXPECT THE STORMS DEVELOPING IN ERN CO
THIS AFTERNOON TO CROSS INTO SW KS LATER THIS EVENING. WITH THIS IN
MIND WILL GO WITH CAT POPS ACROSS THE SOUTHERN CWA AND LIKELY IN THE
NORTH. AGREE WITH SPC THAT MAIN THREAT SHOULD BE STRONG WINDS, BUT
CAN NOT RULE OUT SOME HAIL EARLY AND ACROSS THE SOUTHERN 1/2 OF THE
CWA.

SUNDAY INTO SUNDAY NIGHT THE NW FLOW CONTINUES. ANOTHER WAVE
CROSSING THE PLAINS EMBEDDED IN THE FLOW SO SEE NO REASON WHY
ANOTHER SHOT OF PCPN IS NOT POSSIBLE. WILL USE AVN FOR TIMING OF
NEXT WAVE WHICH POINTS TO LATE SUNDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY MONDAY.

ON MONDAY THE NORTHWEST FLOW BEGINS TO BACK AS A LEE TROF STARTS TO
DEVELOP. CONVERGENCE ALONG THIS BOUNDARY MAY GIVE RISE TO A FEW
STORMS LATE IN THE DAY ACROSS THE WEST.

DAYS 3-7...

THE ETA MODEL OUT TO 60HRS AND THE 15/00Z MRF ARE IN FAIR AGREEMENT
OUT TO 18/00Z (MON EVENING).  THIS SHOWS A CHANCE FOR A SHORT WAVE
IN NORTHWEST FLOW TO ZOOM SOUTH ALONG EAST SLOPES OF ROCKIES AND
BRING A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS FAR WESTERN KANSAS.
AFTER THAT WAVE PASSES, LOOKS LIKE CWA IS IN FOR ANOTHER WARMUP.
THINK THIS WILL BE A GRADUAL WARM UP SO WILL BUMP TEMPS UP A FEW
DEGREES EACH DAY THROUGH SATURDAY...THEN LEVEL OFF IN THE MID TO
UPPER 90S.  AS THE SURFACE HEATS UP EACH AFTERNOON...THERE SHOULD BE
AT LEAST A CHANCE FOR LATE DAY CONVECTION WED-THU-FRI AND INTO
SATURDAY.  FOR NOW, BACK OFF OF WEDNESDAY TO ACCOUNT FOR SLOW WARMUP
RECOVERY TIME.  OTHERWISE...NOT MANY CHANGES TO PREVIOUS EXTENDED
FORECAST.

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

DDC   59  81  63  89 /  60   0  20  30
GCK   59  84  63  93 /  80   0  40  40
EHA   61  85  64  93 /  80   0  50  40
LBL   62  83  62  89 /  80   0  40  40
HYS   59  81  63  89 /  60   0  20  30
P28   65  81  62  84 /  70   0   0   0

.DDC...NONE.

FCSTID = 18/12

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.

Garden_city (GCK), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:18 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.