Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2005

F1 tornado, St Peter, Kansas, April 10, 2005

Name: F1 tornado, St Peter, Kansas, April 10, 2005
Start: 2005-04-10T22:00:00.000Z
Location: St Peter, Kansas

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Graham County on April 10, 2005, touching down at 5:00 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: F1
Date: April 10, 2005
Touchdown: 5:00 PM CDT (22:00 UTC)
Path length: 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width: 25 yards (23 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $2,000
County: Graham County
Touchdown point: 39.130, -99.920
Lift-off point: 39.130, -99.920
Record number: 675

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado went through a farm field, damaging a calving shed and throwing several 1500 pound hay bales. Tornado reported at County Road C and Road 240 in Graham County.

Brief touchdown over open field...no known damage. Tornado reported at County Rd D and Road 130 in Graham County.

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

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 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.

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 Goodland, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 10, 3:04 PM CDT, 1 hour 56 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 10, 3:04 PM CDT, 1 hour 56 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
204 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

.SHORT TERM... (TONIGHT-THUR)
PRECIPITATION PHASE/QPF TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY PRIMARY FORECAST
PROBLEMS.

CUT OFF 500MB LOW OVER SOUTHERN COLORADO FORECAST TO LIFT NORTHEAST
ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA TONIGHT AND MONDAY. WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AND
12Z RAOBS FAVOR GFS INITIALIZATION AT 500MB. ETA/NAM AGAIN 1-2DAM
TOO HIGH UPSTREAM OF THE CUT OFF...BUT DOING BETTER WITH THE SYSTEM
ITSELF COMPARED TO YESTERDAY. ECMWF SIMILAR TO ETA....AND UKMET
GENERALLY THE BEST WITHIN 1DAM ALL LOCATIONS. 6 HOUR VERIFICATION OF
SNOW FALL AMOUNTS WOULD FAVOR ETA AND RUC NEAR THE FRONT RANGE...BUT
ALL MODELS TOO FAR EAST WITH SNOW AT 18Z. WILL USE AN ETA/GFS
BLEND FOR THIS PACKAGE...LEANING TOWARDS THE ETA FORECAST SOUNDINGS
FOR PHASE AND QPF.

PRECIPITATION PHASE...OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS OF FORECAST SOUNDINGS USING
TOP-DOWN PRECIPITATION TYPE CHARTS YIELDS SNOW AS FAR EAST AS
BURLINGTON FROM ABOUT 00Z ON...BUT FURTHER EAST CHARTS INDICATE
RAIN. TO GET SNOW IN GOODLAND THE SOUNDINGS NEED TO BE MODIFIED AS
FOLLOWS: SATURATE THE SURFACE (T=TD) AND DROP THE TD 1-2C. THIS IS
NOT UNREALISTIC. SNOW CURRENTLY FALLING IN LIC (32/30) AND AKO
(34/32)...AND MODELS ABOUT 2C TOO HIGH WITH TDS. PROLONGED
PRECIPITATION SHOULD WET-BULB AND NEARLY SATURATE THE SURFACE
EVENTUALLY. HOWEVER...IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO GET A COMPLETE
CHANGEOVER MUCH FURTHER EAST THAN THE FIRST COLUMN OF COUNTIES IN
NE/KS.

QPF...GIVEN MODELS NOT DOING WELL AT THE MOMENT WITH EASTWARD EXTENT
OF SNOW...PERIOD OF RAIN/SNOW MIX POSSIBLE TO START....AND WARM/WET
GROUND...MODEL SNOW AMOUNTS PROBABLY OVERDONE IN KS/NE. EVEN TAKEN
VERBATIM 3-6 INCHES IN FIRST COLUMN AT WORST...MORE LIKELY WILL BE
2-4 INCHES. EITHER WAY ADVISORY SHOULD COVER. IN COLORADO...HEAVIEST
SNOW WILL FALL ALONG/NORTH OF PALMER DIVIDE IN KIT CARSON AND
WESTERN YUMA COUNTY. GENERALLY 4 TO 8 INCHES...ALTHOUGH WOULD NOT BE
SURPRISED TO SEE LOCALLY UP TO A FOOT ALONG A FLAGLER TO YUMA LINE.
SNOW AMOUNTS WILL BE LESS SOUTH OF THE PALMER IN CHEYENNE COUNTY
COLORADO WITH THE NORTH WINDS AND DOWNSLOPING EFFECT THERE...3 TO 6
INCHES AT WORST.

CONVECTION...ONGOING STORMS EARLY THIS EVENING SHOULD BEGIN TO
BECOME ELEVATED AS SURFACE-3KM CIN INCREASES AFTER DARK. BEST
MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY WILL BE IN THE EASTERN SIX COUNTIES. 0-6KM
BULK SHEAR VECTORS WILL BE SUPPORTIVE FOR AT LEAST AN ISOLATED
ORGANIZED THUNDERSTORM THREAT IN THOSE AREAS. AFTER 06Z ALL
CONVECTION SHOULD BE EAST OF THE FORECAST AREA.

BY MONDAY AFTERNOON EXPECT SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS THE WESTERN
HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA AND SCATTERED RAIN SHOWERS ACROSS THE
EASTERN HALF. DEFORMATION ZONE/HEAVIER PRECIPITATION WILL BE PULLING
AWAY TO THE NORTH.

TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY...NOT MUCH TIME TO SPEND ON THIS PORTION OF
THE FORECAST. UPPER RIDGE FORECAST TO BUILD OVER THE AREA FROM THE
WEST. COULD SEE SOME WIND ON TUESDAY WITH DOWNWARD MOTION/TIGHT
500MB HEIGHT GRADIENT OVERHEAD. EASTERLY SURFACE WINDS ON WEDNESDAY
DO NOT SUPPORT MUCH OF A WARM UP. HEIGHTS BEGIN TO FALL ON THURSDAY
WITH CONTINUED EASTERLY COMPONENT TO SURFACE FLOW. 850MB THERMAL
RIDGE WILL BUILD INTO EASTERN COLORADO. LOW LEVEL MOISTURE LOOKS
MEAGER...BUT SLIGHT CHANCE FOR HIGH BASED THUNDERSTORMS THURSDAY
NIGHT ALONG SURFACE LEE TROUGH WITH APPROACHING SHORTWAVE
DISTURBANCE IN SOUTHWEST FLOW.

.LONG TERM... (FRI-SUN)
DO NOT SEE MANY CHANGES TO THIS FORECAST WITH AT LEAST A SLIGHT
CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ALMOST EVERY DAY WITH ENERGY MOVING ACROSS
EACH AFTERNOON/EVENING IN SOUTHWEST FLOW. BY SATURDAY THE GFS IS
ADVERTISING AN UPPER LOW OVER EASTERN COLORADO WITH GOOD DYNAMICS SO
WILL ADD THUNDERSTORMS FOR SATURDAY. A RIDGE/DRY WEATHER BUILDS IN
SUNDAY AS THE LOW MOVES NORTHEAST OUT OF THE AREA. MAX TEMPERATURES
WILL RANGE IN THE 60S WITH LOW TEMPERATURES VARYING FROM THE MID 30S
TO THE LOWER 40S.

&&

.GLD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
.CO...BLIZZARD WARNING UNTIL 12Z MONDAY FOR
COZ090...COZ091...COZ092.
.KS...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 12Z MONDAY FOR
KSZ001...KSZ013...KSZ027.
.NE...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 12Z MONDAY FOR NEZ079.

&&

JDK/FS

Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 10, 1:15 PM CDT, 3 hours 45 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED FOR TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 141
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
1215 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

COZ090>092-KSZ001>004-013>016-027>029-041-042-NEZ079>081-111200-
CHEYENNE KS-CHEYENNE COUNTY CO-DECATUR KS-DUNDY NE-GOVE KS-GRAHAM KS-
GREELEY KS-HITCHCOCK NE-KIT CARSON COUNTY CO-LOGAN KS-NORTON KS-
RAWLINS KS-RED WILLOW NE-SHERIDAN KS-SHERMAN KS-THOMAS KS-WALLACE KS-
WICHITA KS-YUMA COUNTY CO-
1215 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHWEST KANSAS...EXTREME
SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA...AND EAST CENTRAL COLORADO.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL GRADUALLY DEVELOP OVER EASTERN COLORADO LATE
THIS MORNING AND THIS AFTERNOON...WHERE A BLIZZARD WARNING CONTINUES
IN EFFECT. SNOW HAS ALREADY MOVED AS FAR EAST AS YUMA AND FLAGLER AND
SHOULD BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT AS IT
PROGRESSES FURTHER EAST. SUSTAINED WINDS ABOVE 25 MPH WITH GUSTS
ABOVE 35 MPH WILL CAUSE AREAS OF WHITE OUT CONDITIONS DURING HEAVIER
SNOWFALL. SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TONIGHT IN COLORADO ...AND WILL
BEGIN TO MOVE INTO ADJACENT COUNTIES OF KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. TOTAL
SNOW ACCUMULATIONS MAY AVERAGE AROUND 6 INCHES IN COLORADO...AND 2 TO
4 INCHES ALONG THE KANSAS NEBRASKA BORDER BY MONDAY MORNING.

IN ADDITION TO THE WINTER WEATHER...THUNDERSTORMS ARE DEVELOPING
ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM SHARON SPRINGS TO NORTON...WHERE
THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR A FEW OF THE STORMS TO PRODUCE LARGE
HAIL AND TORNADOES. ALSO PERIODS OF HEAVY RAIN ARE LIKELY EAST OF
HIGHWAY 83 TODAY...AND THERE IS SOME POTENTIAL FOR SMALL STREAM
FLOODING IF SEVERAL STORMS TRACK ACROSS THE SAME AREA.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

WINTER WEATHER MAY PERSIST THROUGH MONDAY MORNING ALONG THE KANSAS
NEBRASKA BORDER...BEFORE SNOW COMES TO AN END MONDAY AFTERNOON. WINDS
WILL CONTINUE TO GUST NEAR 40 MPH ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY DURING THE
DAYLIGHT HOURS WITH IMPROVEMENT TUESDAY NIGHT.

LATER NEXT WEEK...THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE EACH AFTERNOON
STARTING THURSDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH SATURDAY.

.SPOTTER ACTIVATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE REQUIRED THIS AFTERNOON SOUTH OF A LINE
FROM SHARON SPRINGS TO NORTON.

FS

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 10, 2:06 PM CDT, 2 hours 54 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
106 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0106 PM     HAIL             8 W HOXIE               39.36N 100.59W
04/10/2005  0.75 INCH        SHERIDAN           KS   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

JOHNSON

Local storm report, Apr 10, 3:08 PM CDT, 1 hour 52 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
208 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0130 PM     HAIL             10 SSW OBERLIN          39.69N 100.60W
04/10/2005  1.00 INCH        DECATUR            KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            QUARTER SIZED HAIL COVERED THE GROUND

&&

JOHNSON

Local storm report, Apr 10, 3:45 PM CDT, 1 hour 15 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
245 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0239 PM     HAIL             1 E GOVE                38.96N 100.47W
04/10/2005  0.75 INCH        GOVE               KS   PUBLIC

&&

JOHNSON

Local storm report, Apr 10, 4:01 PM CDT, 59 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
301 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0300 PM     HAIL             GRAINFIELD              39.11N 100.47W
04/10/2005  1.00 INCH        GOVE               KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            COVERING THE GROUND

&&

JOHNSON

Local storm report, Apr 10, 4:25 PM CDT, 35 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
325 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0319 PM     FUNNEL CLOUD     15 S HOXIE              39.14N 100.44W
04/10/2005                   SHERIDAN           KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED OVER EXTREME SOUTHERN SHERIDAN
            COUNTY NEAR THE GOVE COUNTY LINE

&&

JOHNSON

Local storm report, Apr 10, 4:40 PM CDT, 20 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
340 PM MDT SUN APR 10 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0250 PM     HAIL             3 N GOVE                39.00N 100.49W
04/10/2005  1.25 INCH        GOVE               KS   TRAINED SPOTTER

            HALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL COVERING THE GROUND FROM NORTH OF
            GOVE TO NEAR GRAINFIELD. HAIL ALSO ACCUMULATED ON ROADS.

&&

JOHNSON

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), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 151 km from the path. April 10, 2005.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -421 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 151 km from the path. April 11, 2005.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -25 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 1484 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 3491 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hill_city (HLC), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 152 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:59 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 track Every 2005 tornado in Kansas Every tornado in Kansas since 1950 Warnings in force in Kansas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 10, 2005

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 10	2:00 PM CDT	F0	Scott, KS	0.3	75
April 10	2:25 PM CDT	F0	Scott, KS	0.1	20
April 10	4:35 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	0.4	125
April 10	4:35 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	6.7	150
April 10	4:37 PM CDT	F1	Trego, KS	6.2	200
April 10	4:50 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	1.0	30
April 10	4:56 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	6.5	400
April 10	4:57 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	0.2	15
April 10	4:57 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	0.5	30
April 10	5:00 PM CDT	F0	Graham, KS	0.1	25
April 10	5:04 PM CDT	F0	Trego, KS	3.7	150
April 10	5:53 PM CDT	F0	Ellis, KS	3.3	100
April 10	5:59 PM CDT	F1	Russell, KS	6.0	440	$70,000
April 10	6:05 PM CDT	F1	Rush, KS	1.4	50
April 10	6:12 PM CDT	F0	Barton, KS	0.5	55
April 10	6:24 PM CDT	F0	Russell, KS	0.5	55
April 10	6:26 PM CDT	F0	Russell, KS	0.5	55
April 10	6:31 PM CDT	F0	Russell, KS	1.0	110
April 10	6:52 PM CDT	F0	Russell, KS	1.0	110
April 10	8:30 PM CDT	F1	Oklahoma, OK	5.0	75	$150,000

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.