Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2005

F1 tornado, Ulysses to Lakin, Kansas, June 3, 2005

From Ulysses to Lakin, this F1 tornado ran 3.4 miles across Grant and Kearny counties on June 3, 2005, touching down at 5:25 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
June 3, 2005
Touchdown
5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)
Path length
3.4 miles (5.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
Counties
Grant and Kearny counties
Touchdown point
37.700, -101.370
Lift-off point
37.770, -101.350
Record number
956

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado kicked up a lot of dirt and debris (tumble weeds). One pivot sprinkler was damaged. This tornado moved into Kearny county.

This tornado moved out of Grant county while dissipating.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:30 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:32 UTC23:04 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:14 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), 12:00Z

10.4 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. June 3, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2005-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2565 joules per kilogram, CIN -159, lifted condensation level 845 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 2005-06-03The 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 270 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
2565 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-159 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2541 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
845 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
270 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
244 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 128 km from the path. June 4, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2005-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 95 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 1183 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 2005-06-04The 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 -23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
95 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
110 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1183 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Garden_city (GCK), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:54 UTC725770° 5 kt1003.4
21:54 UTC7355110° 12 kt1002.7
22:54 UTC7154120° 13 kt1002.4
23:54 UTC6855150° 9 kt1002
00:11 UTC66.255.4160° 8 kt1002VCTS

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:24 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 2005 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 3, 2005

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 311:16 AM MDTF0Grant, ND1.030
June 312:58 PM CDTF0Ness, KS1.830
June 31:05 PM CDTF0Ness, KS0.320
June 35:23 PM CDTF0McLennan, TX0.110
June 35:57 PM CDTF0Stevens, KS0.210
June 39:43 PM CDTF1Cowley, KS3.0110$50,000
June 311:30 PM CDTF0Kay, OK0.230
June 311:48 PM CDTF1Cowley, KS6.0110$30,000

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.