Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2006

F0 tornado, Pawnee County, Kansas, April 1, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pawnee County on April 1, 2006, touching down at 6:20 PM CST and reaching 20 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
April 1, 2006
Touchdown
6:20 PM CST (00:20 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pawnee County
Touchdown point
38.180, -99.120
Lift-off point
38.180, -99.120
Record number
207

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
21:45 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:32 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:12 UTC23:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:47 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
00:22 UTC00:41 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:33 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
14:00 UTC01:22 UTCWind AdvisoryDDC

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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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

11.7 hours after it, 82 km from the path. April 2, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2006-04-02Temperature 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 -93478, lifted condensation level 1542 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2006-04-02The 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 -48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
-93478 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1542 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Great_bend (GBD), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:35 UTC75.253.6150° 14 kt1007.1VCTS
22:55 UTC73.453.6150° 9 kt1007.8TS
23:15 UTC71.655.4140° 12 kt161007.1VCTS
23:35 UTC71.653.6140° 11 kt1006.4TS
23:55 UTC6855.4120° 8 kt1006.1VCTS
00:15 UTC69.855.4130° 14 kt171005.1TS
00:35 UTC69.855.4130° 18 kt221004.7TS
00:55 UTC5951.880° 7 kt1008.1TS
01:15 UTC57.253.6250° 17 kt261007.5TS
01:35 UTC5953.6150° 9 kt141005.8TS
01:55 UTC5953.6130° 14 kt1004.7TS
02:15 UTC60.853.6150° 13 kt1005.4VCTS

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:20 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:00 UTCHAIL 1.7510 Nne KinsleyEdwards, KS
22:00 UTCHAIL 1.756 S RozelPawnee, KS
22:15 UTCHAIL 17 S KinsleyEdwards, KS
22:45 UTCHAIL 0.753 S LewisEdwards, KS
22:45 UTCHAIL 0.886 Nw LarnedPawnee, KS
22:45 UTCHAIL 1.5RozelPawnee, KS
22:55 UTCHAIL 0.882 Sw LewisEdwards, KS
23:19 UTCHAIL 12 W LarnedPawnee, KS
23:50 UTCHAIL 0.7513 S HanstonHodgeman, KS
23:50 UTCHAIL 0.8814 S HanstonHodgeman, KS
00:00 UTCHAIL 12 S RozelPawnee, KS
00:12 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD8 W Great BendBarton, KS
00:12 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD8 W Great BendBarton, KS
00:20 UTCTORNADOLarnedPawnee, KS
00:25 UTCHAIL 0.881 E OfferleEdwards, KS
00:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 60Pawnee RockBarton, KSCAR TRAILER WAS BLOWEN OF HIGHWAY.
00:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 60Pawnee RockBarton, KSCAR TRAILER WAS BLOWN OFF HIGHWAY.
00:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 1009 Ene LarnedPawnee, KS6 INCH DIAMETER LIVE TREE LIMBS DOWN
00:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 72Great BendBarton, KS
00:45 UTCHAIL 1Great BendBarton, KSAGTAP SPOTTER BT102.
00:50 UTCHAIL 12 Sw LewisEdwards, KS
00:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGPawnee RockBarton, KSHOUSE COLLAPSED.
00:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 Ssw Great BendBarton, KSON WEST SIDE OF GREAT BEND...A COMPUTER STORE WAS UNROOFED. *UPDATE*
00:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 Ssw Great BendBarton, KSWEST SIDE OF GREAT BEND...AT THE LUMBER YARD...A ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF.
00:52 UTCHAIL 1Great BendBarton, KS
01:10 UTCFLOODGreat BendBarton, KSSTREET FLOODING IN PROGRESS.
01:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 1009 Ene LarnedPawnee, KS6 INCH DIAMETER LIVE TREE LIMBS DOWN
01:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 Nw St. JohnStafford, KS
01:35 UTCHAIL 0.881 Nw St. JohnStafford, KS
02:38 UTCHAIL 0.889 Nw PrattPratt, KS
02:44 UTCHAIL 18 Nw PrattPratt, KS
02:46 UTCHAIL 1.757 Nw PrattPratt, KS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 1, 2006

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 17:20 PM CSTF1Barber, KS12.8300
April 18:20 PM CSTF2Pratt, KS4.9200
April 111:16 PM CSTF1Tulsa, OK0.4807$250,000

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.