F0 tornado, Horton to Robinson, Kansas, April 15, 2006

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

April 15, 2006

Touchdown

6:52 PM CDT (23:52 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Brown County

Touchdown point

39.780, -95.430

Lift-off point

39.780, -95.430

Record number

381

This F0 tornado moved 10 miles through Jackson County before crossing the border into Brown County 3 miles west of Horton. At times, it was 100 yards wide, and was spawned from a supercell thunderstorm. No damage was noted in Brown County.

This brief tornado touched down at 5:40pm cst 2 miles NW of Horton in Brown County and was on the ground for 1 mile before lifting 2.5 miles NNW of Horton at 5:43pm cst. It had a path width of 50 yards. The tornado destroyed 2 outbuildings, and caused minor damage to trees and a home along its 1 mile long path, with the damage estimated at $100,000. It was spawned from a supercell thunderstorm.

At 5:44pm cst, an F1 tornado touched down 1 mile south of Willis and travelled 4 miles before dissipating 3 miles east of Willis at 5:49pm cst. Just east of Willis, 4 well built outbuildings were destroyed on a farmstead. Several other outbuildings and trees were damaged by the tornado. Along it's 75 yard wide path, it is estimated to have caused $150,000 in damage. The parent thunderstorm was a supercell.

A brief tornado touchdown was noted 3 miles SSW of Robinson at 5:52pm cst from a supercell thunderstorm. It was 50 yards wide and remained on the ground for only one tenth of a mile. It caused about $25,000 of damage to a home and also damaged some trees before dissipating at 5:53pm cst. The parent thunderstorm also caused separate straight line wind damage in Robinson as well.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:05 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 00:32 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:20 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 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.

Falls City/Brenn (FNB), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:51 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.

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

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

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

13 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.