F0 tornado, Fact, Kansas, January 28, 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

January 28, 2006

Touchdown

3:27 PM CST (21:27 UTC)

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

39.550, -97.020

Lift-off point

39.550, -97.020

Record number

45

The tornado formed from a low-topped mini-supercell a half mile east southeast of Fact in Clay County, and travelled northeast for 0.8 miles with a path width of 75 yards before dissipating. The tornado caused minor damage to trees and several cattle feeders, as well as a small windmill. It was rated as an F0, and damage was estimated at $5K.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:15 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 Topeka, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jan 28, 4:25 AM CST, 11 hours 2 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
425 AM CST SAT JAN 28 2006

.DISCUSSION...

APPEARS STG CDFNT WILL ENTER THE CWA LATER TODAY WITH AN ATTENDANT
RISK OF A FEW STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. PREFER RUC FCST...AND
LATEST NAM CONVERGES TO THAT SOLUTION DURING THE DAY AS WELL. SFC
LOW NWRN KS APPEARS WILL MOVE MAINLY EAST BEFORE DEVELOPING
SOUTHEAST THIS EVENING...AS STG JET PUNCHES SOUTHEAST TOWARD THE
ARK-LA-TEX. THIS SHOULD CAUSE THE FNT TO PICK UP STEAM AND MOVE WELL
EAST OF AREA BY MIDNIGHT. SO ANY PCPN ALG FNT LATE THIS AFTERNOON
SHOULD MOVE EAST OF AREA QUICKLY THIS EVENING.
UPPER DYNAMICS AND LOW LVL SHEAR WILL BE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO
ROTATE STORMS BEGINNING SWRN PTN OF CWA BY EARLY AFTERNOON. AMT OF
SUNSHINE AHEAD OF FNT REST OF CWA WILL DICTATE HOW FAR EAST STG
CONVECTION WILL PUSH. COULD SEE ANOTHER 5 TO 8 DEGREE RISE IN DEW
POINTS WRN/CNTRL PTN OF CWA BY MIDDAY BEFORE DRYER AIR
ARRIVES.

SLIM CHANCE FOR LIGHT PRECIP REMAINS IN FCST TMRW...BUT NOT OVERLY
IMPRESSED WITH RETURN MOISTURE. SOME LIFT WILL RETURN AS SCNDRY WAVE
MOVES THROUGH AND INTO MEAN TROF POSITION TO OUR EAST. REST OF FCST
FOR THE WEEK RATHER UNEVENTFUL WITH GENERALLY MILD WINTER WX
EXPECTED. VERY LITTLE IF ANY CHANGE TO GRIDS BEYOND MONDAY.

&&

.TOP WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.

&&

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
442 AM CST SAT JAN 28 2006

KSZ008>012-020>024-026-034>040-054>056-058-059-291045-
REPUBLIC-WASHINGTON-MARSHALL-NEMAHA-BROWN-CLOUD-CLAY-RILEY-
POTTAWATOMIE-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-OTTAWA-DICKINSON-GEARY-MORRIS-
WABAUNSEE-SHAWNEE-DOUGLAS-LYON-OSAGE-FRANKLIN-COFFEY-ANDERSON-
442 AM CST SAT JAN 28 2006

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST CENTRAL...NORTH
CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST KANSAS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THERE IS A CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS OVER ALL THE AREA TODAY. SOME
OF THE STORMS COULD BE SEVERE WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND
THIS AFTERNOON. THERE IS A CHANCE FOR A FEW THUNDERSTORMS OVER
NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL KANSAS EARLY THIS EVENING. HOWEVER ANY
CHANCE FOR SEVERE STORMS WILL DIMINISH QUICKLY AFTER SUNSET.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTERS MAY BE NEEDED EARLY THIS AFTERNOON OVER NORTH CENTRAL
KANSAS...AND PERHAPS OVER PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL
KANSAS BY MID TO LATE AFTERNOON.

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
319 PM CST SAT JAN 28 2006

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

0256 PM     HAIL             2 N MORGANVILLE         39.50N 97.20W
01/28/2006  1.00 INCH        CLAY               KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            REPORTED AT 28TH AND JAYHAWK RD.

&&

STRASSBERG

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.

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:26 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

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.