Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2006

F0 tornado, Tribune, Kansas, July 11, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Greeley County on July 11, 2006, touching down at 3:06 PM MDT and reaching 10 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
July 11, 2006
Touchdown
3:06 PM MDT (21:06 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Greeley County
Touchdown point
38.530, -101.570
Lift-off point
38.530, -101.570
Record number
726

What the Weather Service recorded

Over open fields ... no known damage.

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.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 22:12 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

9.1 hours before the tornado, 169 km from the path. July 11, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2006-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 760 joules per kilogram, CIN -79, lifted condensation level 1408 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 2006-07-11The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 4 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
760 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79 J/kg
Surface CAPE
277 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1408 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 169 km from the path. July 12, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2006-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 939 joules per kilogram, CIN -56, lifted condensation level 2000 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 2006-07-12The 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 -24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
939 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-56 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1436 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2000 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Goodland (GLD), 94 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC9156170° 8 kt1015.6
20:53 UTC9257200° 10 kt1014.9VCTS
21:11 UTC89.655.4250° 5 kt1014.9
21:38 UTC8657.2100° 15 kt211014.9VCTS
21:49 UTC84.257.2110° 13 kt191014.9VCTS
21:53 UTC8456100° 14 kt191014.9VCTS
22:53 UTC7854150° 11 kt1015.6VCTS

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

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:06 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
22:50 UTCHAIL 0.758 Sw WinonaLogan, KS
22:56 UTCHAIL 113 Sw WinonaLogan, KSQUARTER SIZE HAIL ALONG HIGHWAY 40. 60 MPH WIND GUSTS ALSO PRESENT.
23:10 UTCHAIL 1.2513 Wnw Russell SpringsLogan, KS
23:12 UTCHAIL 0.8815 W Russell SpringsLogan, KS
23:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 607 S WallaceWallace, KS
23:30 UTCHAIL 0.883 S WallaceWallace, KS
23:43 UTCHAIL 0.756 S WallaceWallace, KS
23:55 UTCHAIL 1.7515 Sw Russell SpringsLogan, KSGOLFBALL SIZE HAIL ON HIGHWAY 25

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 July 11, 2006

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 112:35 PM EDTF2Franklin, MA2.9200$200,000
July 117:20 PM EDTF1Warren, OH4.050$200,000
July 117:42 PM EDTF1Montgomery, OH0.850$70,000
July 117:49 PM EDTF0Warren, OH0.325$10,000
July 118:27 PM EDTF0Clermont, OH0.130
July 118:39 PM EDTF1Clermont, OH1.0350$100,000
July 118:39 PM EDTF0Madison, OH1.020$30,000
July 118:41 PM EDTF0Clinton, OH5.050$10,000
July 119:05 PM EDTF0Clinton, OH0.130
July 119:34 PM EDTF0Clinton, OH0.130
July 119:49 PM EDTF0Clinton, OH0.130

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.