Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2006

F0 tornado, Sharon Spgs, Kansas, June 3, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Wallace County on June 3, 2006, touching down at 2:30 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
June 3, 2006
Touchdown
2:30 PM MDT (20:30 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wallace County
Touchdown point
38.820, -101.830
Lift-off point
38.820, -101.830
Record number
592

What the Weather Service recorded

Brief touchdown 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

15 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:15 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:15 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z

8.5 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. June 3, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2006-06-03Temperature 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 -66841, lifted condensation level 4019 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2006-06-03The 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 87 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-66841 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4019 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
87 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
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 168 km from the path. June 4, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2006-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 5 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 4805 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2006-06-04The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4805 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
10.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:30 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
19:58 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 S WeskanWallace, KS
20:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Nw Sharon SpringsWallace, KS3 REPORTS OF FUNNEL AND ROPE CLOUD.
20:30 UTCTORNADO7 Sw Sharon SpringsWallace, 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

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.