F0 tornado, La Cygne to Amsterdam, Kansas, March 12, 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

March 12, 2006

Touchdown

2:20 PM CST (20:20 UTC)

Path length

16.4 miles (26.4 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$400,000

Counties

Linn and Bates counties

Touchdown point

38.320, -94.650

Lift-off point

38.420, -94.370

Record number

93

A significant tornado outbreak occurred over portions of eastern Kansas and western Missouri on March 12, 2006. Three distinct rounds of severe weather occurred on March 12th, one in the morning, the second in the mid-afternoon hours, and the last round which occurred after sunset. In addition to the seventeen tornado touchdowns in the Pleasant Hill forecast area, 203 reports of large hail and/or damaging winds were also received from virtually every county in the Pleasant Hill service area. To put the March 12th outbreak into perspective, an average severe weather season in our local area brings approximately 11 tornadoes, and around 400 reports of hail and/or damaging wind to the local region. Unfortunately, 6 lives were lost from the tornadoes that struck Urich, Sedalia, and Renick, Missouri. Another 60 persons were injured. Damage estimates in the Kansas City metropolitan area alone reached $6.58 million.

Tornado touched in rural country 6 miles east-southeast of La Cygne at 1420 CST. It crossed from Linn county into Bates county Missouri at 1424 CST...8 miles east of La Cygne. Damage was limited to trees.

Tornado crossed into Bates county from Linn county Kansas at 1424 CST...2 miles west-southwest of Amsterdam. The F0 tornado caused damage to several buildings in Amsterdam. The tornado then continued northeast over rural areas with damage limited to trees. The tornado then lifted 1 mile northwest of Adrian at 1442 CST.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:08 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:43 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:52 UTC and running to 02:42 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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.

Olathe (Ojc) (OJC), 57 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:21 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

54 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.