Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2006
F1 tornado, Coyville, Kansas, March 30, 2006
This F1 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Wilson County on March 30, 2006, touching down at 5:35 PM CST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.
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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- March 30, 2006
- Touchdown
- 5:35 PM CST (23:35 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.0 miles (16.1 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- Wilson County
- Touchdown point
- 37.680, -95.850
- Lift-off point
- 37.700, -95.670
- Record number
- 188
What the Weather Service recorded
Damaged a barn, carport, and some trees.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
2 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:33 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:05 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:49 UTC and running to 23:40 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:49 UTC | 23:40 UTC | Tornado Watch | ICT |
| 15:00 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | ICT |
| 21:35 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 21:51 UTC | 22:03 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 22:27 UTC | 22:48 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 23:23 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 23:33 UTC | 00:05 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 23:40 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Watch | ICT |
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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z
11.6 hours before the tornado, 146 km from the path. March 30, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 40 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -290 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 712 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 426 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 459 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z
0.4 hours after it, 146 km from the path. March 31, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1075 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -25 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1307 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 868 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 342 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 340 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.0
- Supercell composite
- 8.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.7 K/km
The radar
The Wichita radar (KICT), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:36 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:12 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 3 S Moline | Elk, KS | ON ELK AND CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY LINE. |
| 21:16 UTC | HAIL 1 | Moline | Elk, KS | |
| 21:50 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nw Fredonia | Wilson, KS | |
| 21:56 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Fredonia | Wilson, KS | ROPE TYPE TORNADO, SKIPPING UP AND DOWN. |
| 22:16 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Independence | Montgomery, KS | APPEARS TO BE DIPPING UP AND DOWN FROM WALL CLOUD. |
| 22:16 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Sycamore | Montgomery, KS | |
| 22:17 UTC | TORNADO | 1 W Independence | Montgomery, KS | |
| 22:24 UTC | TORNADO | 7 E Elk City | Montgomery, KS | TORNADO OVER ELK CITY LAKE. |
| 22:25 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ne Sycamore | Montgomery, KS | |
| 23:00 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 W Severy | Greenwood, KS | |
| 23:08 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 1 N Climax | Greenwood, KS | |
| 23:08 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 2 W Severy | Greenwood, KS | |
| 23:25 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Fall River | Greenwood, KS | |
| 23:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | Coyville | Wilson, KS | |
| 23:37 UTC | HAIL 2 | Coyville | Wilson, KS | |
| 00:00 UTC | TORNADO | 6 E Buffalo | Wilson, KS | |
| 00:03 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Buffalo | Wilson, KS | TORNADO LASTED 5 MINS. DAMAGE TO A CARPORT AND TREE DAMAGE. |
| 00:03 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Buffalo | Wilson, KS | THE TORNADO LASTED FOR 5 MINUTES. |
| 00:03 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nnw Chanute | Allen, KS | |
| 01:48 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 5 N Galesburg | Neosho, 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
The other tornadoes of March 30, 2006
25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 30 | 1:25 PM CST | F0 | Reno, KS | 3.0 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| March 30 | 2:13 PM CST | F1 | Marion, KS | 6.0 | 75 | 1 | $70,000 | |
| March 30 | 2:18 PM CST | F0 | Stephens, OK | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| March 30 | 2:23 PM CST | F0 | Butler, NE | 0.5 | 440 | |||
| March 30 | 2:29 PM CST | F0 | Colfax, NE | 0.5 | 440 | |||
| March 30 | 3:35 PM CST | F0 | Saunders, NE | 0.3 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| March 30 | 3:50 PM CST | F0 | Wilson, KS | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| March 30 | 3:55 PM CST | F0 | Woodbury, IA | 0.5 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| March 30 | 4:00 PM CST | F0 | Sarpy, NE | 3.0 | 150 | |||
| March 30 | 4:04 PM CST | F1 | Brown, KS | 3.0 | 100 | $350,000 | ||
| March 30 | 4:06 PM CST | F2 | Montgomery, KS | 16.0 | 125 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| March 30 | 5:57 PM CST | F0 | Union, IA | 0.2 | 30 | $40,000 | ||
| March 30 | 6:00 PM CST | F0 | Woodson, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 30 | 6:00 PM CST | F0 | Union, IA | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| March 30 | 6:03 PM CST | F0 | Allen, KS | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| March 30 | 6:04 PM CST | F0 | Dallas, IA | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| March 30 | 7:10 PM CST | F2 | Andrew, MO | 5.0 | 800 | 8 | $800,000 | |
| March 30 | 7:15 PM CST | F0 | Cooke, TX | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| March 30 | 8:10 PM CST | F0 | Harrison, MO | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| March 30 | 8:20 PM CST | F0 | Johnson, MO | 9.0 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| March 30 | 8:28 PM CST | F1 | Pettis, MO | 13.6 | 75 | 1 | $450,000 | |
| March 30 | 8:30 PM CST | F0 | Grayson, TX | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| March 30 | 8:36 PM CST | F0 | Grayson, TX | 0.1 | 10 | $10,000 | ||
| March 30 | 10:55 PM CST | F1 | Pike, IL | 4.5 | 200 | |||
| March 30 | 11:10 PM CST | F1 | Pike, IL | 2.7 | 250 |
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.