Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2010

EF0 tornado, Cunningham, Kansas, May 16, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Kingman County on May 16, 2010, touching down at 10:00 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
May 16, 2010
Touchdown
10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC)
Lifted
10:03 PM CDT (03:03 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kingman County
Touchdown point
37.670, -98.370
Lift-off point
37.664, -98.358
Record number
1005162100-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A vigorous upper level disturbance sparked a handful of strong to severe thunderstorms across portions of central, south-central and southeast Kansas during the late afternoon and evening hours on the 16th. Some of the more notable severe weather reports include baseball size hail near Chetopa in Labette County, and a brief tornado touchdown near Penalosa in Kingman County.

Tornado briefly touched down in an open field.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:43 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:43 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningICT
03:08 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT
03:14 UTC03:38 UTCTornado WarningICT

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 01:01 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), 00:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. May 17, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2010-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 157 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 1626 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 2010-05-17The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
157 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
949 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1626 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 136 km from the path. May 17, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2010-05-17Temperature 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 -95253, lifted condensation level 687 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2010-05-17The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-95253 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
687 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pratt (PTT), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:10 UTC64.455.470° 4 kt1016.3
01:30 UTC64.455.490° 3 kt1016.3
01:50 UTC62.655.40° 0 kt1016.6
02:10 UTC62.655.4140° 5 kt1016.3VCTS
02:30 UTC62.657.2180° 7 kt1016.3VCTS
02:50 UTC60.857.2190° 4 kt1016.6VCTS
03:10 UTC62.655.490° 4 kt1017.6VCTS
03:30 UTC62.655.480° 4 kt1017.9TS
03:50 UTC5953.660° 5 kt1018.6VCTS
04:10 UTC5955.450° 9 kt1018.6
04:30 UTC5955.460° 5 kt1018.6
04:50 UTC57.255.430° 5 kt1018.6

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

The radar

The Wichita radar (KICT), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:00 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
01:48 UTCHAIL 0.881 N St. JohnStafford, KS
01:52 UTCHAIL 0.75St. JohnStafford, KS
02:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Nw PrestonPratt, KS
02:25 UTCHAIL 14 Wsw NeolaStafford, KS
02:33 UTCTORNADO1 N PrestonPratt, KS
02:44 UTCHAIL 12 N PlevnaReno, KSWIND WAS ESTIMATED AT 40 TO 50 MPH.
03:00 UTCHAIL 1Wnw PenalosaKingman, KS
03:00 UTCTORNADO4 Sw PenalosaKingman, KSFUNNEL CLOUD WAS 80 PERCENT TO THE GROUND.
03:06 UTCHAIL 0.882 W ArlingtonReno, KSNICKEL HAIL AND 30MPH WINDS WITH HEAVY RAIN
03:31 UTCHAIL 15 N KingmanKingman, KSNICKEL TO QUARTER HAIL COVERING THE GROUND
03:40 UTCHAIL 0.883 Nne KingmanKingman, KS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 2010

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1611:30 AM CDTEF0Sebastian, AR0.150
May 163:14 PM MDTEF0Dundy, NE0.310
May 166:13 PM CDTEF0Dunklin, MO0.825
May 169:33 PM CDTEF0Pratt, KS0.350

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.