Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2011

EF1 tornado, Laird, Kansas, June 16, 2011

This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Ness County on June 16, 2011, touching down at 5:52 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $22,000 of property damage.

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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
June 16, 2011
Touchdown
5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)
Lifted
5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$22,000
County
Ness County
Touchdown point
38.340, -100.070
Lift-off point
38.349, -100.055
Record number
1106161652-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A slow moving upper level short wave trough helped to produced scattered thunderstorms in the evening.

There was minor damage to a home and moderate damage to a large metal outbuilding.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:52 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:53 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:53 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchDDC
22:13 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:33 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:52 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC
23:10 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:27 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
01:21 UTC01:42 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
02:38 UTC07:01 UTCWind AdvisoryDDC

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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

10.9 hours before the tornado, 65 km from the path. June 16, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2011-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2230 joules per kilogram, CIN -375, lifted condensation level 1600 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 2011-06-16The 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 283 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2230 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-375 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1472 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1600 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
283 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
516 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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
22:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 703 N HowellFord, KS
22:52 UTCTORNADO10 Se BeelerNess, KSTHE TORNADO ENDED AT 555PM CDT. AT 38.349N AND 100.055W. MINOR DAMAGE WAS DONE TO A RESIDENTIAL HOUSE AND MODERATE DAMAGE TO A LARGE METAL OUTBUILDING.
23:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 609 S DightonLane, KS
23:27 UTCHAIL 13 Se BazineNess, KS
23:35 UTCHAIL 0.75Ene AlexanderRush, KS
23:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 Nnw BurdettPawnee, KS
01:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 653 S BurdettPawnee, KS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 2011

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 161:49 PM CDTEF0Desha, AR0.320

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.