Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2013

EF0 tornado, Johnson, Kansas, July 10, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Stanton County on July 10, 2013, touching down at 3:03 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
July 10, 2013
Touchdown
3:03 PM CDT (20:03 UTC)
Lifted
3:08 PM CDT (20:08 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stanton County
Touchdown point
37.679, -101.761
Lift-off point
37.677, -101.760
Record number
1307101403-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few severe thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and evening.

A weak landspout lasted about 5 minutes but did not cause any damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:29 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:29 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchDDC
22:03 UTC22:48 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC

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. 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 164 km from the path. July 10, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2013-07-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 200 joules per kilogram, CIN -362, lifted condensation level 1680 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 2013-07-10The 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 50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
200 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-362 J/kg
Surface CAPE
219 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1680 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 164 km from the path. July 11, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2013-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1520 joules per kilogram, CIN -48, lifted condensation level 2070 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 2013-07-11The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
1520 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-48 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2094 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2070 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Elkhart (EHA), 76 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:08 UTC9460150° 8 kt
18:28 UTC9460100° 7 kt
18:48 UTC9560120° 5 kt
19:08 UTC9659.18130° 9 kt
19:28 UTC9760140° 9 kt
19:48 UTC9758100° 9 kt
20:08 UTC9859.18150° 5 kt
20:28 UTC985890° 3 kt
20:48 UTC9956.12100° 9 kt
21:08 UTC9857100° 6 kt
21:28 UTC10056.12100° 12 kt
21:48 UTC9859.18140° 7 kt

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 158 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:03 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
22:03 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD7 N Johnson CityStanton, KSTHIS EVENT WAS REPORTED AS A LANDSPOUT, LASTING LESS THAN 5 MINUTES, AND WAS NEARLY STATIONARY. THE LOCATION WAS IN EXTREME NORTHERN STANTON COUNTY, NEAR THE HAMILTON COUNTY LINE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 10, 2013

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 101:28 PM EDTEF1Miami, IN3.52002
July 102:24 PM EDTEF0Seneca, OH10.250$200,000
July 103:13 PM EDTEF0Sandusky, OH0.850$250,000
July 103:56 PM EDTEF0Ashland, OH1.015$75,000
July 104:42 PM EDTEF1Lawrence, PA1.2250$100,000
July 104:44 PM EDTEF1Tuscarawas, OH13.3300$80,000
July 105:07 PM EDTEF1Carroll, OH9.1150$25,000
July 104:20 PM CDTEF1, CT10.9100$50,000

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.