Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2014

EF1 tornado, Gove, Kansas, June 29, 2014

This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Gove County on June 29, 2014, touching down at 6:05 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 29, 2014
Touchdown
6:05 AM CDT (11:05 UTC)
Lifted
6:07 AM CDT (11:07 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Gove County
Touchdown point
38.820, -100.560
Lift-off point
38.820, -100.560
Record number
1406290505-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms erupted around midnight south of Interstate 70 and moved southeast overnight. Baseball size hail broke windows in Sherman County, while extremely heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding across Logan and Gove counties. The Smoky Hill River and Hackberry Creek overflowed their banks resulting in minor flooding. A tornado developed around 6 am CDT south of Gove and produced significant damage to a farmstead.

Time estimated from Doppler radar. Two outbuildings heavily damaged and one nearly destroyed. Three hail bales moved. Residence itself sustained minor to no 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:29 UTC07:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
07:35 UTC08:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
08:05 UTC08:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
08:30 UTC09:02 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
08:58 UTC09:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
09:44 UTC10:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
10:11 UTC10:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
10:41 UTC11:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
10:57 UTC14:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningGLD
11:21 UTC12:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD
11:26 UTC12:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
13:55 UTC01:32 UTCFlood WarningGLD
01:26 UTC11:30 UTCFlood WarningGLD

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 05:59 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), 00:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 130 km from the path. June 29, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2014-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 943 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 1251 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2014-06-29The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
943 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2231 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1251 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

0.9 hours after it, 130 km from the path. June 29, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2014-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2435 joules per kilogram, CIN -174, lifted condensation level 1084 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2014-06-29The 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 -41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2435 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-174 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2681 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1084 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
123 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:07 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
10:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD6 Wsw OakleyLogan, KS18 INCHES TO 2 FEET OF WATER OVER ROADS NEAR HIGHWAY 40 ABOUT 6 MILES WEST OF OAKLEY.
11:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Sw GoveGove, KSSUNFLOWER ELECTRIC DOUBLE WOODEN UTILITY POLES EITHER LEANING OR DAMAGED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM DOPPLER RADAR.
11:05 UTCTORNADO11 Ssw GoveGove, KSOUTBUILDINGS HEAVILY DAMAGED/DESTROYED BY APPARENT TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED FROM DOPPLER RADAR. ONE OUTBUILDING COMPLETELY DESTROYED...TWO OTHERS RECEIVED EXTENSIVE WALL/ROOF DAMAGE. 3 HAY BALES MOVED. RESIDENCE RECEIVED
11:07 UTCHAIL 15 Wnw Trego CenterTrego, KS
11:20 UTCHAIL 0.7511 Sw WakeeneyTrego, KS
11:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG13 Sse GoveGove, KSTIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED SIX INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMBS DOWN. RELAYED THROUGH EMERGENCY MANAGER.
11:50 UTCHAIL 0.886 Wsw PendennisLane, KS
12:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 607 Ssw UticaNess, KSA FEW SMALL TREE LIMBS WERE DOWN.
12:25 UTCHAIL 0.7511 E DightonLane, KS
12:25 UTCHAIL 0.887 Ssw UticaNess, KS
12:50 UTCHAIL 0.8811 W Ness CityNess, KS1.25 INCHES OF RAIN WAS ALSO REPORTED.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 29, 2014

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 297:28 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, IA2.040
June 298:08 PM CDTEF0Shelby, IA0.550
June 298:18 PM CDTEF1Grundy, IA1.950$30,000
June 298:25 PM CDTEF1Hardin, IA1.375$1,000
June 299:12 PM CDTEF0Buchanan, MO0.325
June 299:20 PM CDTEF0Shawnee, KS1.630
June 299:55 PM CDTEF1Mercer, MO6.3300
June 2910:00 PM CDTEF1Grant, WI8.2600$410,000
June 2910:18 PM CDTEF2Iowa, WI29.1400$3.5 million
June 2910:26 PM CDTEF2Iowa, WI5.0200$400,000
June 2910:36 PM CDTEF0Jones, IA0.125
June 2911:27 PM CDTEF1Dane, WI2.3500$50,000
June 2912:30 AM CDTEF1Carroll, IL2.2600$50,000
June 2912:45 AM CDTEF1Schuyler, MO4.7300

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.