Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2014

EF0 tornado, Lake Mc Kinney to Deerfield, Kansas, June 6, 2014

From Lake Mc Kinney to Deerfield, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Kearny County on June 6, 2014, touching down at 6:59 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
June 6, 2014
Touchdown
6:59 PM CDT (23:59 UTC)
Lifted
7:02 PM CDT (00:02 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kearny County
Touchdown point
38.010, -101.130
Lift-off point
38.014, -101.115
Record number
1406061759-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe weather occurred during the late afternoon and evening.

This was a brief tornado.

A brief cone shaped tornado was reported briefly.

This tornado did not strike anything.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:48 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:22 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:03 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
22:22 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WatchDDC
22:44 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:42 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDC
23:48 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningDDC
00:09 UTC01:00 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

12.0 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. June 6, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2014-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 110 joules per kilogram, CIN -354, lifted condensation level 1669 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 2014-06-06The 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 -35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
110 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-354 J/kg
Surface CAPE
812 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1669 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. June 7, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2014-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 858 joules per kilogram, CIN -118, lifted condensation level 1660 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 2014-06-07The 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 238 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
858 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-118 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1391 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1660 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
238 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
464 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
7.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Garden_city (GCK), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:04 UTC7467130° 14 kt1010.8
22:35 UTC7362140° 24 kt321010.8VCTS
22:52 UTC69.862.6140° 20 kt291011.5-TSRA
22:54 UTC6961140° 18 kt291012.2-TSRA
23:19 UTC6661110° 17 kt1011.5VCTS -RA
23:29 UTC6561120° 16 kt1010.8
23:37 UTC6661120° 15 kt1010.8TS
23:54 UTC676090° 13 kt1010.5-TSRA
00:54 UTC6460 1011.9-TSRA BR
00:56 UTC6158220° 19 kt1011.9TSRA BR
01:13 UTC6261280° 19 kt241011.2TSRA BR
01:17 UTC6361310° 17 kt1011.5VCTS -RA BR
01:23 UTC6361330° 18 kt1010.8-RA
01:40 UTC646230° 23 kt281010.2
01:54 UTC636150° 21 kt341010.2

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:58 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
22:05 UTCHAIL 1.2510 Sse SyracuseHamilton, KS
22:35 UTCHAIL 17 Ese SyracuseHamilton, KSQUARTER SIZE HAIL WAS COVERING THE GROUND.
22:56 UTCHAIL 0.883 Nne KendallKearny, KS
23:00 UTCHAIL 16 S SyracuseHamilton, KSTHE HAIL SIZE REPORTED VARIED FROM DIME TO QUARTER SIZE.
23:01 UTCHAIL 18 Sse SyracuseHamilton, KS
23:47 UTCTORNADO5 W DeerfieldKearny, KS
23:58 UTCTORNADOW DeerfieldKearny, KSSPOTTER REPORTED BRIEF SMALL CONE TORNADO LESS THAN ONE MILE WEST OF DEERFIELD.
23:59 UTCTORNADO2 N DeerfieldKearny, KSMULTIPLE SIGHTINGS, MOVING EAST.
00:06 UTCTSTM WND DMGUlyssesGrant, KSSEVERAL TREES BLOWN DOWN IN THE CITY OF ULYSSES.
00:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 606 Nw HickokGrant, KS
00:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 653 Nw PiercevilleFinney, KSWIND GUST SPEED WAS ESTIMATED 60 TO 70 MPH DRIVING ALONG HIGHWAY 50 AT THIS LOCATION.

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 6, 2014

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 612:05 PM MDTEF0Sheridan, NE0.240
June 61:00 PM MDTEF0Cherry, NE0.240
June 62:35 PM CDTEF1Independence, AR3.3752$250,000
June 61:51 PM MDTEF1Las Animas, CO8.64001$5,000
June 61:55 PM MDTEF0Kimball, NE0.925
June 61:56 PM MDTEF0Weld, CO0.150
June 63:00 PM CDTEF1Jackson, AR2.050$40,000
June 62:20 PM MDTEF0Weld, CO0.5100
June 62:46 PM MDTEF1Las Animas, CO1.4100$3,000
June 62:53 PM MDTEF0Sedgwick, CO0.1100
June 64:25 PM MDTEF0Colfax, NM0.8100
June 65:35 PM MDTEF0Curry, NM1.250
June 66:47 PM CDTEF0Kearny, KS0.525
June 66:58 PM CDTEF0Kearny, KS0.625
June 67:15 PM CDTEF0Hartley, TX2.525
June 68:46 PM EDTEF0Bamberg, SC0.840$4,000
June 67:52 PM CDTEF0Ochiltree, TX1.670

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.