Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Edna, Kansas, June 12, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Labette County on June 12, 2015, touching down at 3:25 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
June 12, 2015
Touchdown
3:25 PM CDT (20:25 UTC)
Lifted
3:27 PM CDT (20:27 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Labette County
Touchdown point
37.110, -95.390
Lift-off point
37.118, -95.375
Record number
1506121425-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ICT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • Brief touchdown in open country.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

Storms across the far sections of Southeast Kansas produced one tornado and several funnel clouds. Wind gusts to 65 mph were also noted.

A weak rope tornado briefly touched down in open country and did not cause any damage. The tornado width was 50 yards.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:24 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:13 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT
20:24 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningICT
20:31 UTC12:43 UTCFlood WarningICT
20:47 UTC21:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT
00:00 UTC09:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchICT
04:08 UTC04:32 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 20:01 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

8.4 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. June 12, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1078 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 878 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-12The 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 74 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
1078 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
776 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
878 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

3.6 hours after it, 143 km from the path. June 13, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1469 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1397 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-06-13The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1469 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2453 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1397 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:27 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
20:25 UTCTORNADO4 Nnw EdnaLabette, KSLANDSPOUT TORNADO OBSERVED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AND A HANDFUL OF CITIZENS.
20:41 UTCTSTM WND GST 60S EdnaLabette, KSTWO FUNNELS WERE ALSO REPORTED JUST NORTHWEST OF HIS LOCATION.
20:54 UTCTSTM WND GST 653 N OswegoLabette, KS
21:17 UTCTSTM WND GST 55OswegoLabette, KS
21:20 UTCFLASH FLOODMccuneCrawford, KSK126 HIGHWAY UNDER WATER JUST NORTH OF MCCUNE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 12, 2015

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 123:18 PM CDTEF0Deaf Smith, TX0.250
June 126:34 PM CDTEF0Gaines, TX0.5100

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.