Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Winona, Kansas, June 5, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Logan County on June 5, 2015, touching down at 9:30 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 5, 2015
Touchdown
9:30 PM CDT (02:30 UTC)
Lifted
9:31 PM CDT (02:31 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Logan County
Touchdown point
39.068, -101.209
Lift-off point
39.067, -101.207
Record number
1506052030-01

What the Weather Service recorded

During the evening severe thunderstorms moved across Northwest Kansas. A large tornado occurred in northern Logan county. The largest hail reported was golf ball near Winona. Late in the evening heavy rainfall caused flooding to occur south west of Atwood in the South Beaver river valley where water was estimated to be a foot deep over the road at the intersection of Road 15 and Road M.5.

A large tornado moved ENE from just east of Winona and crossed to the south side of Highway 40. The tornado then moved in a NNE direction, again crossing Highway 40 near Page City. No tornado damage was reported by the emergency manager, but in Page City a large shed was damaged by downburst winds.

A brief satellite tornado was observed just northwest of a larger tornado. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:55 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:44 UTC and running to 04:27 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:44 UTC04:27 UTCTornado WatchGLD
01:43 UTC02:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
01:55 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningGLD
02:02 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
02:27 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD
02:45 UTC03:30 UTCTornado 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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), 00:00Z

2.5 hours before the tornado, 184 km from the path. June 6, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2015-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 584 joules per kilogram, CIN -124, lifted condensation level 2194 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 2015-06-06The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
584 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-124 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2083 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2194 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

9.5 hours after it, 184 km from the path. June 6, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 190 joules per kilogram, CIN -167, lifted condensation level 1273 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 2015-06-06The 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 130 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
190 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-167 J/kg
Surface CAPE
56 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1273 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:32 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
00:43 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Wnw ColbyThomas, KS
01:05 UTCTORNADO8 N ColbyThomas, KS
01:15 UTCHAIL 1GoodlandSherman, KSNICKEL TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL
01:15 UTCHAIL 1.753 S GoodlandSherman, KS
01:22 UTCHAIL 1.5GoodlandSherman, KS9TH AND KANSAS IN GOODLAND
02:11 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.399 Nne GoodlandSherman, KS1.39 INCHES OF RAIN IN ABOUT 1 HOUR.
02:20 UTCHAIL 1.751 Ene WinonaLogan, KS
02:24 UTCTORNADOE WinonaLogan, KSQUARTER TO A HALF A MILE EAST OF WINONA.
02:32 UTCTORNADO2 Ne MonumentLogan, KSRELAYED VIA THE SPOTTER NETWORK. LARGE STOVEPIPE TORNADO OBSERVED.
02:32 UTCTORNADO3 Ene WinonaLogan, KSRELAYED VIA THE SPOTTER NETWORK. LARGE STOVEPIPE TORNADO OBSERVED.
02:43 UTCTORNADO1 Nw MonumentLogan, KSLARGE TORNADO ON THE GROUND. RELAYED VIA THE SPOTTER NETWORK.
02:43 UTCTORNADO5 E WinonaLogan, KSLARGE TORNADO ON THE GROUND. RELAYED VIA THE SPOTTER NETWORK.
02:56 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 W MonumentLogan, KSEAST WALL OF SHED IN PAGE CITY BLOWN OUT. SLEEPER BLOWN OFF OLD SEMI. ESTIMATED TIME OF REPORT.
02:56 UTCTORNADO6 W MonumentLogan, KSCONE TORNADO OBSERVED AT COUNTY ROAD 290 AND US 40.
03:08 UTCTORNADO6 Wnw MonumentLogan, KSLARGE CONE TORNADO OBSERVED NEAR COUNTY ROAD 300 AND THE THOMAS/LOGAN 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 2015 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 5, 2015

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 53:24 AM MDTEF2Kit Carson, CO1.5300$30,000
June 51:13 PM MDTEF1Elbert, CO0.650
June 53:15 PM PDTEF1Mineral, NV1.540
June 54:54 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.1100
June 56:20 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO4.5150
June 56:45 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO2.0150
June 59:24 PM CDTEF0Logan, KS8.6100

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.