Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2017

EF0 tornado, Salina, Kansas, June 26, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 6.9 miles across Saline County on June 26, 2017, touching down at 6:20 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 26, 2017
Touchdown
6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)
Lifted
6:22 PM CDT (23:22 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
6.9 miles (11.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Saline County
Touchdown point
38.897, -97.564
Lift-off point
38.830, -97.470
Record number
1706261720-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms quickly developed over Saline County early in the evening. The first severe thunderstorm spawned a tornado 5 miles north/northeast of Salina where a couple tractor trailers were flipped over on I-70 at the Ohio Street Interchange. As the severe thunderstorms surged south/southeast, they became prolific damaging wind producers with speeds that frequently reached around 70 mph.

Tractor trailers were flipped on I-70 at the Ohio Street Interchange. The time of the report is an approximation. The public reported the tornado to dispatch when east of Salina.

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
23:36 UTC23:55 UTCTornado WarningICT
23:49 UTC00:02 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 Slight Risk. 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.

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. June 26, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2017-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -83680, lifted condensation level 2264 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2017-06-26The 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 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83680 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2264 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 163 km from the path. June 27, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2017-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 32 joules per kilogram, CIN -101, lifted condensation level 1194 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2017-06-27The 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 25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-101 J/kg
Surface CAPE
250 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1194 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:21 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
23:20 UTCTORNADO1 N SalinaSaline, KSTRACTOR TRAILERS FLIPPED AT INTERSTATE 70 AND OHIO STREET. TIME IS APPROXIMATED. PUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO TO DISPATCH WHEN EAST OF SALINA.
23:20 UTCTORNADO5 Nne SalinaSaline, KSTRACTOR TRAILERS FLIPPED AT INTERSTATE 70 AND OHIO STREET. TIME IS APPROXIMATED. PUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO TO DISPATCH WHEN EAST OF SALINA.
23:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGSalinaSaline, KSDELAYED REPORT OF TREE DAMAGE AT THE SALINA COUNTRY CLUB WITH LIMBS AS LARGE AS POSSIBLY A FOOT IN DIAMETER BROKEN OFF. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM PREVIOUS REPORTS AND RADAR.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 61GypsumSaline, KS
00:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 60HillsboroMarion, KS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

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.