Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2018

EF0 tornado, Mc Louth Arpt, Kansas, June 30, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Jefferson County on June 30, 2018, touching down at 11:11 PM CDT and reaching 40 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 30, 2018
Touchdown
11:11 PM CDT (04:11 UTC)
Lifted
11:12 PM CDT (04:12 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jefferson County
Touchdown point
39.183, -95.257
Lift-off point
39.185, -95.255
Record number
1806302211-01

The damage survey

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

  • Open to the south, much of the roof peeled off and it laying to the NNE of the building.
  • Top of tree snapped, possibly by debris from outbuilding to south.
  • Another view of the outbuilding. Roof in pieces to the NNE.
  • Corn going north,may be an eddy

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

A brief weak tornado occurred on the evening of Saturday June 30th over Jefferson county. It damaged one farmstead including minor damage to outbuildings. The tornado was virtually invisible on radar and quite honestly may have been invisible on the ground too with no damage to corn to the south or northeast of the farm noted.

This was a narrow swath of 70-80 mph winds that caused damage to a farmstead and scattered debris up to 2/3rds of a mile to the northeast. Several outbuildings in various stages of decay were damaged. A 2x4 wood piece was driven into the siding of the home. The corn to the south and northeast of the home were untouched at least to visible inspection. A mystery.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:04 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTOP
02:34 UTC05:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningTOP
02:59 UTC03:27 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP

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 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.

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 00:00Z

4.2 hours before the tornado, 39 km from the path. July 1, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2018-07-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2767 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1490 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 2018-07-01The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
2767 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4442 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KFOE), 12:00Z

7.8 hours after it, 39 km from the path. July 1, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2018-07-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 140 joules per kilogram, CIN -233, lifted condensation level 893 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 12:00Z on 2018-07-01The 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 10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
140 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-233 J/kg
Surface CAPE
315 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
893 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:10 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
01:13 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Wsw Bonner SpringsLeavenworth, KSTWO FOOT DIAMETER TREE DOWN OVER STILLWELL ROAD.
01:13 UTCHAIL 1De SotoJohnson, KS
02:35 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 Nne PotterAtchison, KSSHERIFF'S OFFICE REPORTS WATER OVER SHERMAN ROAD AT WALNUT CREEK.
02:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sse TopekaShawnee, KSA 20 INCH DIAMETER TREE FELL ON A HOUSE AND TOOK DOWN A POWER LINE.
02:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Wnw LawrenceDouglas, KSSMALL TREE LIMBS DOWN.
03:03 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ene WilliamstownJefferson, KSMULTIPLE TREE LIMBS DOWN.
03:03 UTCTSTM WND GST 702 N LawrenceDouglas, KS
03:13 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W MclouthJefferson, KSSIGNIFICANT DAMAGE AT A FARM, INCLUDING RIPPED OFF SHEET METAL. 1 TO 2 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES SNAPPED OFF.
04:02 UTCFLASH FLOODPotterAtchison, KSSHERIFF'S OFFICE/DISPATCH REPORTS NUMEROUS ROADS CLOSED/FLOODED IN POTTER. STRANGER CREEK IS OUT OF IT'S BANKS.
04:59 UTCFLASH FLOODEastonLeavenworth, KSRELAYED BY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, SEVERAL ROADS NORTH OF EASTON HAVE RUNNING WATER OVER THEM FROM RAINFALL RUNOFF.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 30, 2018

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 303:40 PM CDTEF0Phelps, NE0.050
June 304:02 PM CDTEF0Phelps, NE0.550
June 306:10 PM CDTEF0Saline, NE0.850
June 306:12 PM CDTEF1Saline, NE1.4200
June 3012:19 AM CDTEF0Saline, NE0.220

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.