Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2019
Unrated tornado, Attica to Harper, Kansas, June 23, 2019
From Attica to Harper, this Unrated tornado ran 0.8 miles across Harper County on June 23, 2019, touching down at 3:20 AM 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
Unratedthis tornado
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
- Unrated
- Date
- June 23, 2019
- Touchdown
- 3:20 AM CDT (08:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:22 AM CDT (08:22 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Harper County
- Touchdown point
- 37.200, -98.210
- Lift-off point
- 37.206, -98.197
- Record number
- 1906230220-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Early in the morning on June 23rd, incredibly powerful severe thunderstorms tore through South-Central and Southeast Kansas with destructive winds that reached a hideous 111 mph/97 knots. Prolific damaging wind-producers, the severe thunderstorms caused tremendous damage in Derby, a Southeast Wichita suburb, with sustained speeds measured at 76 mph/66 knots by a Mesonet Wunderground Ambient Weather Station 1 mile northwest of town and where the 111-knot/97-mph gust was also measured just before daybreak. The severe thunderstorms also spawned 2 tornadoes in Harper County.
This was a delayed report from local law enforcement. No damage was noted with this tornado.
This was a very brief touchdown outside of town that did not cause any damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
3 minutes of warning. NWS ICT issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:17 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:31 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:37 UTC and running to 12:01 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:42 UTC | 02:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ICT |
| 21:00 UTC | 20:35 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | ICT |
| 21:55 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 00:40 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 00:46 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ICT |
| 04:30 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ICT |
| 06:37 UTC | 12:01 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ICT |
| 08:01 UTC | 14:21 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ICT |
| 08:02 UTC | 09:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
| 08:17 UTC | 08:31 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 08:39 UTC | 08:59 UTC | Tornado Warning | ICT |
| 09:31 UTC | 09:59 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT |
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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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 surface observations
Medicine_lodge (P28), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:56 UTC | 69 | 64 | 20° 9 kt | 1008.1 | ||
| 07:56 UTC | 66 | 66 | 270° 15 kt | 29 | 1010.2 | |
| 08:03 UTC | 65 | 65 | 350° 8 kt | 27 | 1008.5 | |
| 08:30 UTC | 64 | 64 | 320° 10 kt | 22 | 1009.8 | |
| 08:56 UTC | 63 | 63 | 340° 14 kt | 29 | 1009.5 | |
| 09:56 UTC | 62 | 60 | 340° 13 kt | 22 | 1009.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:21 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:20 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sse Attica | Harper, KS | DELAYED REPORT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT. |
| 08:37 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Harper | Harper, KS | |
| 09:28 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Milan | Sumner, KS |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 23, 2019
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 23 | 2:36 AM CDT | EF0 | Logan, AR | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 23 | 3:37 AM CDT | Unrated | Harper, KS | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| June 23 | 5:49 AM CDT | EF0 | Logan, AR | 0.1 | 25 | $15,000 | ||
| June 23 | 4:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Carlisle, KY | 0.9 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| June 23 | 4:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Carlisle, KY | 0.1 | 150 | $5,000 | ||
| June 23 | 4:33 PM CDT | EF1 | McCracken, KY | 17.3 | 150 | $505,000 | ||
| June 23 | 5:02 PM CDT | EF1 | Livingston, KY | 0.5 | 140 | $100,000 | ||
| June 23 | 5:07 PM CDT | EF1 | Livingston, KY | 0.8 | 125 | $20,000 | ||
| June 23 | 5:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Pope, IL | 2.8 | 120 | $40,000 | ||
| June 23 | 5:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Marshall, KY | 0.2 | 50 | $1.0 million | ||
| June 23 | 8:32 PM EDT | EF0 | Saint Joseph, IN | 0.5 | 10 | |||
| June 23 | 8:38 PM EDT | EF0 | Saint Joseph, IN | 2.0 | 250 |
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.