Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2020

Unrated tornado, Horace to Tribune Arpt, Kansas, August 14, 2020

From Horace to Tribune Arpt, this Unrated tornado ran 1.2 miles across Greeley County on August 14, 2020, touching down at 3:30 PM MDT 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 mph

    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. 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
August 14, 2020
Touchdown
3:30 PM MDT (21:30 UTC)
Lifted
3:36 PM MDT (21:36 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
1.2 miles (2.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Greeley County
Touchdown point
38.406, -101.920
Lift-off point
38.397, -101.939
Record number
2008141530-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A thunderstorm developed along a boundary in Greeley County Kansas. As is all to typical in the High Plains, a couple landspout tornadoes were able to form. The landspouts last a few minutes and traversed a relatively small area. No know damage was reported with these tornadoes.

Brief landspout reported. Tornado lasted about 6 minutes.

Greeley county dispatch reported an ongoing tornado. Officer reported the tornado as becoming rain-wrapped and widening at the base. According to dispatch, the tornado dissipated around 3 minutes later.

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
21:55 UTC22:30 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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), 12:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. August 14, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2020-08-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1224 joules per kilogram, CIN -447, lifted condensation level 1761 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2020-08-14The 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 49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
1224 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-447 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2226 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1761 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 191 km from the path. August 15, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2020-08-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3227 joules per kilogram, CIN -169, lifted condensation level 1585 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2020-08-15The 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 8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
3227 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-169 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5025 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1585 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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
20:05 UTCEXCESSIVE HEAT 10511 S Sharon SpringsWallace, KSMESONET STATION EW7715 11 S SHARON SPRINGS.
21:30 UTCTORNADO8 Sw HoraceGreeley, KSBRIEF LANDSPOUT REPORTED LASTING ABOUT 6 MIN.
21:49 UTCTORNADO5 Sw HoraceGreeley, KSGREELEY COUNTY DISPATCH REPORTED AN ONGOING TORNADO ON THE GROUND 4-5 MILES W OF THE LOCATION OF THE REPORT. OFFICER REPORTED THE TORNADO BECOMING RAIN-WRAPPED AND WIDENING AT THE BASE. ACCORDING TO DISPATCH, THE TORNADO
22:20 UTCHAIL 1.2515 N CoolidgeHamilton, KS
22:25 UTCTORNADO11 N CoolidgeHamilton, KSNWS EMPLOYEE REPORTED A LANDSPOUT TORNADO.
22:26 UTCHAIL 112 N CoolidgeHamilton, KS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 14, 2020

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 143:37 PM CDTEF0Grant, MN4.050
August 143:38 PM CDTEF0Grant, MN0.430
August 143:39 PM CDTEF0Grant, MN1.040
August 143:42 PM CDTEF2Grant, MN13.4150
August 143:50 PM CDTEF1Grant, MN1.7150
August 144:17 PM CDTEF0Pope, MN1.275$2,000
August 144:34 PM CDTEF0Nobles, MN0.010$10,000
August 144:45 PM CDTEF0Douglas, MN0.650
August 143:49 PM MDTUnratedGreeley, KS1.3100
August 144:53 PM CDTEF1Todd, MN5.9200$25,000
August 144:57 PM CDTEF0Todd, MN1.1125$10,000
August 145:12 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, NE2.130$1,000
August 145:34 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, NE0.835$30,000
August 145:36 PM CDTEF0Clay, NE1.235$30,000
August 145:37 PM CDTEF0Kandiyohi, MN6.650$100,000
August 145:41 PM CDTEF0Morrison, MN5.7200$50,000
August 145:44 PM CDTEF0McLeod, MN2.2300$100,000
August 145:45 PM CDTEF0Kandiyohi, MN7.385
August 145:47 PM CDTEF0Morrison, MN1.365
August 145:49 PM CDTEF1Kandiyohi, MN3.550$250,000
August 145:50 PM CDTEF1McLeod, MN2.4250$250,000
August 145:53 PM CDTEF0Clay, NE0.125
August 146:09 PM CDTEF0Morrison, MN2.9150
August 146:27 PM CDTEF0Meeker, MN0.925
August 146:49 PM CDTEF0Carver, MN0.375$50,000
August 146:57 PM CDTEF1Aitkin, MN1.5100
August 147:10 PM CDTEF1Carlton, MN2.7150
August 147:12 PM CDTEF0Carlton, MN2.0100
August 147:32 PM CDTEF0Hennepin, MN0.465$1,000
August 147:55 PM CDTEF0Hennepin, MN0.450$250,000

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.