Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2020

Unrated tornado, Vermillion, Kansas, June 9, 2020

This Unrated tornado ran 0.0 miles across Marshall County on June 9, 2020, touching down at 6:26 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 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
June 9, 2020
Touchdown
6:26 PM CDT (23:26 UTC)
Lifted
6:27 PM CDT (23:27 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Marshall County
Touchdown point
39.790, -96.290
Lift-off point
39.790, -96.290
Record number
2006091726-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms impacted north central Kansas during the late afternoon of June 9th. A rope or needle like tornado was documented in eastern Marshall County. No damage was documented so unknown EF magnitude.

A brief dust whirl was seen under a condensation funnel that appeared like a needle or rope. No damage was documented so the rating will be entered as EFU.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:26 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:36 UTC and running to 00:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:36 UTC00:35 UTCTornado WatchTOP
22:28 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
22:47 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
23:26 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningTOP
23:58 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOP
00:00 UTC08:50 UTCHigh Wind WarningTOP
01:00 UTC08:31 UTCHigh Wind WatchTOP

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 (KTOP), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. June 9, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2020-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 554 joules per kilogram, CIN -237, lifted condensation level 924 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 2020-06-09The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 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
554 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-237 J/kg
Surface CAPE
286 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 104 km from the path. June 10, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2020-06-10Temperature 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 -78682, lifted condensation level 2849 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 00:00Z on 2020-06-10The 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 69 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78682 J/kg
Surface CAPE
598 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2849 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:24 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
23:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 60FrankfortMarshall, KSNUMEROUS TREE LIMBS WERE REPORTED DOWN WITHIN THE CITY, BUT THE SIZES WERE UNKNOWN.
23:26 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 N VermillionMarshall, KSSTORM CHASER WITNESSED NEEDLE TYPE FUNNEL CLOUD. NO TORNADO THAT HE COULD SEE AT THIS TIME.
23:26 UTCTORNADO5 Nnw VermillionMarshall, KSA BRIEF DUST SWIRL WAS SEEN ON THE GROUND UNDER A CONDENSATION FUNNEL.
23:27 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Ese BaileyvilleNemaha, KSSPOTTER LOCATED AT INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 36 AND 187 SEES FUNNEL CLOUD TO THE WEST-SOUTHWEST.
23:31 UTCHAIL 1AxtellMarshall, KS
23:33 UTCHAIL 1AxtellMarshall, KSREPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.).

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 June 9, 2020

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 95:35 PM CDTEF0Renville, MN0.325
June 96:03 PM CDTUnratedJefferson, NE0.11
June 96:24 PM CDTUnratedFord, IL4.475
June 98:32 PM EDTEF0Miami, OH0.575$10,000
June 98:03 PM CDTEF0Holt, MO0.025

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.