Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2022
Unrated tornado, Oberlin to Kanona, Kansas, June 4, 2022
From Oberlin to Kanona, this Unrated tornado ran 3.3 miles across Decatur County on June 4, 2022, touching down at 9:01 PM CDT and reaching 75 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 4, 2022
- Touchdown
- 9:01 PM CDT (02:01 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:04 PM CDT (02:04 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 3.3 miles (5.3 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Decatur County
- Touchdown point
- 39.801, -100.505
- Lift-off point
- 39.774, -100.454
- Record number
- 2206042001-01
What the Weather Service recorded
During the early evening hours, a cluster of storms moved south across the Kansas-Nebraska border into Decatur and Norton counties producing wind gusts up to 72 mph and a brief tornado. Another cluster of storms developed off a boundary over far Northwest Kansas producing up to 60 mph wind gusts and up to golf ball sized hail.
Tornado lasted 2-3 minutes. Located east of Highway 83 and County Road 348. Locations estimated by radar.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:39 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:39 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | GLD |
| 00:55 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 01:41 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 02:16 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 02:28 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 02:43 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:43 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.
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z
2.0 hours before the tornado, 150 km from the path. June 5, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1214 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -26 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2061 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2079 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -5 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 96 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.7 K/km
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z
10.0 hours after it, 150 km from the path. June 5, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 284 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -236 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 907 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 194 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 126 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
The surface observations
Oberlin (OIN), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:15 UTC | 84.7 | 57.4 | 170° 10 kt | 1006.8 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 83.5 | 57.2 | 170° 12 kt | 18 | 1006.4 | |
| 00:55 UTC | 82.4 | 57.7 | 180° 14 kt | 19 | 1005.8 | |
| 01:15 UTC | 78.4 | 60 | 150° 13 kt | 21 | 1005.1 | |
| 01:35 UTC | 75.6 | 61.7 | 50° 11 kt | 31 | 1005.8 | |
| 01:55 UTC | 71.6 | 61.3 | 20° 30 kt | 45 | 1006.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:00 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:51 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | 10 Nw Norcatur | Decatur, KS | SITE HUFF WEATHER STATION. |
| 02:00 UTC | TSTM WND GST 72 | 7 Ne Oberlin | Decatur, KS | KS MESONET SITE REPORTED 10M WIND GUST OF 72 MPH AT LOCATION. |
| 02:01 UTC | TORNADO | 5 S Oberlin | Decatur, KS | TORNADO LASTED 2-3 MINUTES THEN ENDED. LOCATED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 83/ROAD 348. |
| 02:05 UTC | TSTM WND GST 57 | 7 Ne Oberlin | Decatur, KS | MESONET STATION ERLK1 OBERLIN 7NE. |
| 02:11 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 5 N Oberlin | Decatur, KS | DAVIS STATION 9 FEET AGL MEASURED 65 MPH GUST. 60 MPH GUST PRIOR TO THIS AT 9:05 LOCAL TIME. |
| 02:53 UTC | WILDFIRE | 10 N Colby | Thomas, KS | ACTIVE GRASSFIRE REPORTED AT MM207 ON HWY 25. |
| 02:59 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | 5 Nne Seguin | Sheridan, KS | SITE KKSHOXIE16. |
| 02:59 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 1 Nne New Almelo | Norton, KS | SITE KKSCLAYT3. |
| 03:10 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Hoxie | Sheridan, KS | LAW ENFORCEMENT ESTIMATED 60 MPH WINDS AS STORMS MOVED THROUGH TOWN. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 4, 2022
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 4 | 5:08 PM MDT | Unrated | Cheyenne, CO | 0.7 | 50 |
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.