Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1959

F0 tornado, Barton County, Missouri, September 26, 1959

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Barton County on September 26, 1959, touching down at 1:05 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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
F0
Date
September 26, 1959
Touchdown
1:05 PM GMT-5 (18:05 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Barton County
Touchdown point
37.570, -94.280
Record number
530

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

6.1 hours before the tornado, 198 km from the path. September 26, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 1959-09-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1748 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 618 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 1959-09-26The 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 318 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1748 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1877 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
618 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
318 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
354 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.6
Supercell composite
9.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

5.9 hours after it, 198 km from the path. September 27, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 1959-09-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 525 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 1557 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 1959-09-27The 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 57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
525 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
679 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1557 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1959 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 26, 1959

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 269:00 AM GMT-5F1Andrew, MO0.2103$500 to $5,000
September 269:00 AM GMT-5F1Gentry, MO1.950$5,000 to $50,000
September 269:07 AM GMT-5F1Andrew, MO0.210$500 to $5,000
September 2610:20 AM GMT-5F2Mercer, MO5.450$5,000 to $50,000
September 262:05 PM GMT-5F2Carroll, IL3.340$5,000 to $50,000
September 263:45 PM GMT-5F4Wright, MO7.8100$50,000 to $500,000
September 264:15 PM GMT-5F1Brown, IL18.810$50,000 to $500,000
September 264:17 PM GMT-5F2Warren, IL4.93001$50,000 to $500,000
September 264:30 PM GMT-5F2Henry, IL12.910$50,000 to $500,000
September 264:45 PM GMT-5F2Stark, IL1.940$5,000 to $50,000
September 265:30 PM GMT-5F1Lee, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
September 265:50 PM GMT-5F2LaSalle, IL5.110$5,000 to $50,000
September 266:00 PM GMT-5F1Boone, IL3.010$5,000 to $50,000
September 266:45 PM GMT-5F2DuPage, IL9.310$50,000 to $500,000
September 265:00 PM GMT-7F2Madison, ID1.010$5,000 to $50,000
September 267:00 PM GMT-5F1Lake, IL12.11014$50,000 to $500,000
September 267:20 PM GMT-5F3Mississippi, AR to TN35.266721$50,000 to $500,000
September 267:28 PM GMT-5F2Milwaukee, WI1.5333$50,000 to $500,000
September 267:30 PM GMT-5F1Racine, WI19.4502$50,000 to $500,000
September 268:00 PM GMT-5F1Perry, IL0.3130$500 to $5,000
September 268:30 PM GMT-5F1Kendall, IL3.010$5,000 to $50,000
September 2612:30 AM GMT-5F1Bartholomew, IN0.110$500 to $5,000

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.