Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1960

F1 tornado, Johnson County, Missouri, May 19, 1960

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Johnson County on May 19, 1960, touching down at 11:15 PM GMT-5 and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 19, 1960
Touchdown
11:15 PM GMT-5 (04:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Johnson County
Touchdown point
38.800, -93.750
Record number
280

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.

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 00:00Z

4.3 hours before the tornado, 134 km from the path. May 20, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1960-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2281 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 1252 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, Columbia Regiona, MO at 00:00Z on 1960-05-20The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
2281 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2750 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1252 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Columbia Regiona, MO (KCOU), 12:00Z

7.7 hours after it, 134 km from the path. May 20, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1960-05-20Temperature 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 -7806, lifted condensation level 1392 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, Columbia Regiona, MO at 12:00Z on 1960-05-20The 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 392 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7806 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1392 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
392 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
478 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Whiteman Afb (SZL), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
03:00 UTC7769160° 4 kt
04:00 UTC7669140° 10 kt
05:00 UTC7369230° 20 kt
06:00 UTC7067250° 11 kt

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1960 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 19, 1960

27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 192:00 AM GMT-5F1Conway, AR8.7417$5,000 to $50,000
May 195:00 PM GMT-5F0Caddo, OK0.110
May 195:00 PM GMT-5F1Caddo, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 195:25 PM GMT-5F2Cleveland, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 195:50 PM GMT-5F0Stephens, OK0.110
May 196:05 PM GMT-5F2Delaware, IN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 196:30 PM GMT-5F4Wabaunsee, KS20.61012$5 million to $50 million
May 196:33 PM GMT-5F0Freeborn, MN0.110
May 196:47 PM GMT-5F4Shawnee, KS27.5880192$500,000 to $5 million
May 197:04 PM GMT-5F3Jefferson, KS11.5101
May 197:30 PM GMT-5F1Richardson, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 197:35 PM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 198:00 PM GMT-5F1Rogers, OK4.550$5,000 to $50,000
May 198:10 PM GMT-5F1Lawrence, MO0.217$500 to $5,000
May 198:20 PM GMT-5F1Muskogee, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 198:22 PM GMT-5F2Wagoner, OK0.110
May 198:30 PM GMT-5F3Jefferson, KS13.3101
May 198:30 PM GMT-5F1Mayes, OK0.110
May 198:40 PM GMT-5F1Neosho, KS2.010$50 to $500
May 199:30 PM GMT-5F0Shawnee, KS0.110under $50
May 199:45 PM GMT-5F2Shawnee, KS4.110$500 to $5,000
May 199:50 PM GMT-5F0Sequoyah, OK0.110
May 1910:00 PM GMT-5F1Barton, MO1.517$5,000 to $50,000
May 1910:00 PM GMT-5F1Cherokee, KS0.110under $50
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F1Linn, MO1.540$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.