Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 1993

F0 tornado, Washington, Missouri, September 13, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Franklin County on September 13, 1993, touching down at 6:45 PM CDT and reaching 43 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 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 13, 1993
Touchdown
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
43 yards (39 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
38.530, -91.030
Record number
1062

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado produced a 2-mile-track of minor damage to a few homes and trees southwest of Washington along County Road A. Damage was mainly to roofs and was not continuous.

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

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.

Paducah/Barkley, KY (KPAH), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 261 km from the path. September 13, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 12:00Z on 1993-09-13Temperature 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 -4892, lifted condensation level 1262 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, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 12:00Z on 1993-09-13The 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 35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4892 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1262 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Paducah/Barkley, KY (KPAH), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 261 km from the path. September 14, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 00:00Z on 1993-09-14Temperature 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 -160, lifted condensation level 1598 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, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 00:00Z on 1993-09-14The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-160 J/kg
Surface CAPE
25 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1598 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

St. Louis/Spirit (SUS), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 13, 1993

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 136:50 AM CDTF1Barron, WI0.350$50,000 to $500,000
September 137:10 AM CDTF1Johnson, TX13.01502$5 million to $50 million
September 137:40 AM CDTF1Price, WI0.330$500 to $5,000
September 138:10 AM CDTF2Tarrant, TX8.0100$500,000 to $5 million
September 138:37 AM CDTF2Tarrant, TX2.01005$500,000 to $5 million
September 139:00 AM CDTF1Tarrant, TX6.080$50,000 to $500,000
September 139:23 AM CDTF1Denton, TX13.0100$50,000 to $500,000
September 1310:45 AM CDTF0Denton, TX0.110
September 1311:00 AM CDTF1Denton, TX0.51001$50,000 to $500,000
September 1311:10 AM CDTF0Collin, TX0.110
September 132:00 PM CDTF1McLennan, TX6.0100$50,000 to $500,000
September 132:30 PM CDTF0McClain, OK0.123
September 134:28 PM CDTF0Johnston, OK1.530$500 to $5,000
September 135:08 PM CDTF1Crawford, MO8.073$50,000 to $500,000
September 135:27 PM CDTF0Crawford, MO0.330$500 to $5,000
September 135:31 PM CDTF1Franklin, MO12.060$50,000 to $500,000
September 135:45 PM CDTF1Okfuskee, OK25.073$5,000 to $50,000
September 136:07 PM CDTF0Franklin, MO0.330$500 to $5,000
September 137:06 PM CDTF0Crawford, MO0.440$500 to $5,000
September 137:25 PM CDTF0Crawford, MO0.650$500 to $5,000
September 138:18 PM CDTF0Stephens, TX0.110$5,000 to $50,000
September 138:40 PM CDTF0Stephens, TX2.0100$5,000 to $50,000

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.