Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2000

F1 tornado, North Kansas City, Missouri, May 11, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Clay County on May 11, 2000, touching down at 11:25 PM CDT and reaching 350 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5.0 million 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 11, 2000
Touchdown
11:25 PM CDT (04:25 UTC)
Path length
4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Path width
350 yards (320 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5.0 million
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
39.180, -94.580
Lift-off point
39.180, -94.530
Record number
260

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms that developed explosively in eastern Kansas tracked into western Missouri. While early evening storms were hail producers, a late night thunderstorm on the north side of Kansas City spawned a short lived tornado, which produced millions of dollars in damage in Kansas City's "Northland."

The tornado formed rapidly in southwest Clay County in Kansas City, MO, causing considerable damage to two auto dealerships at 39th and North Oak Trafficway. A nearby apartment complex suffered roof damage. Many trees and power lines were downed as the tornado moved east, lifting near Parvin Road and Chouteau Trafficway.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:25 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:17 UTC04:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEAX
04:11 UTC05:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEAX
04:25 UTC05:15 UTCTornado WarningEAX

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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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), 00:00Z

4.4 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. May 12, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2000-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4491 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 1450 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 2000-05-12The 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 181 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
4491 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6455 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1450 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
232 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.3
Supercell composite
30.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

7.6 hours after it, 96 km from the path. May 12, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2000-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 611 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2000-05-12The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
450 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
11.5
0-3 km lapse rate
2.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:27 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 11, 2000

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 114:58 AM CDTF0Hutchinson, SD0.350$10,000
May 114:35 PM PDTF0Clark, WA0.950$10,000
May 116:45 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA0.330
May 117:03 PM CDTF3Black Hawk, IA18.6210125$1.8 million
May 117:55 PM CDTF2Black Hawk, IA3.6120$350,000
May 118:19 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110$2,000
May 118:20 PM CDTF2Black Hawk, IA5.0150$300,000
May 118:20 PM CDTF1Buchanan, IA8.0330$1.5 million
May 118:45 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA5.5220$50,000
May 118:53 PM CDTF0Jefferson, KS1.040$1,000
May 119:27 PM CDTF1Jefferson, KS24.0260$2.7 million

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.