Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2006
F0 tornado, Vibbard, Missouri, April 15, 2006
This F0 tornado ran 10.1 miles across Ray County on April 15, 2006, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 15, 2006
- Touchdown
- 9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.1 miles (16.3 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Ray County
- Touchdown point
- 39.380, -94.150
- Lift-off point
- 39.470, -94.020
- Record number
- 388
What the Weather Service recorded
Tornado was on the ground from near Vibbard to 1 mile north of Knoxville. Only damage was where a roof was blown off a house and into the road, along with tree and power line damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
19 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:56 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:28 UTC and running to 03:16 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:28 UTC | 03:16 UTC | Tornado Watch | EAX |
| 01:56 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
| 02:22 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | EAX |
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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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
2.3 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. April 16, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1495 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -85 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1743 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1459 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 71 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 439 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 519 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.1
- Supercell composite
- 8.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.1 K/km
Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z
9.7 hours after it, 142 km from the path. April 16, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -66577 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1451 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 59 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 52 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 108 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:24 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Lake Waukomis | Platte, MO | |
| 01:30 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 3 W Parkville | Platte, MO | |
| 01:33 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Lake Waukomis | Platte, MO | |
| 01:34 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 N Parkville | Platte, MO | QUARTER HAIL AT HWY 9 AND HWY 45 |
| 01:37 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Tiffany Springs | Platte, MO | DELAYED REPORT |
| 01:43 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | Parkville | Platte, MO | |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 9 N Plattsburg | Clinton, MO | DEBRIS BLOWN OVER RTE Y. POWER LINES DOWN |
| 01:45 UTC | TORNADO | 9 N Plattsburg | Clinton, MO | DEBRIS BLOWN OVER RTE Y. POWER LINES DOWN |
| 01:47 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Osborn | De Kalb, MO | POSSIBLE TOUCHDOWN |
| 01:50 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Tiffany Springs | Platte, MO | |
| 01:50 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Nashua | Clay, MO | |
| 01:53 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Maysville | De Kalb, MO | *** 1 INJ *** HOUSE DESTROYED. |
| 01:53 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Maysville | De Kalb, MO | |
| 01:56 UTC | HAIL 1 | Kearney | Clay, MO | |
| 02:00 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Lawson | Ray, MO | |
| 02:05 UTC | HAIL 2 | Excelsior Springs | Clay, MO | |
| 02:06 UTC | HAIL 1 | Excelsior Springs | Clay, MO | |
| 02:07 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Excelsior Springs | Clay, MO | |
| 02:08 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Excelsior Springs | Clay, MO | |
| 02:10 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 S Lawson | Ray, MO | DELAYED REPORT NEAR CHRYSTAL LAKES |
| 02:10 UTC | TORNADO | 5 W Orrick | Ray, MO | SPOTTER RELAYED TO LAW ENFORCEMENT |
| 02:15 UTC | TORNADO | Vibbard | Ray, MO | |
| 02:19 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 3 W Kingston | Caldwell, MO | |
| 02:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 S Knoxville | Ray, MO | |
| 02:29 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Cowgill | Caldwell, MO | |
| 02:30 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Knoxville | Ray, MO | ROOF BLOWN OFF HOUSE ONTO ROADWAY |
| 02:44 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Braymer | Caldwell, MO | |
| 02:44 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Braymer | Caldwell, MO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 15, 2006
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 15 | 4:33 PM CDT | F2 | Gage, NE | 34.0 | 880 | $5.0 million | ||
| April 15 | 5:48 PM CDT | F0 | Pottawatomie, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| April 15 | 6:20 PM CDT | F0 | Jackson, KS | 11.0 | 100 | $70,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:33 PM CDT | F1 | Otoe, NE | 2.5 | 150 | $70,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:40 PM CDT | F0 | Brown, KS | 1.0 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:44 PM CDT | F1 | Brown, KS | 4.0 | 75 | $150,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:52 PM CDT | F0 | Brown, KS | 0.1 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| April 15 | 7:03 PM CDT | F0 | Doniphan, KS | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| April 15 | 8:05 PM CDT | F0 | Leavenworth, KS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| April 15 | 8:20 PM CDT | F0 | Wyandotte, KS | 4.0 | 75 | |||
| April 15 | 8:38 PM CDT | F0 | DeKalb, MO | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| April 15 | 8:43 PM CDT | F2 | DeKalb, MO | 13.0 | 100 | $70,000 | ||
| April 15 | 8:43 PM CDT | F0 | Audubon, IA | 0.2 | 30 |
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.