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EF1 tornado in Decatur County, Kansas

Tornado May 22, 2008 · Decatur County, Kansas

EF1
Rating
12.5 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The same supercell thunderstorm which produced the tornado across SW-C Decatur county developed a second tornado about 3 miles SW of Oberlin. This tornado moved north and and dissipated one mile SE of Cedar Falls, traveling along the west side of highway 83. This tornado remained mostly over open fields, but destroyed a number of irrigation pivots and damaged. The rear flank downdraft caused damage in several locations on highway 83, including grain bins at a feed lot and outbuildings at a farmstead.

The wider storm

A series of intense supercell thunderstorms moved north across the area during the afternoon and early evening hours. Long-track tornadoes, flash flooding, large hail and damaging winds were reported across much of northwest Kansas into extreme southern Nebraska. Eleven tornadoes were verified by storm chasers and damage surveys.

Began near Oberlin (39.7893, -100.5600).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Sheridan CountyEF1 Sheridan CountyEF1 Gove CountyEF1 Decatur CountyEF0 Gove CountyEF0 Gove CountyEF0 Gove CountyEF0 Sheridan CountyEF0 Gove County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 102913. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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