EF3 Tornado — Jewell, Kansas

2008-05-29 · near Jewell, Jewell, Kansas

Event narrative

This tornado moved out of Mitchell County and into Jewell County about 4 miles west of Highway 14. As the tornado moved northeast and was southwest of the town of Jewell, it hit three farmsteads and severely damaged the homes and outbuildings at these locations. One of the homes was completely destroyed and other had a machine shed also destroyed. Trees and power poles and lines were also damaged along its path. The tornado entered the southwest side of community of Jewell and moved across the west side of town. Several homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. The Jewell Caf and the Bourbon Trucking Company were destroyed. The town's water tower was also blown down by the tornado. The tornado lifted about two miles northeast of town. Luckily no injuries were reported.

Wider weather episode

A significant severe weather outbreak occurred during the afternoon and evening of May 29th. Several tornadoes were reported from south of Palco in Rooks County to community of Jewell in Jewell County. On tornado inflected significant damage to the community of Jewell, including destroying the town's caf and water tower. Several homes in rural areas of Mitchell and Jewell Counties were damaged or destroyed. The town of Woodston in eastern Rooks County also had a twister move through the community; luckily damage was not as severe. All together eight tornadoes occurred in this part of north-central Kansas and no critical injuries were reported. Other areas of north-central Kansas also saw hail and heavy rains from the storms. An area between Webster Lake and Stockton in Rooks County had hail up to the size of baseballs. The hail damaged windows and siding of homes along the storms path. In addition to the tornadoes, hail and wind, thunderstorms dumped several inches of rain across the Solomon River valleys. This resulted in some flooding of rural roads and area creeks and rivers.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.5673, -98.2411)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 109509. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.