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EF3 tornado in Jewell County, Kansas

Tornado May 29, 2008 · Jewell County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
18.9 mi
Whole path
2,000 yd
Path width
$5.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Mitchell County → Jewell County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,000 yards (1.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Jewell (39.5673, -98.2411).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 109509. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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