EF3 Tornado — Clark, Kansas

2008-05-23 · near Clark State Lake, Clark, Kansas

Event narrative

This extremely large tornado (1.8 miles wide) moved east and then turned northeast towards Kiowa county. Many power poles were taken down by the tornado. It also caused EF3 damage to trees, two old houses, barns and it carried an oil tank battery 1.8 miles depositing it in trees. There was at least 20 head of cattle killed by the tornado. There was minor injuries received by a 20 year old male as he took refuge in his truck that was parked next to a baler inside a barn. The barn was completely swept away leaving the young man with cuts from broken glass. The baler that was left standing probably protected him and his truck from going airborne, if not rolling. Also, there was serious injury to a male in a semi on highway 34 in the vicinity of 37.3327 N, 99.6344 W probably by the RFD. Two other semis parked at this location rolled over but no injuries were sustained by the drivers. This extremely large tornado moved into Kiowa county. The radar signature was eerily similar to the Greensburg tornado that occurred on May 4, 2007.

Wider weather episode

An anonymously strong upper level system allowed everything to come together at the surface to produced what is perhaps the biggest tornado outbreak to ever occur in the Dodge City CWA! Fifty-five tornadoes were documented during that afternoon and evening! Some of the tornadoes were very large and damaging. The character of the supercell thunderstorms that day had similarities to the storms that produced the Greensburg tornado a little over a year after. In fact there was one tornado that was just as large and perhaps could have been just as damaging that was headed towards the small Kiowa county town but fortunately turned and dissipated.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3428, -99.7264)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 109776. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.