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EF2 tornado in Edwards County, Kansas

Tornado May 23, 2008 · Edwards County, Kansas

EF2
Rating
24.6 mi
Whole path
1,935 yd
Path width
1
Injury

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Kiowa County → Edwards County → Pratt County → Edwards County → Pratt County → Stafford County → Edwards County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,935 yards (1.10 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 large tornado did EF2 damage to trees, pivot irrigation sprinklers, power poles and grain bins. EF1 damage was done to one home and EF2 damage was done to another. The center of the tornado moved to the intersection of Edwards, Pratt and Stafford counties. At that point, because of it's width, it was covering all those counties at once. Technically the tornado moved into Pratt county (see that entry).

The wider storm

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.

Began near Trousdale (37.7477, -99.0425).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 109828. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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