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EF2 tornado in Pratt County, Kansas

Tornado May 23, 2008 · Pratt County, Kansas

EF2
Rating
24.6 mi
Whole path
1,056 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 1,056 yards (0.60 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 moved out of Edwards county and did EF2 damage to a house, a pivot irrigation sprinkler and to trees. It then moved into Stafford county at 925 PM CDT.

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 Hopewell (37.8187, -99.0134).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Pratt County 2 deadEF3 Clark CountyEF3 Comanche CountyEF3 Ness CountyEF2 Barber CountyEF2 Comanche CountyEF2 Edwards CountyEF2 Ness CountyEF2 Ness CountyEF2 Trego CountyEF2 Trego CountyEF2 Ford CountyEF1 Barber CountyEF1 Clark CountyEF1 Clark CountyEF1 Clark CountyEF1 Comanche CountyEF1 Ellis CountyEF1 Ellis CountyEF1 Ford CountyEF1 Lane CountyEF1 Lane CountyEF1 Lane CountyEF1 Trego CountyEF1 Trego CountyEF1 Trego CountyEF0 Barber CountyEF0 Barber CountyEF0 Barber CountyEF0 Clark Countyand 20 more

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 109831. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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