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EF3 tornado in Stafford County, Kansas

Tornado May 23, 2008 · Stafford County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
24.6 mi
Whole path
1,900 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 1,900 yards (1.08 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 large tornado moved out of Pratt county and did EF3 damage before moving into Edwards county. EF3 damage was done to trees and a pivot sprinkler. Other pivot sprinklers received EF1-2 damage along with EF2 damage done to a house and grain bins.

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 Macksville Smith Arp (37.8251, -99.0131).

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 109833. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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