EF3 Tornado — Stafford, Kansas

2008-05-23 · near Macksville Smith Arp, Stafford, Kansas

Event narrative

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.

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 → (37.8251, -99.0131)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 109833. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.