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EF2 tornado in Edwards County, Kansas

Tornado May 23, 2008 · Edwards County, Kansas

EF2
Rating
24.6 mi
Whole path
1,160 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 1,160 yards (0.66 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 tornado moved out of Stafford county and did EF2 damage to a house and barn just west of the Stafford/Edwards county line. A Female received a serious injury when she was blown down the stairs. Pivot sprinklers and trees received EF1-2 damage. The tornado started in the southeast part of Edwards county, moved into Pratt and Stafford and then turned northwest before ending in the extreme northeast part of the county.

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 Belpre (37.9547, -99.0221).

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 109835. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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