EF2 Tornado — Greenwood, Kansas

2024-04-16 · near Quincy, Greenwood, Kansas

Event narrative

The damage survey revealed an EF2 tornado with an estimated peak wind speed of 118 mph occurred south of Virgil. There was damage to a farmstead to a large outbuilding that was ripped from its sturdy foundation and had bent steel purlins. Several large trees were snapped and uprooted.

Wider weather episode

A powerful upper level low pressure system moved out across the Plains during the evening of April 15th and the early morning hours of Tuesday April 16th. Storms developed ahead of an advancing cold front across Oklahoma into the Flint Hills of Kansas after midnight. Around 4AM one of the storms started to show low level rotation as it moved into southern Greenwood County and shortly after produced an EF-1 tornado southeast and east of Eureka.

A few hours later, a line storms along the cold front moved into the Flint Hills with a brief but strong tornado occurring south of Virgil. This tornado was rated an EF-2 with damage including steel purlins being bent along with a large outbuilding ripped from its foundation. Luckily there were no injuries of fatalities with these tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.9200, -96.0100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1165698. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.