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EF2 tornado in Harper County, Kansas

Tornado May 25, 2024 · Harper County, Kansas

EF2
Rating
6.7 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

The tornado tracked northwest and damaged a farmstead west of Anthony. What made this tornado unique was that it did not form from the main mesocyclone associated with the supercell, but rather from the supercell's interaction with one of the storms lifting due north out of Oklahoma. EF-2 damage was found at a farm about 8 miles west of Anthony where large sections of a roof structure were removed. A couple tree trunks were snapped with another one uprooted. One outbuilding was totally destroyed.

The wider storm

Rich low level moisture rapidly lifted north across the Plains on Saturday May 25th with storms initially developing along a developing dryline across western Oklahoma. One particular storm gained strength as it tracked north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border. This supercell thunderstorm produced a brief tornado in Barber County before tracking east and producing an EF-2 tornado west of Anthony. What made this tornado unique was that it did not form from the main mesocyclone associated with the supercell, but rather from the supercells interaction with one of the storms lifting due north out of Oklahoma.

The tornado threat was short-lived though as storms lifting north out of northern Oklahoma merged with the supercell which transitioned the threat to damaging winds. This cluster of storms produced 60 to 75 mph winds as it tracked across Wichita which caused widespread tree damage and widespread power outages.

Around midnight additional storms developed over southern Cowley County and rapidly starting rotating which required a tornado warning as it tracked toward the Kansas/Oklahoma border. This storm went on to produce just shy of baseball size hail in Tyro and 80 mph winds in Caney.

Began near Waldron (37.0806, -98.1424).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1183103. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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