EF3 Tornado — Comanche, Kansas

2025-05-18 · near Coldwater, Comanche, Kansas

Event narrative

First tornado of this prolific cyclic supercell with the vortex starting in far northern Comanche County KS and then traveling north-northeast for over 8 miles before ending around 7 miles southeast of Mullinville KS in Kiowa County KS. Maximum width of almost a half mile with peak winds of at least 155 mph (EF3).

A farm grain cart was tossed/tumbled at least 100 yards, Total destruction of a metal building system. Trees debarked with only stubs of largest branches remaining. Electrical transmission lines were damaged.

Wider weather episode

A regional outbreak of tornadoes occurred across portions

of western into south-central Kansas during the afternoon to

evening hours of Sunday 18 May 2025. The first couple of tornadic

supercells occurred near Scott City KS in Scott County during the

late afternoon and progressed northward with both storms generating

EF2 tornadoes and a lone brief EFU tornado. A second tornadic

supercell developed near Dodge City KS in the early evening and

progressed northeast with an EFO tornado occurring near Kinsley KS

in Edwards County and an EF2 tornado near Garfield KS in Pawnee County.

A final long-duration tornadic supercell then formed in the mid

evening hours over Comanche County KS and commenced moving northeast

toward Greensburg KS in Kiowa County, Iuka KS in Pratt County,

north of Preston KS in Pratt County and finally across Stafford

and Reno Counties. This storm generated five EF3 tornadoes along with

several smaller satellite tornadoes. The final count for this day

was 13 tornadoes just within the NWS Dodge City Warning area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3804, -99.4475)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1253363. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.