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EF3 tornado in Pratt County, Kansas

Tornado May 18, 2025 · Pratt County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
32.5 mi
Whole path
250 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pratt County → Reno County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

Public and storm chasers reported a tornado. A survey determined that a swath of damage was due to the tornado. Some damage included striped trees, broken power poles, a destroyed metal building, and large roof damage to a residential building. The tornado began in Pratt county before moving into Stafford county and then continued into ICT's CWA.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Natrona (37.7900, -98.6500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

10 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1256304. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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