EF2 Tornado — Wabaunsee, Kansas

2012-02-28 · near Harveyville, Wabaunsee, Kansas

Event narrative

As the line of thunderstorms moved eastward across northeast Kansas on of the strongest storms spawned a brief, but very strong tornado, which impacted the town of Harveyville, Kansas. The tornado was short-lived, but was able to destroy a large portion of the town. Several houses were completely destroyed, as was a church in the center of town. A National Weather Service survey team determined that the tornado rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. At least a dozen injuries occurred with this storm, one of which became fatal after a day in the hospital. The tornado continued into Osage County and weakened.

Wider weather episode

On the evening of Tuesday, February 28 2012, a very strong upper level storm system caused widespread thunderstorms to form across most of central and eastern Kansas. The storms initiated approximately 4:00 PM and increased in coverage and intensity throughout the night. Since atmospheric instability was not extremely high there were few reports of severe hail; however, many structures across the area were damaged due to strong, straight-line thunderstorm winds.

The most significant event from the evening of February 28 was a strong tornado that impacted Harveyville, Kansas at approximately 9:03 pm CST. The town sustained significant damage to some structures, including an apartment complex and a church. On Wednesday, February 29 a National Weather Service survey crew traveled to Harveyville to assess the damage. The tornado caused at least 12 injuries and one fatality. The survey crew gave a preliminary assessment of EF-2 damage, indicating wind speeds of 111 - 135 mph.

Three other tornadoes occurred across the area that night, but no injuries and only marginal damage to outbuildings and structures occurred from these other tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.7815, -95.9822)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 359087. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.