EF1 tornado in Harper County, Kansas

Tornado April 14, 2012 · Harper County, Kansas

EF1

Rating

35.2 mi

Whole path

1,000 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Alfalfa County, Oklahoma → Grant County, Oklahoma → Harper County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,000 yards (0.57 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

One small semi thrown approximately 140 feet over a fence and the cab was slightly flattened on the top. Minimal damage to the one story house with basement besides a carport torn off, windows blown out, and only tar paper left on roof. Ford F-150 thrown and displaced to the southeast into a tractor approximately 30 feet away with wheel of tractor intruding the driver side of the truck.

A farmstead with two homes on it and an airport hangar. The airport hangar and other metal sheds were broken apart. Wooden barn with concrete stalls had collapsed onto the stalls. One older home that was vacant and had just had the roof replaced last summer; however, roof was torn apart and removed on the north side. Second home had damage to the garage with one side being blown out. Large tree fell onto house and busted windows. Debris scattered in the field surrounding farm.

Abandoned farmstead had house torn apart with no roof and exposed walls but hard to tell. Trees in area uprooted with mainly the major branches remaining in some cases.

The wider storm

A significant severe weather outbreak with several damaging long track tornadoes occurred. The strongest tornado moved through portions of central Kansas and produced EF-4 damage at one home stead. Two other tornadoes touched down producing EF-3 damage in south central Kansas.

Began near Waldron (36.9980, -98.0690).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 366413. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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