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EF3 tornado in Sumner County, Kansas

Tornado April 14, 2012 · Sumner County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
18.1 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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

A two story house was completely removed from foundation and had landed on top of a three car garage. The basement is all that remained. Cars that were in the garage lost windows and one was dented on the one side. A fifth wheel camper was thrown 100 yards with only a split in the frame and wheels remaining. The top portion was only small pieces.

This tornado continued on to the NNE and a roof was completely torn off of the home. All of the windows were blown out. Outbuildings were demolished. Large trees were uprooted. Objects were embedded into the house and trees including a twig into a tree, a 2x4 blown into an interior wall on the main part of the house. The porch was gone.

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 Argonia (37.1550, -97.8000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Rice CountyEF3 Rice CountyEF3 Sedgwick CountyEF1 Saline CountyEF1 McPherson CountyEF1 Harper CountyEF1 Marion CountyEF1 Sumner CountyEF1 Butler CountyEF1 Ellsworth CountyEF0 Barton CountyEF0 Kingman CountyEF0 Russell CountyEF0 Russell CountyEF0 Russell CountyEF0 Saline CountyEF0 Kingman CountyEF0 Reno CountyEF0 Saline CountyEF0 Butler CountyEF0 Butler CountyEF0 Butler CountyEF0 Kingman County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 366415. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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