EF1 tornado in Rice County, Kansas

Tornado April 14, 2012 · Rice County, Kansas

EF1

Rating

92.6 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Kiowa County → Kiowa County → Edwards County → Stafford County → Stafford County → Rice County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 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

This tornado moved in from Stafford County. A large metal machine shed was destroyed with sheet metal debris wrapped around numerous trees and fence posts to the east and north of farm house. All windows blown out on farm home, roof lifted with chimney sheared off and numerous punctures in siding. Section of metal fence tossed into window of home.

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 Raymond (38.2120, -98.4720).

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 366419. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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