EF3 tornado in Harper County, Kansas

Tornado May 19, 2012 · Harper County, Kansas

EF3

Rating

9.7 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

This strong tornado moved right through the middle of a wind farm. There were a total of 6 turbines that had all of the blades torn off and shredded to pieces. At the beginning of the track, a crane was toppled over. However, the wind speeds at the top of the crane were measured at 166 mph before falling. This tornado moved into Kingman County.

The wider storm

A significant tornado outbreak occurred across portions of Kingman and Harper counties. In all, nine tornadoes touched down on this day, the strongest being rated as and EF-3. Many other counties experienced large hail and strong winds.

Began near Duquoin (37.3576, -98.2344).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Harper County EF1 Kingman County EF0 Kingman County EF0 Kingman County EF0 Kingman County EF0 Kingman County EF0 Kingman County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 372112. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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