EF3 tornado in Ottawa County, Kansas

A large tornado developed around 545pm CDT and proceeded to move slowly east for approximately 2 miles before turning back to the west and south toward highway 18. The tornado was lost in rain and was not visible after approximately 630 pm however mobile doppler radar supplemental data indicates that this tornado likely persisted through around 645 pm CDT. This tornado was nearly 1 mile wide at times and NWS damage survey found EF3 damage indicators suggesting winds to around 150 mph. 2 mobile doppler radars were within 5-6km of this tornado and did sample winds around and above 100m well in excess of 166 mph. In fact they measured winds of 247 mph at 100m! Nothing close to EF5 damage was revealed on the survey. However, given the lack of damage indicators available within the track of the tornado we have incorporated the mobile doppler wind data into our assessment of the tornado strength and we believe that this tornado contained at least EF4 winds in excess of 166 mph. We acknowledge the current directive which states that one cannot rate tornado intensity by non-damage data sources so we will enter this in as EF3 however we are stating in the comments that this was a violent tornado with most likely EF4 intensity at some point during its life. Amazingly no serious injuries or fatalities were reported. However there were approximately 100 head of cattle that were killed by the tornado.

Supercell Thunderstorms developed along a stationary boundary and produced large tornadoes during the afternoon and evening of May 28th 2013. 2 tornadoes occurred in Nemaha county Kansas and at least 1 violent long lived tornado occurred in Ottawa County Kansas. Amazingly no serious injuries and no fatalities were reported. Later that night slow moving storms dumped 5 to 10 inches of rain across parts of Brown and Nemaha counties in Kansas.