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F1 tornado in Leavenworth County, Kansas

Tornado May 11, 2000 · Leavenworth County, Kansas

Rating

24.0 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

$2.7M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado, which had formed in Jefferson County, entered southwestern Leavenworth County at around 9:40 pm CDT, 6 miles west-southwest of Tonganoxie. The tornado moved east-northeast and lifted 2 miles north of Basehor at 10:12 pm. The 16 mile long path was as wide as 1/4 mile at times, though the average was around 100 yards wide. In Leavenworth County, 200 homes were affected and six were destroyed. One apartment building suffered roof damage. Thirteen businesses were damaged, and two were destroyed. The Leavenworth County Fairgrounds in Tonganoxie suffered extensive damage, approaching a half-million dollars. Total damage was estimated by County Emergency Management officials at $2.6 million.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed rapidly south of a cold front in eastern Kansas, and then tracked eastward. While the early evening storms were primarily hail producers, one late evening storm produced a tornado that tracked across southern Leavenworth County, resulting in damage in Tonganoxie.

Began near Tonganoxie (39.0833, -95.1833).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5148410. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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