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F3 tornado in Ellis County, Kansas

Tornado May 5, 2002 · Ellis County, Kansas

F3
Rating
15.0 mi
Whole path
880 yd
Path width

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 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

This tornado entered Ellis county from Trego county at 440 PM and continued a a northeast and easterly track. It did speed up at the end of it's life and as is typical, decreased in size. Another tornado was video taped just north and west of this tornado (during the same time), but was just across the county line. A brick building (that was very sturdy) was destroyed and strewn for hundreds of yards into a field. "Huge" cottonwood trees were either uprooted or snapped off at about five feet. A 250 gallon oil tank was moved 1.5 miles and was found lodged into a grove of trees.

Began near Ellis (39.0500, -99.6167).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5299954. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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