F0 tornado in Phillips County, Kansas

Tornado June 23, 2003 · Phillips County, Kansas

Rating

0.2 mi

Path length

30 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F0 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F0 meant light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken; the scale paired it with winds of 40–72 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

A brief tornado was observed in northeast Phillips county. The tornado was seen by law enforcement personel.

The wider storm

A torrent of rain was unleashed on the eastern half of Jewell county on June 22. Over 9 inches of rain fell at Lovewell Reservoir. Flash flooding was reported near the campground just downstream on the White Rock Creek. Two men escaped injury despite being stranded by flood waters. The men were attempting to reach a house on fire around 3 am. The men were driving a road grader. The grader was swept off a bridge by the raging flood waters. The two men sat on a wheel of the grader until 6 am before the water receded enough to rescue them safely. No one was home in the house the men were trying to reach, but it was destroyed by the fire. The flooding caused severe county road and bridge damage in eastern Jewell county. The highway in the Formoso area was flooded for a time. Later that night, tornadoes were reported by both law enforcement and the public in Smith and Phillips counties. Given the tornadoes occurred in very rural areas, no damage was reported.

Began near Agra (39.9000, -98.0333).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

F0 Smith County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5366632. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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