F3 tornado — Gray County, Kansas

F3 tornado in Gray County, Kansas

Tornado May 26, 1996 · Gray County, Kansas

Rating

38.0 mi

Whole path

900 yd

Path width

$2.9M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 900 yards (0.51 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.

The wider storm

The thunderstorm that produced the F2 tornado in Seward and Haskell counties spun up an even bigger tornado further into Haskell and Gray counties. The tornado took a few trees in Haskell county. In Gray county...34 irrigation sprinklers systems were damaged or destroyed...power poles were snapped...2 houses were damaged...a barn was destroyed...a truck overturned...flood irrigation pipe was tossed like match sticks. In fact...one witness reported the 30 foot pieces of pipe were 4 or 5 hundred feet in the air. In addition...3 inch high corn plants were completely removed...leaving the field bare. Several people video taping the tornado were chased by the tornado...only to take shelter under a bridge. The tornado passed about 1/2 mile east of them while they watched 5 inch diameter hail pound the ground.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5572635. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F3 tornado in Gray County, Kansas

The wider storm

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