EF2 tornado in Ford County, Kansas

Tornado November 16, 2015 · Ford County, Kansas

EF2

Rating

14.9 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado moved out of Gray county at 19:02. It damaged pivot irrigation sprinklers, outbuildings, trees and a home. It narrowly missed a storm spotter that had been parked at a rest stop, but did not see it because of the darkness.

The wider storm

An unusually strong November severe weather episode occurred across the region. A very strong upper level low approached with with strong winds aloft. An unusually high amount of moisture and unseasonably unstable airmass were transported north into Kansas. Storms developed along a dry line but quickly moved off the dryline and became supercellular. Large, long tracked and rapidly moving tornadoes occurred along with instances of large and damaging hail.

Began near Howell (37.6708, -100.2151).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Seward County EF2 Lane County EF1 Ness County EF1 Trego County EF1 Comanche County EF1 Meade County EF0 Grant County EF0 Finney County EF0 Trego County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 609671. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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