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EF3 tornado in Greenwood County, Kansas

Tornado July 7, 2016 · Greenwood County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
4.2 mi
Path length
1,144 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded
$10K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,144 yards (0.65 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The tornado touched down in open country and then moved southeast. Towards the end of the tornadoes life, a home was hit and completely destroyed with all walls being compromised. The walls were not adequately secured to the foundation, therefore, a lower rating was provided. Otherwise, significant tree damage including snapped trunks were widespread along the river valley. A corn crop was also completely decimated. The odd track is due to this mesocyclone dissipating and a new one developing to the southeast and it became influenced by the airflow around the new circulation. This carousal affect also led to such a wide damage path near the end of its life.

The wider storm

A lone supercell thunderstorm developed over southeastern Chase county on the evening of July 7th, 2016. The supercell rapidly became tornadic, initially producing a brief tornado touchdown (EF0) in southeast Chase County. The supercell continued to move to the southeast, producing 2 different tornado damage paths across Greenwood county. The first Greenwood county tornado was an EF3, which is only the 5th such strong tornado to occur in Kansas during the month of July since 1950. The second Greenwood county tornado, moved northwest to southeast, through the town of Eureka, producing EF2 damage. The supercell produced another brief touchdown (EF0) in open country in Wilson county.

Began near Teterville (37.9600, -96.4500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 635465. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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