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EF2 tornado in Greenwood County, Kansas

Tornado July 7, 2016 · Greenwood County, Kansas

EF2
Rating
3.6 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
$3.8M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

A tornado touched down just northwest of the Eureka Country Club and moved southeast across the town. As the tornado moved through town, it destroyed 31 homes, 23 homes had major damage, and another 32 had minor damage. A total of 152 structures were damaged in some way. The tornado was rated an EF2, due the damage caused across town, with the hardest hit areas, just to the west of the Eureka nursing home. NO serious injuries or deaths occurred with the tornado. Eyewitness accounts suggest that residents received ample warning lead time, due to the information being received through the alert function of their mobile devices.

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 Eureka Arpt (37.8411, -96.3154).

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 635466. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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