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EF3 tornado in Ford County, Kansas

Tornado May 24, 2016 · Ford County, Kansas

EF3
Rating
14.7 mi
Path length
675 yd
Path width
1
Injury
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 675 yards (0.38 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

Family took shelter in an underground unit and was able to survive. The modular home was completely destroyed. Two vehicles were thrown about 150 yards. Another truck was carried, rolled, thrown with the bed located 1200 yards from the original location. The two occupants in the home destroyed were in a reinforced concrete bunker but one received minor injuries when a piece of pipe was driven into the wall breaking out concrete. The steal rebar prevented the chunk of pipe from penetrating into the individual. Visually at one point this tornado appeared to be strong enough to cause EF4 damage.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms erupted during the late afternoon ahead of a dry line. Numerous tornado producing supercell thunderstorms were observed. Dodge City, although with parts damaged by a tornado, escaped a major disaster as tornadoes near that location moved north and northwest, instead of moving northeast (as dictated by the upper steering winds).

Began near Bloom (37.5031, -100.1355).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 640996. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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