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EF1 tornado in Crawford County, Kansas

Tornado May 20, 2019 · Crawford County, Kansas

EF1

Rating

2.2 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

$25K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 National Weather Service storm survey determined that an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 105 mph traveled along a total 2 mile path. This tornado tracked out of Cherokee County crossing Highway 400 near NE 50th Street and northeast across Crawford County for a mile and a half. Damage continued to trees as the tornado tracked northeast, then heavily damaged a barn on E 510th Avenue before lifting southeast of Kramer.

The wider storm

Multiple rounds of storms producing heavy rainfall, severe winds, hail and tornadoes moved across Southeastern Kansas and into the Missouri Ozarks from May 20th through May 22th as upper level disturbances interacted with a slow moving but powerful storm system over the Central Plains. Tornadoes occurred with each round, with the strongest and most numerous tornadoes occurring during the late afternoon and evening of the 22nd. The cumulative rainfall caused areas of flash flooding with some flooding lingering across the region. Some locations in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri reported in excess of 8 inches of rainfall over the 72 hour period.

Began near Kirkwood (37.3389, -94.7449).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Cherokee County EF1 Crawford County EF1 Cherokee County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 828169. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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