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EF1 tornado in Atchison County, Kansas

Tornado May 21, 2019 · Atchison County, Kansas

EF1

Rating

5.4 mi

Path length

30 yd

Path width

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 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 low topped supercell produced a tornado in Atchison County Kansas. This supercell was part of a larger group of supercells across northeast Kansas. Structural damage wasn't noted, but several power poles were snapped as a result of the narrow tornado.

The wider storm

A line of generally sub-severe thunderstorms moved through the region during the early morning hours on May 21. This line did produce a brief tornado in Atchison County (KS), which caused some minor damage. Otherwise, these storms didn't produce any more severe winds or hail, but as they moved east wake low winds produced damage consisting of several tree limbs down as well as power lines and power poles. The storms then went on to produce torrential rains which caused areas of flooding.

Began near Effingham (39.5411, -95.4228).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 831669. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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