EF2 tornado in Ford County, Kansas

Tornado May 17, 2019 · Ford County, Kansas

EF2

Rating

14.9 mi

Whole path

875 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 875 yards (0.50 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

This tornado that became very large very quickly moved into Edwards County at 2048 LST.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed in the panhandle of Oklahoma and up into southwest Kansas during the early evening along a dryline. Storms struggled to develop all afternoon due to warm air aloft but once they did form explosive growth was realized. Several long tracked and strong tornadoes occurred with the strongest storms.

Began near Ford (37.6775, -99.7119).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Meade County EF2 Edwards County EF0 Meade County EF0 Clark County EFU Beaver County EFU Pawnee County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 835981. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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