Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2026
Tornado Watch 217
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 17, 2026, 7:40 PM CDT for 9 counties in Kansas. It was in force for 3 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 17, 2026, 7:40 PM CDT (00:40 UTC)
- Expired
- May 17, 2026, 10:10 PM CDT
- In force
- 3 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
Counties Edwards County, KS, Ford County, KS, Hodgeman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Ness County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Rush County, KS, Stafford County, KS
The radar
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 136 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:44 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
What SPC expected
The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.
- Two or more tornadoes
- 40%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 30%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 40%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 40%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 70%
Warnings issued inside it
4 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 7:58 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Pawnee, Rush | 47 min |
| May 17, 8:18 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | DDC | Pawnee, Rush | 3 hr |
| May 17, 8:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Ness, Pawnee, Rush | 46 min |
| May 17, 9:25 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Hodgeman, Ness, Pawnee, Rush | 50 min |
Discussions around it
SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.
The nearest sounding before it
Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 00:00Z, 0.7 hours before the alert went out and 131 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 5469 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 44 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 11 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 8:07 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Doniphan | 5 hr |
| May 18, 11:59 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Brown, Chase, Clay, Cloud, Dickinson, Ellsworth and 20 more | 2 hr |
| May 18, 12:50 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Barton, Brown, Clay, Cloud, Dickinson, Ellsworth and 18 more | 7 hr |
| May 18, 2:07 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Clay, Cloud, Lincoln, Marshall, Ottawa, Washington | 83 min |
| May 18, 2:31 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Kiowa, Pratt and 1 more | 119 min |
| May 18, 3:00 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ford, Kiowa and 3 more | 6 hr |
| May 18, 3:49 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Atchison, Doniphan | 6 hr |
| May 18, 5:45 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Jackson, Marshall, Nemaha and 2 more | 2 hr |
| May 18, 6:14 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Anderson, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Coffey, Cowley and 24 more | 7 hr |
Nearby
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.