Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2026
Tornado Watch 224
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 18, 2026, 3:00 PM CDT for 9 counties in Kansas. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 18, 2026, 3:00 PM CDT (20:00 UTC)
- Expired
- May 18, 2026, 8:46 PM CDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 3 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
Counties Barber County, KS, Clark County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Ford County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Stafford County, KS
The radar
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 41 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:01 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
- 60%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 60%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 60%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 70%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 70%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 95%
Warnings issued inside it
12 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 18, 3:36 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Edwards, Ford, Hodgeman, Pawnee | 39 min |
| May 18, 3:58 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Edwards, Ford, Hodgeman | 47 min |
| May 18, 4:07 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Edwards, Pawnee | 38 min |
| May 18, 4:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Edwards, Pawnee, Stafford | 40 min |
| May 18, 4:40 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Barber, Comanche, Kiowa, Pratt | 12 min |
| May 18, 4:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Stafford | 33 min |
| May 18, 5:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Stafford | 47 min |
| May 18, 5:24 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Edwards, Kiowa, Pratt | 51 min |
| May 18, 5:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Pratt, Stafford | 48 min |
| May 18, 6:08 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Pratt, Stafford | 37 min |
| May 18, 6:39 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Pratt, Stafford | 51 min |
| May 18, 7:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Barber, Pratt | 43 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 12:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 35 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
- 1617 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -185 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 575 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 371 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 392 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 13.2
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 7:40 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Edwards, Ford, Hodgeman, Kiowa, Ness, Pawnee and 3 more | 3 hr |
| 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, 3:49 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.