Tornado, Riley
- When
- October 8, 4:15 PM CST to 4:20 PM CST
- Where
- Riley County, Manhattan Arpt to Manhattan
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 2.5 mi
- Path width
- 50 yd
- Property damage
- $80,000
- Coordinates
- 39.150, -96.670
Tornado in Kansas, October 8, 1997
A tornado touched down at the northwest edge of the Manhattan Airport and damaged a barn as it travelled along the ground for three hundred yards. The tornado moved northeast and touched down briefly again in the west to northwest side of Manhattan where it destroyed part of the roof on three homes, knocked down several road signs and downed a few trees and power lines.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $80,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS TOP wrote it up.
A tornado touched down at the northwest edge of the Manhattan Airport and damaged a barn as it travelled along the ground for three hundred yards. The tornado moved northeast and touched down briefly again in the west to northwest side of Manhattan where it destroyed part of the roof on three homes, knocked down several road signs and downed a few trees and power lines.
The radar
The Topeka radar (KTWX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:14 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Damaging Winds in Minnesota, October 8, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Minnesota, October 8, 1997
- Tornadoes and Flash Flood in Oklahoma, October 8 to 9, 1997
- Tornado and Damaging Wind in Kansas, October 8, 1997
- High Wind in Nebraska, October 8 to 9, 1997
- Damaging Winds in Kansas, October 8, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Nebraska, October 8, 1997
- Flash Flood and Hail in Texas, October 8, 1997
- Tornado in Kansas, October 8, 1997
- Tornadoes in Kansas, October 8, 1997
- Damaging Wind in South Dakota, October 8, 1997
- Damaging Winds in North Dakota, October 8, 1997
More
Every storm in Kansas in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Kansas, 1997Warnings in Kansas, October 1997
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5622844.