Tornadoes · United States · Kansas

1996 tornadoes in Kansas

68 tornadoes touched down in Kansas in 1996, 13 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1995 1997 The whole country in 1996

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Every tornado in Kansas in 1996

March 24 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 24	1:30 PM CST	F0	Pottawatomie	0.1	10
March 24	2:20 PM CST	F0	Brown	1.0	75			$50,000

May 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 8	10:00 PM CDT	F0	Pratt	0.5	50

May 9 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 9	7:15 PM CDT	F0	Cloud	0.1	400
May 9	7:17 PM CDT	F0	Cloud	0.1	50
May 9	8:10 PM CDT	F0	Washington	0.2	50
May 9	8:50 PM CDT	F2	Washington	1.5	100	$300,000
May 9	8:55 PM CDT	F0	Marshall	0.2	20	$10,000
May 9	9:10 PM CDT	F1	Reno	0.5	50
May 9	9:25 PM CDT	F0	Marshall	0.1	15
May 9	9:32 PM CDT	F1	Nemaha	0.5	75	$100,000

May 22 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 22	8:04 PM CDT	F0	Rawlins	2.0	100
May 22	8:55 PM CDT	F0	Rawlins	0.1	10
May 22	9:11 PM CDT	F0	Rawlins	1.0	30
May 22	9:30 PM CDT	F1	Decatur	4.0	50

May 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 24	6:02 PM CDT	F1	Ford	0.5	50

May 26 9 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 26	3:39 PM CDT	F3	Stevens	13.0	200	$190,000
May 26	4:03 PM CDT	F2	Seward	20.0	450	$300,000
May 26	4:20 PM CDT	F0	Haskell	4.0	30	$10,000
May 26	4:35 PM CDT	F3	Haskell	28.0	900	$2.0 million
May 26	5:15 PM CDT	F1	Gray	10.0	400	$850,000
May 26	5:18 PM CDT	F1	Wichita	1.0	50	$50,000
May 26	5:20 PM CDT	F1	Gray	3.0	50	$70,000
May 26	8:36 PM CDT	F0	Labette	6.0	75
May 26	9:50 PM CDT	F1	Crawford	1.0	75	$100,000

May 31 7 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 31	5:52 PM CDT	F0	Morton	0.3	50
May 31	5:59 PM CDT	F0	Morton	0.3	30
May 31	6:05 PM CDT	F0	Morton	0.3	30
May 31	6:06 PM CDT	F0	Ness	0.5	50
May 31	6:09 PM CDT	F1	Ness	18.0	300	$60,000
May 31	6:50 PM CDT	F0	Wichita	0.1	20
May 31	6:53 PM CDT	F0	Stevens	2.0	100

June 5 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 5	9:41 PM CDT	F0	Leavenworth	0.7	50
June 5	9:41 PM CDT	F1	Leavenworth	0.5	100	$250,000
June 5	10:05 PM CDT	F1	Jefferson	1.0	100	$600,000

June 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 6	4:55 AM CDT	F0	Decatur	0.1	20

June 11 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 11	6:31 PM CDT	F0	Pawnee	0.2	50
June 11	6:52 PM CDT	F0	Pawnee	0.2	50
June 11	7:28 PM CDT	F0	Kiowa	2.5	50

June 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 21	5:15 PM MDT	F1	Wallace	0.3	20

June 22 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 22	5:44 PM CDT	F0	Riley	0.3	15
June 22	8:14 PM CDT	F0	Sheridan	0.1	20
June 22	8:49 PM CDT	F0	Norton	0.1	20

July 15 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 15	10:20 PM CDT	F0	Decatur	0.2	20
July 15	10:40 PM CDT	F0	Decatur	0.2	30
July 15	11:15 PM CDT	F0	Graham	0.2	30

July 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 19	3:04 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.2	10

July 20 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 20	5:03 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha	0.1	50

July 21 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 21	5:23 PM CDT	F1	Thomas	3.0	100			$40,000
July 21	7:48 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.5	20

July 23 10 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 23	2:30 PM CDT	F0	Cheyenne	0.1	20
July 23	2:57 PM CDT	F0	Rawlins	0.2	20
July 23	3:29 PM CDT	F0	Thomas	0.1	20
July 23	3:35 PM CDT	F0	Thomas	0.2	30
July 23	4:08 PM CDT	F0	Thomas	1.0	20
July 23	4:08 PM CDT	F0	Logan	0.1	20
July 23	4:25 PM CDT	F0	Thomas	0.1	20
July 23	9:10 PM CDT	F1	Finney	1.0	50	$150,000
July 23	8:16 PM MDT	F0	Hamilton	0.5	20
July 23	8:20 PM MDT	F0	Hamilton	0.5	20

July 25 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 25	3:24 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.2	50
July 25	4:00 PM MDT	F1	Sherman	0.3	30

July 31 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 31	8:24 PM CDT	F0	Ellis	0.5	20

August 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 2	9:57 PM CDT	F0	Finney	0.5	20

August 6 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 6	6:28 PM CDT	F1	Rawlins	3.0	100			$10,000
August 6	7:14 PM CDT	F0	Thomas	0.1	20

August 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 10	9:30 PM CDT	F0	Decatur	0.2	30

September 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 18	5:55 PM CDT	F0	Gray	2.5	30

Nearby

Every tornado in Kansas since 1950 Warnings in force in Kansas The live radar over Kansas

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.