Tornadoes · United States · Kansas

2003 tornadoes in Kansas

92 tornadoes touched down in Kansas in 2003, 53 percent above the average of the record for the state. They killed 11 people and injured 109. 2 were rated F4 or EF4 and above.

2002 2004 The whole country in 2003

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 2003

March 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 12	8:54 PM CST	F1	Labette	3.0	55			$30,000

April 19 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
April 19	6:40 PM CDT	F0	Montgomery	2.0	110
April 19	6:42 PM CDT	F0	Montgomery	1.0	110
April 19	8:00 PM CDT	F0	Labette	0.5	110

April 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 23	4:13 PM CDT	F0	Kiowa	1.0	100

April 24 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 24	2:13 PM CDT	F1	Franklin	0.3	80	$100,000
April 24	3:13 PM CDT	F0	Miami	0.2	50
April 24	5:00 PM CDT	F0	Osage	0.1	80	$10,000
April 24	5:47 PM CDT	F0	Franklin	0.1	50

April 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 28	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Wilson	0.5	75

April 30 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
April 30	10:17 PM CDT	F0	Cowley	2.0	110
April 30	10:37 PM CDT	F0	Chautauqua	1.0	110
April 30	10:58 PM CDT	F0	Chautauqua	0.5	55

May 4 12 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 4	2:59 PM CDT	F0	Scott	0.1	30
May 4	3:54 PM CDT	F1	Leavenworth to MO	3.0	50			$1.9 million
May 4	3:55 PM CDT	F2	Leavenworth	6.0	250		2	$4.0 million
May 4	4:18 PM CDT	F0	Labette	0.5	55
May 4	4:18 PM CDT	F4	Kansas City tornado	21.0	500	2	30	$48 million
May 4	4:30 PM CDT	F0	Labette	0.5	55
May 4	4:35 PM CDT	F4	Franklin–Liberal tornado	33.0	880	4	30	$20 million
May 4	4:37 PM CDT	F0	Neosho	4.0	110			$10,000
May 4	5:06 PM CDT	F1	Miami to MO	9.0	150
May 4	5:25 PM CDT	F1	Labette	12.0	220		1	$2.5 million
May 4	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Labette	0.5	55
May 4	5:45 PM CDT	F3	Cherokee to MO	25.0	880	5	34	$24 million

May 6 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 6	4:13 PM CDT	F0	Allen	0.5	55
May 6	4:40 PM CDT	F0	Bourbon	0.1	10

May 8 21 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 8	3:32 PM CDT	F0	Cloud	0.1	60
May 8	6:05 PM CDT	F0	Pottawatomie	0.1	60
May 8	6:13 PM CDT	F1	Butler	2.0	100		$60,000
May 8	6:25 PM CDT	F0	Greenwood	2.0	75		$20,000
May 8	6:31 PM CDT	F1	Osage	6.0	120		$250,000
May 8	6:32 PM CDT	F1	Greenwood	3.0	100		$70,000
May 8	6:40 PM CDT	F3	Osage	25.0	800		$1.5 million
May 8	6:56 PM CDT	F3	Woodson	23.0	350	3	$2.5 million
May 8	7:07 PM CDT	F0	Osage	0.1	60
May 8	7:10 PM CDT	F0	Coffey	0.1	80
May 8	7:10 PM CDT	F0	Osage	0.1	60
May 8	7:17 PM CDT	F0	Douglas	0.1	80
May 8	7:21 PM CDT	F1	Allen	3.0	125		$150,000
May 8	7:24 PM CDT	F0	Jefferson	0.1	80
May 8	7:26 PM CDT	F1	Douglas	0.2	50
May 8	7:38 PM CDT	F2	Douglas	0.7	250	6	$6.4 million
May 8	7:38 PM CDT	F2	Anderson	15.0	800	3	$1.1 million
May 8	7:52 PM CDT	F2	Linn	7.0	300		$10,000
May 8	8:13 PM CDT	F0	Montgomery	2.0	75
May 8	8:28 PM CDT	F0	Montgomery	0.5	50
May 8	8:52 PM CDT	F0	Labette	0.5	55

May 10 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	3:00 AM CDT	F0	Butler	4.0	110			$10,000
May 10	3:05 AM CDT	F0	Marion	6.0	110			$50,000

May 15 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 15	7:29 PM CDT	F2	Seward	2.5	100	$6.0 million
May 15	7:40 PM CDT	F2	Seward	4.9	100	$150,000
May 15	9:10 PM CDT	F1	Meade	2.0	100	$300,000
May 15	9:30 PM CDT	F2	Seward	2.5	100	$8.0 million
May 15	9:45 PM CDT	F1	Meade	1.0	50	$50,000
May 15	10:36 PM CDT	F0	Clark	1.3	100
May 15	11:42 PM CDT	F0	Ford	0.8	50
May 15	11:58 PM CDT	F1	Ford	2.0	50

June 1 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 1	2:06 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.5	20
June 1	2:08 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.3	20
June 1	2:10 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.3	20

June 4 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 4	10:53 AM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.1	20
June 4	11:11 AM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.1	20
June 4	3:15 PM CDT	F0	Ellis	0.0	20
June 4	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Hodgeman	0.0	20

June 9 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 9	7:45 PM CDT	F0	Graham	2.0	75
June 9	8:12 PM CDT	F0	Graham	1.0	20

June 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 13	8:25 PM CDT	F0	Morton	1.0	40

June 14 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 14	5:33 PM MDT	F0	Sherman	0.5	25

June 22 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 22	8:12 PM CDT	F0	Republic	0.5	50	$50,000
June 22	8:20 PM CDT	F0	Republic	1.0	75	$20,000
June 22	8:30 PM CDT	F1	Republic	3.0	150	$120,000
June 22	8:58 PM CDT	F1	Republic	2.0	150	$60,000
June 22	9:10 PM CDT	F2	Republic	4.0	450	$80,000
June 22	10:17 PM CDT	F0	Republic	0.5	50	$10,000

June 23 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 23	1:07 AM CDT	F0	Phillips	0.2	30
June 23	1:45 AM CDT	F0	Smith	0.2	20
June 23	1:50 AM CDT	F0	Smith	0.2	20

June 28 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 28	8:02 PM MDT	F0	Greeley	0.2	20
June 28	11:15 PM CDT	F1	Rawlins	0.3	25

July 6 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 6	6:14 PM CDT	F0	Cheyenne	0.3	25
July 6	7:05 PM CDT	F0	Cheyenne	0.3	25

July 9 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 9	6:20 PM CDT	F0	Rice	1.0	50	$10,000
July 9	6:55 PM CDT	F0	Reno	0.5	50
July 9	7:15 PM CDT	F0	Reno	0.5	50
July 9	7:20 PM CDT	F0	Kingman	1.0	50
July 9	7:30 PM CDT	F0	Sedgwick	0.5	50
July 9	7:30 PM CDT	F1	Kingman	5.0	100	$70,000
July 9	7:40 PM CDT	F0	Kingman	0.5	50
July 9	8:09 PM CDT	F0	Harper	1.0	75	$30,000

July 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 21	8:30 PM CDT	F0	Cheyenne	0.2	25

August 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 5	8:30 PM CDT	F0	Crawford	0.1	100

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.