EF2 tornado, Harveyville to Burlingame, Kansas, February 28, 2012

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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.

7. 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.

Rating

EF2

Date

February 28, 2012

Touchdown

9:02 PM CST (03:02 UTC)

Lifted

9:06 PM CST (03:06 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

5.4 miles (8.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

12

Counties

Osage and Wabaunsee counties

Touchdown point

38.782, -95.982

Lift-off point

38.813, -95.890

Record number

1202282102-01

On the evening of Tuesday, February 28 2012, a very strong upper level storm system caused widespread thunderstorms to form across most of central and eastern Kansas. The storms initiated approximately 4:00 PM and increased in coverage and intensity throughout the night. Since atmospheric instability was not extremely high there were few reports of severe hail; however, many structures across the area were damaged due to strong, straight-line thunderstorm winds.||The most significant event from the evening of February 28 was a strong tornado that impacted Harveyville, Kansas at approximately 9:03 pm CST. The town sustained significant damage to some structures, including an apartment complex and a church. On Wednesday, February 29 a National Weather Service survey crew traveled to Harveyville to assess the damage. The tornado caused at least 12 injuries and one fatality. The survey crew gave a preliminary assessment of EF-2 damage, indicating wind speeds of 111 - 135 mph. ||Three other tornadoes occurred across the area that night, but no injuries and only marginal damage to outbuildings and structures occurred from these other tornadoes.

As the line of thunderstorms moved eastward across northeast Kansas on of the strongest storms spawned a brief, but very strong tornado, which impacted the town of Harveyville, Kansas. The tornado was short-lived, but was able to destroy a large portion of the town. Several houses were completely destroyed, as was a church in the center of town. A National Weather Service survey team determined that the tornado rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. At least a dozen injuries occurred with this storm, one of which became fatal after a day in the hospital. The tornado continued into Osage County and weakened.

This is the continued path of the tornado that crossed from Wabaunsee County into Osage County and weakened. The tornado path narrowed and damaged hedge row trees and two structures before dissipating.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:14 UTC and running to 04:42 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:44 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:02 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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