EF3 tornado, Beeler to Laird, Kansas, May 24, 2016

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 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.

4. EF3136 to 165 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 24, 2016

Touchdown

6:12 PM CDT (23:12 UTC)

Lifted

6:37 PM CDT (23:37 UTC)

On the ground

25 minutes

Path length

11.0 miles (17.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Hodgeman and Ness counties

Touchdown point

38.237, -100.166

Lift-off point

38.335, -100.008

Record number

1605241712-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Fence, tanks, building damage
• small barn completely removed
• power poles, fence, cattle, center of the circulation
• Trees, barn, old farm home, machinery.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Severe thunderstorms erupted during the late afternoon ahead of a dry line. Numerous tornado producing supercell thunderstorms were observed. Dodge City, although with parts damaged by a tornado, escaped a major disaster as tornadoes near that location moved north and northwest, instead of moving northeast (as dictated by the upper steering winds).

This tornado moved out of Hodgeman County at 17:19 CST and produced EF3 damage at a farm. The most severe damage was done to trees in a draw or old creek bottom.

This tornado moved north and northwest passing into Ness County at 18:22 CST. Unfortunately it heavily damaged a farm that was also struck by a large tornado on March 28, 2007. A stock trailer was carried 1.7 miles from it's original resting location at the farm. Other heavy machinery was carried well over a mile.

This tornado moved in from Hodgeman County. It heavily damaged trees, outbuildings, fences and trees.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:51 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:22 UTC and running to 03:33 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 20:00 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.

Dodge City (DDC), 59 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:15 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 2016 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

43 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.