EF2 tornado, Modoc to Gove, Kansas, October 2, 2017

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

October 2, 2017

Touchdown

7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)

Lifted

7:33 PM CDT (00:33 UTC)

On the ground

24 minutes

Path length

18.3 miles (29.5 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Scott and Gove counties

Touchdown point

38.606, -100.916

Lift-off point

38.809, -100.699

Record number

1710021809-01

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC and NWS GLD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Some metal roofing and fence panels thrown into cattle pens.
• Poles were already replaced by the time damage survey reached the damage. Unsure of extent of damage, what direction debris was thrown, and any potential begin and end point for a tornado. Therefore, due to a lack of evidence, will put this down as wind damage.
• A few large branches broken in the wind break.
• Pivot sprinkler damaged, apparently from the Rear Flank Downdraft.

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

A broad shortwave trough lifted out of the southern High Plains with two distinct jet streaks across Kansas and Oklahoma. Severe parameters were just enough to produce two tornadoes near Scott State Lake and one report of large hail and high wind gusts.

A cluster of thunderstorms moved northeast across parts of Northwest Kansas, with the majority of the severe weather occurring in the Oakley, Gove, and Quinter area. Five tornadoes occurred with these storms. The first tornado occurred in far western Greeley County, but most of them in Gove County with one of them inflicting damage to Quinter. Some of these storms also produced damaging straight-line winds which caused significant tree and structural damage in Quinter. Due to the repeated heavy rainfall of three and a half to over four inches over Logan, Gove and Graham counties, flash flooding lead to significant road damage occurring in Gove County.

Damage was done to irrigation sprinklers, power poles and trees. It was also well documented by video.

The Emergency Manager did a detailed survey with images and GPS locations. EF2 damage was done to outbuildings, power poles, and farm equipment. The tornado moved into Gove County at 18:18 CST.

The tornado continued from Scott County into Gove County, crossing the county line just east of CR Quivera and CR Logan-Scott. Damage was observed to large cottonwood trees along Hell Creek on Gove County Road 12. The tornado continued northeast, ending south of the CR 22 and CR I intersection. Due to the lack of vegetation and structures in the path of the tornado, little to no damage was reported.

A brief tornado crossed CR I between CR 38 and CR 42. Several large trees were snapped in a creek bottom. A few farm structures suffered significant damage to their roofs. One or two windows were also broken in one of the structures. Some of the metal roofing from one of the structures was blown into a field northeast of the farm property. Many limbs and a few tree trunks were snapped on the property too.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:59 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:25 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:25 UTC and running to 03:00 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 19:52 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 Goodland radar (KGLD), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:10 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 2017 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.