EF1 tornado, Morse to Kenneth, Kansas, May 2, 2018

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 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF1

Date

May 2, 2018

Touchdown

9:09 PM CDT (02:09 UTC)

Lifted

9:17 PM CDT (02:17 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.6 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

38.874, -94.692

Lift-off point

38.895, -94.609

Record number

1805022009-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.

• Overland Park Emergency Manager reported over 100 trees damaged at 141st and Antioch.
• Numerous power poles snapped at 133rd and Mission
• Several trees were damaged in Belton.
• 20 windows at Overland Trail Middle School were blown out.

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

On the evening of May 2, 2018 a line of strong storms moved through eastern Kansas. While strong storms occurred across the entire eastern part of the state, the strongest impacts were felt within the Kansas City Metro area, where a EF-1 tornado formed in Overland Park, causing a fair amount of damage in the form of widespread tree damage, some structure damage to local schools, and numerous power lines and power poles were destroyed. The line of storms continued into western Missouri, where they went on to produce more tornadoes and scattered wind damage.

The tornado formed near 143rd and Antioch doing damage to trees in residential neighborhoods in that area. The tornado then did damage to Overland Trail Middle School, blowing out over 20 windows at Mission and 133rd there were several power poles down, and the tornado likely dissipated near the Kansas Missouri state line near 130th Street.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:46 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:27 UTC and running to 03:28 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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.

Olathe (Ojc) (OJC), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:09 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 2018 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.