EF0 tornado, Bestwall to Frankfort, Kansas, May 2, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 2, 2018

Touchdown

5:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC)

Lifted

5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Marshall County

Touchdown point

39.583, -96.714

Lift-off point

39.596, -96.674

Record number

1805021630-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TOP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• old barn toppled by wind normally would be winds in excess of 85mph however terrible shape so EF0 range
• another aluminum outbuilding blown down toward NE no other damage to home
• cedars broken toward NE no other damage at property
• 3 poles blown down toward NE and replaced intersection of 8th road and cyclone lane. No damage visible beyond this point.

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

A large cluster of t-storms developed during the afternoon of May 2 across central Kansas. The cluster evolved into a line or lines of storms that moved across northeast and east central Kansas during the afternoon and evening of May 2. Wind damage reports occurred in addition to a few tornado reports with the lines. At least 3 documented tornadoes occurred but all were short lived and relatively weak.

Short weak tornado along leading edge of outflow with bowing structure.

A small tornado appears to have occurred near and just ahead of the leading outflow of a line of storms. Damage to sheds, trees and outbuildings was noted especially just northeast of Frankfort.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS TOP issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:58 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:43 UTC and running to 00:02 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 20:16 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), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:27 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.