EF1 tornado, Sharon Spgs, Kansas, April 22, 2022

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

April 22, 2022

Touchdown

10:42 PM MDT (04:42 UTC)

Lifted

10:45 PM MDT (04:45 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.9 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wallace County

Touchdown point

38.885, -101.755

Lift-off point

38.924, -101.733

Record number

2204222242-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GLD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Windows of vehicle blown out, as well as support beam from awning.
• Approximate start location of tornado.
• Approximate end location of tornado.

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

A significant weather system impacted the High Plains throughout the day on April 22nd and into the early morning hours of April 23rd. This weather system was not only a prolific wind producer, which led to many reports of high wind and wind damage, but also dust storm conditions and several large fires to occur. The largest fire occurred in northeast Decatur County, burning north into Nebraska. This fire was not extinguished until the 29th. During the afternoon and early evening hours of the 22nd, storms began to form along a dryline across northwestern Kansas and southwestern Nebraska. These storms primarily produced large hail up to baseball size, with a few instances of damaging thunderstorm winds. Later in the evening, a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) developed over eastern Colorado, spreading east across northwest Kansas and southwest Nebraska during the overnight hours. These storms produced several tornadoes, along with thunderstorm wind gusts and thunderstorm wind damage.

A damaging quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) tornado moved across Sharon Springs, Kansas during the late evening/overnight hours of April 22nd, 2022. Maximum winds were found to be around 110 mph, which makes this tornado an EF-1, just short of an EF-2. The worst damage was noted at the KDOT station near Highway 40 where a cinder block building was toppled and a truck shed was completely destroyed, as well as the CHS facility where the office building had its roof completely torn off. Throughout town, there were many tree limbs broken, tree trunks broken, and trees uprooted. Many buildings and vehicles had broken windows. Power poles were broken or downed throughout town. Other damage included several rolled trailers (ag-related, RVs, or work trailers), fences blown down, shingles off roofs, and other wind-related damage.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:58 UTC and running to 06:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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.

Goodland (GLD), 52 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:41 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 2022 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.