Unrated tornado, Ellinwood, Kansas, May 19, 2024

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 19, 2024

Touchdown

6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)

Lifted

6:49 PM CDT (23:49 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Barton County

Touchdown point

38.390, -98.610

Lift-off point

38.397, -98.593

Record number

2405191747-01

Around 2:30pm on Sunday May 19th, a high precipitation supercell developed near Hays along a warm front. This storm tracked east along I-70 producing a few brief tornadoes across Russell and northern Ellsworth county. As it progressed east, the wind and hail threat ramp-up as it moved into Saline County. The Salina Airport measured a 100 mph wind gust! There was also numerous reports of golf ball size hail across Salina. ||A rapidly moving line of storms called a derecho then moved out of western Kansas and into Reno and Kingman counties shortly after 7 pm. This intense line of storms produced widespread 70 to 90 mph winds as it raced off to the northeast at 70 to 80 mph. Hardest hit were the communities of Hutchinson Haven, Burrton, Halstead and Newton where widespread tree damage and power outages were reported. Damage was also reported across southern Marion and northern Butler counties with tornado damage was documented near Burns. The destructive line of storms continued to produce damaging winds as it tracked toward Kansas City late Sunday night.

Tornado is documented from a video on social media. Location and time are estimated via radar.��No tornadic damage was found in the area. Nearby damage to a farmstead indicated straight line wind 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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:33 UTC and running to 01:18 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 Moderate 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.

The Wichita radar (KICT), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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 2024 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

31 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.