EF2 tornado, St Francis Arpt, Kansas, May 18, 2025

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

May 18, 2025

Touchdown

5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)

Lifted

5:19 PM CDT (22:19 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.9 miles (6.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Cheyenne County

Touchdown point

39.698, -101.950

Lift-off point

39.754, -101.959

Record number

2505181612-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GLD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 133 mph.

• Main door was closed but was blown in; walk in door was open; this was next to the tower.
• Center Pivot overturned and bent starting at this point then going north.
• Fence broken and panel thrown roughly 50 yards from fence
• 6x6s in shop walls were broken.

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

Numerous thunderstorms developed across the area leading to multiple hail reports, with the largest being 2 inches in diameter located in Wheeler and 5 S of St. Francis. Severe wind gusts were also reported as well, with the strongest being 63 mph 9 NNW of McDonald. Multiple tornadoes also occurred as well in Sherman, Cheyenne, and Gove counties. The town of Grinnell was directly hit by a strong tornado.

Tornado formed south of farmstead near River Road, made a glancing blow to the farmstead, then continued NNW toward Hwy 36. Power poles were broken, a well established cotton wood tree was uprooted, and a well anchored antenna was twisted and bent by the tornado. Another farmstead north of CR M was also impacted by the tornado. The tornado removed the roof and doors from a metal building, relocated a couple grain bins, and leveled a wooden shed. However the tornado turned away from house before continuing north through the windbreak. The tornado ended before reaching the highway.

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 tornado watch, issued at 20:00 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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 Goodland radar (KGLD), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:15 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 2025 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.