EF3 tornado, Iuka to Plevna, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 18, 2025

Touchdown

11:17 PM CDT (04:17 UTC)

Lifted

12:20 AM CDT (05:20 UTC)

On the ground

63 minutes

Path length

32.6 miles (52.5 km)

Path width

1,760 yards (1609 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Pratt, Stafford and Reno counties

Touchdown point

37.790, -98.650

Lift-off point

38.107, -98.296

Record number

2505182217-01

85 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DDC and NWS ICT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• Brick exterior home with all exterior walls removed except long entryway. One portion of interior wall remaining.
• Bail bed ripped off truck and tossed to other side of house. Two trucks tossed 10 to 40 yards from where they were parked in shed. At least 50 yards wide of damage at farmstead
• Pivot flipped and separated
• Irrigation pivot turned over which was 486 yards from road. Damage from road to pivot. Grass flattened

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

A regional outbreak of tornadoes occurred across portions|of western into south-central Kansas during the afternoon to|evening hours of Sunday 18 May 2025. The first couple of tornadic|supercells occurred near Scott City KS in Scott County during the|late afternoon and progressed northward with both storms generating|EF2 tornadoes and a lone brief EFU tornado. A second tornadic|supercell developed near Dodge City KS in the early evening and|progressed northeast with an EFO tornado occurring near Kinsley KS|in Edwards County and an EF2 tornado near Garfield KS in Pawnee County.|A final long-duration tornadic supercell then formed in the mid|evening hours over Comanche County KS and commenced moving northeast|toward Greensburg KS in Kiowa County, Iuka KS in Pratt County,|north of Preston KS in Pratt County and finally across Stafford|and Reno Counties. This storm generated five EF3 tornadoes along with|several smaller satellite tornadoes. The final count for this day|was 13 tornadoes just within the NWS Dodge City Warning area.

Multiple rounds of severe weather impacted many areas of Kansas. The initial round developed during the mid-afternoon hours with numerous large hail reports across central and south-central Kansas. The next round developed during the late afternoon and evening hours, producing large hail across central Kansas. ||The final round developed after 9 PM across west-central Kansas and moved east-northeastward into Reno County. A lone supercell thunderstorm tracked across southwest Kansas and eventually moved into Reno County. This storm produced a long track wedge tornado that was on the ground for over 30 miles and had a width around a mile wide. It destroyed three homes near the town of Plevna along with widespread tree and power line damage. This tornado was given an EF-3 rating with the most significant damage just southwest of Plevna. Fortunately there were no injuries or fatalities with this destructive tornado.

A storm chaser captured a small satellite tornado off of the large Pratt tornado with pictures and video. No damage was reported or found.

Public and storm chasers reported a tornado. A survey determined that a swath of damage was due to the tornado. Some damage included striped trees, broken power poles, a destroyed metal building, and large roof damage to a residential building. The tornado began in Pratt county before moving into Stafford county and then continued into ICT's CWA.

Based on the NWS storm survey, the tornado started in Pratt County then went into Stafford County before entering western Reno County. The total track of the tornado was around 32 miles with 21 of those in Reno County. A peak of EF3 damage was found with estimated winds of 155 mph occurring in Stafford and Pratt counties. In Reno County, the peak estimated winds were 145 mph based on a brick exterior home that had all of the exterior walls removed except long entryway. One portion of an interior wall remained. The maximum width was around one mile. This tornado damaged multiple homes to varying degrees in the town of Plevna with damage ranging from EF0 to EF2. Then the torando tracked northeast before going northwest prior to dissipating.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS DDC issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:52 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:42 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Pratt (PTT), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Wichita radar (KICT), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:18 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.