Unrated tornado, Atchison County, Kansas, April 17, 2026

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, as surveyed

Unrated, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

3:08 PM CDT (20:08 UTC)

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Atchison County

Touchdown point

39.463, -95.104

Lift-off point

39.463, -95.104

Surveyed by

NWS EAX

The office's name for it

Atchison

Survey last edited

April 18, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Storm chaser observed brief tornado near the intersection of 230th Road and Sheridan Road in Atchison County, KS. Time was approximately 3:08 pm CDT on April 17 as estimated by radar data. Rating as EF-U since no visible damage was observed in this area, according to emergency management.

Written by NWS EAX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU.

• Storm chaser observed brief tornado near the intersection of 230th Road and Sheridan Road in Atchison County, KS. Time was approximately 3:08 pm CDT on April 17 as estimated by radar data. Rating as EF-U since no visible damage was observed in this area, according to emergency management.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:57 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:42 UTC and running to 22:55 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:08 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 2026 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

88 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

All 89 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.