Saturday, June 14, 2008

Kansas Tornadoes

Below Kira mentioned how this severe weather season may be one for the record books. Last week there were a bunch of tornado reports, including the one tornado everyone is talking about, the EF-3 that hit a boy scout camp in Sioux City, according to KETV, killing four boy scouts.


During this same system, a bunch of tornadoes were also reported in Northeastern Kansas on June 11th and 12th. These storms hit close to home for me, so I wanted to talk about them. They have not been mentioned anywhere near as much as the one I mentioned above has been.


First I will start with information out of the initial public information statement from the NWS in Topeka, Kan.


"PRELIMINARY DATA INDICATES THAT FOUR TORNADOES TOUCHED DOWN FROM TWO DIFFERENT SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN 1022 PM AND JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT."


"ONE TORNADO STRUCK THE CITY OF CHAPMAN...WHERE EF3 DAMAGE WAS NOTED. ONE FATALITY OCCURRED IN THE CITY OF CHAPMAN. THE SECOND TORNADO FROM THIS STORM IN NORTHEAST KANSAS STRUCK MANHATTAN AND THE K-STATE CAMPUS. EF4 DAMAGE WAS NOTED IN SOUTHWEST MANHATTAN. DETAILS ON THE THIRD TORNADO THAT AFFECTED JACKSON COUNTY AND THE TOWN OF SOLDIER WILL BE ISSUED SHORTLY. THE FOURTH TORNADO STRUCK IN FAR SOUTHERN DICKINSON COUNTY NEAR CARLTON. THIS TORNADO TRACK HAS NOT YET BEEN RATED BUT WILL BE EARLY FRIDAY AS A DAMAGE SURVEY TEAM WILL RETURN TO DICKINSON COUNTY."


The tornado in Chapman had peak winds estimated at 150 mph and a maximum path length of 1/2 mile.
The Manhattan tornado had peak winds estimated at 170 mph with a 1/4 mile path width and a path length of 8.64 miles.



If you forget what EF-3 and EF-4 mean, here is a refresher. An EF-3 has wind speeds between 136 and 165 mph. An EF-4 has winds between 166 and 200 mph.




Why my interest in these storms? Before I took this job at WMDT, I was living in Manhattan, Kan. and interning with Chief Meteorologist Matt Miller at KTKA in Topeka, Kan. During my time in Kansas I never saw a tornado touch ground. (While many people may think seeing a tornado would be a terrifying experience, I find them fascinating and hope to see one at some point in my career.) While this event was taking place my husband called, who was out at our house in Manhattan, getting it ready to rent. He said, the tornado sirens are going off and there was a tornado in Ogden (the town that is between Manhattan, Kan. and Fort Riley, the Army base in Kansas) and they were under a tornado warning. I checked out the Doppler Radar and had him turn on KTKA so he could tell me what Matt was saying. It was hard to believe out of the entire state of Kansas, more than one tornado actually hit the area we lived in. It is one of those times where you see all of the stories and think it won't happen to you, but it is happening. A lot of people I have spoken with after the event are shocked it happened in Manhattan. These were remarkable storms that caused a lot of damage. Luckily, it seems no one in Manhattan was injuried or killed.

I have posted pictures throughout this blog from the NWS in Topeka.

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