Sunday’s severe storms dropped 16 tornadoes on Kansas, 7 rated EF3 by NWS

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – The National Weather Service provided ratings for several of the reported 16 tornadoes that swept through several counties in western and central Kansas on Sunday. On a night in which destruction in the towns of Grinnell and Plevna captured the most attention, the NWS confirmed several additional tornadoes in portions of Scott, Logan, Kiowa, Pratt, Stafford, and Reno counties. The unusually active stretch of strong, tornado-producing storms in Kansas began with a twister reported in the northwest corner of the state, in Cheyenne County. Several hours later, one of the night’s most destructive tornadoes tore through Plevna in Reno County a little after midnight, early Monday morning.

The good news from the night full of dangerous storms was that there were no deaths nor reports of serious injuries.

Among the 16 tornadoes, Storm Team 12 reported seven rated EF3, meaning they had peak wind gusts of 136 to 165 mph on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. Five of the seven EF3 tornadoes, the strongest of the night, were reported in Kiowa County and the two that devastated Grinnell (Gove County) and Plevna (Reno County). Other EF3s included a tornado in Pratt County, impacting an area from about Cullison to near Iuka, and a storm that spun up in Pratt and carried into Stafford County.

“I can’t recall a time when we had so many strong tornadoes in one day,” Storm Team 12 Chief Meteorologist Ross Janssen summarized.

A Kiowa County tornado that narrowly missed Greensburg knocked over about 100 cars on a train stopped outside of Haviland. Another Kiowa County tornado, southeast of Mullinville, caused widespread destruction to a nearby farmstead. The third EF3 tornado in Kiowa County dropped near Haviland.

There were no reports of significant damage from the widely photographed twister in Scott County, near Scott State Park. This tornado, rated EF2, ended in southern Logan County. The NWS reported that it was on the ground for about 30 minutes and reached a maximum width of 300 yards. Another Scott County EF2 tornado, reported near the unincorporated community of Modac, stretched about half as wide as the prior twister near Scott State Park.

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