The May 18, 2013 tornado
EF4Pawnee County, Kansas
An EF4 tornado on a 7.0-mile path. It was one of 10 tornadoes recorded in the U.S. that day.
Watch how it happenedEF4 tornado · May 18, 2013
How it happened
Follow the tornado’s path, minute by minute.
The tornado
- Rating
- EF4
- Enhanced Fujita scale
- Path length
- 7.0 mi
- Width up to 1,100 yards
- Killed
- 0
- Along the whole path
- Injured
- 0
- Along the whole path
- Date and time
- Saturday, May 18, 2013
- 6:18 PM CST
The National Weather Service account
Written by the local Weather Service office after its damage survey.
This tornado was well documented by storm chasers, spotters and a research team with portable doppler radar. The tornado did turn north towards the end of it's life cycle. Low end EF4 damage was done to a home along US156. The roof and walls were blown away of this well constructed house. Several large tanks were carried a long distance. There were 2 people inside but they escaped injury by taking shelter. Video shows that sub-vortices within the tornado may have actually had a little stronger wind. The Doppler on wheels that was observing the tornado had near surface measured wind speeds of 165 to 185 MPH.
The storm system that day
High instability was in place as an upper level wind maxima moved out of the base of a deep upper trough in the west.
NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.
Counties on its path
Storm Prediction Center severe weather database. Path drawn as a straight line from the recorded start to end point.