2019 Kansas Severe Weather Awareness
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2019 KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS Information Packet TORNADO SAFETY DRILL SEVERE WEATHER Tuesday, March 5, 2019 AWARENESS WEEK 10am CST/9am MST March 4-8, 2019 Backup Date: March 7, 2019 KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 Table of Contents Page Number 2018 Kansas Tornado Overview 3 Kansas Tornado Statistics by County 4 Meet the 7 Kansas National Weather Service Offices 6 2018 Severe Summary for Extreme East Central and Northeast Kansas 7 NWS Pleasant Hill, MO 2018 Severe Summary for Northeast and East Central Kansas 9 NWS Topeka, KS 2018 Severe Summary for Central, South Central and Southeast Kansas 12 NWS Wichita, KS 2018 Severe Summary for North Central Kansas 15 NWS Hastings, NE 2018 Severe Summary for Southwest Kansas 17 NWS Dodge City, KS 2018 Severe Summary for Northwest Kansas 22 NWS Springfield, MO 2018 Severe Summary for Southeastern Kansas 23 NWS Goodland, KS Hot Spot Notifications 27 Weather Ready Nation 29 Watch vs. Warning/Lightning Safety 30 KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 2 2018 Kansas Tornado Overview Tornadoes: 45 17 below the 1950-2018 average of 62 50 below the past 30 year average of 95 48 below the past 10 year average of 93 Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 8 Longest track: 15.78 miles (Saline to Ottawa, May 1, EF3) Strongest: EF3 (Saline to Ottawa, May 1; Greenwood, June 26) Most in a county: 9 (Cowley). Tornado days: 14 (Days with 1 or more tornadoes) Most in one day: 9 (May 2, May 14) Most in one month: 34 (May) First tornado of the year: May 1 (Republic Co., 4:44 pm CST, EF0 5.29 mile length, 125 yard width) Last tornado of the year: October 8 (Brown Co., 3:39pm CST, EF0, 3.12 mile length, 75 yard width) Length of tornado season: 160 days (Days between first and last tornado) 2018 Monthly Tornado Totals Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total EF5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% EF4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% EF3 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4.4% EF2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2.2% EF1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 11.1% EF0 0 0 0 0 27 4 2 3 0 1 0 0 37 82.2% Total 0 0 0 0 34 5 2 3 0 1 0 0 45 100% Per- 0% 0% 0% 0% 75.6% 11.1% 4.4% 6.7% 0% 2.2% 0% 0% cent Violent (EF4—EF5) in red, Strong (EF2-EF3) in yellow, Weak (EF0-EF1) in green. Monthly totals in gray. (Percent values may not add to 100% due to rounding) Annual Highlights: A total of 45 tornadoes occurred in Kansas in 2018 which is below the long term average (records beginning in 1950). This is well below the 10 year and 30 year av- erage number of tornadoes. No violent tornadoes occurred in Kansas last year, and no tornado related fatalities were reported. On June 26th, an EF3 tornado tracked across 9.15 miles in Greenwood County resulting in eight injuries. May was the most active month of 2018 with 34 tornadoes. This is 93 tornadoes below the one month record of 127 tornadoes reported in May 2008. The costliest tornado of 2018 was the EF3 tornado that went through Greenwood County. Damage was estimated to be $13,690,000. KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 3 Kansas Tornado Statistics by County 1950 - 2018 TORNADOES, FATALITIES, AND INJURIES Legend: Tor = Tornado | Fat = Fatalities | Inj = Injuries County Tor Fat Inj County Tor Fat Inj County Tor Fat Inj Allen 27 0 4 Greenwood 44 0 18 Pawnee 52 0 1 Anderson 15 3 12 Hamilton 30 0 1 Phillips 41 0 1 Atchison 15 0 11 Harper 62 0 1 Pottawatomie 34 1 5 Barber 40 0 2 Harvey 49 1 63 Pratt 73 3 10 Barton 102 2 40 Haskell 32 0 10 Rawlins 47 0 4 Bourbon 19 0 7 Hodgeman 55 0 4 Reno 81 0 22 Brown 46 0 5 Jackson 31 4 17 Republic 62 0 3 Butler 84 28 225 Jefferson 41 0 101 Rice 47 0 6 Chase 41 0 2 Jewell 43 0 2 Riley 29 0 51 Chautauqua 20 0 0 Johnson 44 0 12 Rooks 52 0 6 Kearny 45 0 0 Cherokee 37 4 66 Rush 52 0 8 Kingman 67 0 1 Cheyenne 43 0 0 Russell 78 1 7 Kiowa 59 11 74 Clark 40 0 0 Saline 46 0 66 Labette 42 1 29 Clay 45 1 31 Scott 58 1 1 Lane 47 0 2 Cloud 52 1 8 Sedgwick 89 13 360 Leavenworth 30 2 30 Coffey 24 0 5 Seward 38 0 15 Lincoln 33 0 2 Comanche 42 0 2 Shawnee 55 18 528 Linn 14 0 3 Cowley 82 77 293 Sheridan 41 0 0 Logan 29 0 0 Crawford 35 4 43 Sherman 110 0 0 Lyon 48 7 222 Decatur 47 0 5 Smith 45 0 2 Marion 47 1 2 Dickinson 38 1 17 Stafford 72 3 5 Marshall 34 0 1 Doniphan 19 0 2 Stanton 22 0 0 McPherson 55 1 16 Stevens 25 1 5 Douglas 40 1 48 Meade 51 0 0 Sumner 85 5 14 Edwards 50 0 7 Miami 20 4 10 Elk 24 2 8 Thomas 46 0 1 Mitchell 49 0 5 Ellis 62 0 6 Trego 63 5 101 Montgomery 36 1 1 Ellsworth 51 0 0 Wabaunsee 38 1 26 Morris 34 0 7 Finney 98 1 41 Wallace 35 0 4 Morton 20 1 2 Ford 101 0 2 Washington 40 2 12 Nemaha 37 0 3 Franklin 30 3 34 Wichita 35 0 4 Neosho 31 0 4 Geary 19 0 3 Wilson 16 0 0 Gove 58 0 3 Ness 53 0 4 Woodson 12 0 8 Graham 42 0 0 Norton 30 0 0 Grant 25 0 9 Osage 45 17 6 Wyandotte 10 2 36 Osborne 45 0 13 Gray 51 0 3 Ottawa 35 2 12 Total Greeley 39 0 0 4699 237 2924 KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 4 Kansas Tornadoes 2018 Kansas Tornado Facts Days with more than 20 tornadoes Kansas Tornado Count by Decade Date #Tornadoes 1950s: 560 05/23/08 70 1960s: 457 04/14/12 43 1970s: 303 06/15/92 39 1980s: 339 05/05/07 36 1990s: 789 05/24/16 34 2000s: 1192 06/04/55 33 2010s: 679 (through 2018) 05/29/04 28 10/26/06 28 05/25/97 25 Most Tornadoes in One Episode 06/09/05 25 May 23, 2008 70 Tornadoes 05/15/91 24 April 14, 2012 43 Tornadoes 07/07/04 23 June 15-16, 1992 41 Tornadoes 05/06/15 22 04/26/91 21 06/15/09 21 KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 5 Did you know... There are seven National Weather Service offices that serve portions of Kansas! National Weather Service (NWS) offices in Kansas are located in Goodland; Dodge City; Wichita; Topeka; Hastings, Nebraska; Pleasant Hill (Kansas City), Missouri; and Springfield, Missouri. Each office is staffed by a team of highly trained meteorologists, technicians, electronics technicians, infor- mation technology specialists, hydrologists, and administrative assistants. The NWS offices are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Contact the NWS office in your area to learn more about weather, weather safety, NOAA Weather Radio, office tours, or to learn more about careers in meteorology in the NWS or in NOAA. We are here to serve you! The following pages contain 2018 severe weather summaries for each NWS office. Here is severe weather terminology you may encounter. Severe Thunderstorm – The National Weather Service issues severe thunderstorm warnings for storms that are currently or are capable of producing winds of 58 mph or stronger and/or hail one inch in diameter or larger. Severe thunderstorms are often much stronger than this minimum crite- ria, so it is a good idea to take severe thunderstorm warnings seriously. Tornado – A tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground either as a pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and it is often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud. A funnel cloud is a condensation cloud typically funnel-shaped and ex- tending outward from a cumuliform cloud and is associated with a rotating column of air. Flash Flood – A flash flood is flooding that occurs very rapidly and usually within 6 hours of heavy rainfall. Flash flooding may occur along creeks, rivers or streams. It can also occur in low lying or urban areas where drainage is poor. Water levels can rise very quickly during flash flooding including locations that did not receive the heavy rainfall but are located downstream from areas that received an extreme amount of rainfall. Flash flooding can occur in the winter months when rain falls on ex- isting snowpack and causes it to melt rapidly. Flooding is the number one severe weather killer in the U.S. KANSAS SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK MARCH 4-8, 2019 6 2018 Severe Weather Summary Extreme East Central and Northeast Kansas National Weather Service - Pleasant Hill, MO While 2018 was generally pretty quiet across far northeast Kansas from a severe weather standpoint, there were several notable events 2018 Far Northeast that impacted the region.