2018 Tescott, Kansas Tornado

In the early morning hours of March 23, 2018, a violent, multi-vortex EF5 rated tornado touched down near Tescott, Kansas. The EF5 left 17 dead, 34 injured and $990 million dollars in damages. The tornado was apart of an outbreak that caused many violent tornadoes in the Midwest.

In the early morning hours of March 23, 2018, many isolated thunderstorms created supercells that dropped many minor tornadoes. At 9:49, the funnel that would produce the EF5 touched down 13 miles south of Culver. At 9:54, the tornado intensified quickly into an EF2. 4 were killed when 2 mobile homes were rolled, injuring 2 as well. Transitioning towards Culver, the tornado injured 26 when a neighborhood of homes were damaged. At 10:01, the tornado then intensified into an EF3, killing 6 when a colossal of homes were destroyed. As the now EF4 was 7 miles from Tescott, EF5 damaged occured when an anchor bolted home was stripped clean of it's foundation. An oil rig was then toppled to the ground, causing a fire that killed 3. At 11:57, a mobile doppler radar recorded wind speeds at 251 ± 20 mph, causing 4 more deaths when another house was stripped clean of it's well built foundation.

Another 6 were injured when their house was damaged at EF3 intensity. With the tornado quickly dying out, the now EF1 snapped many trees along with damaging hundreds of houses.

At 12:16, the tornado dissipated just outside of Bennington. Afterwards, Jeff Colyer, the governor of Kansas, declared a state of emergency for Ottawa County.

As of a result of the EF5, 17 people died, 34 people were injured, and almost $1 billion dollars in damages was done. 2 months later, 2 EF5's would strike some areas hit by this EF5. 6 years later, another EF5 would hit Tescott, causing 51 fatalities, and 169 people were injured.