Finger on the Weather

The National Weather Service in Dodge City is reporting that wind speed data for the large tornado that touched down in western Pawnee County Saturday night and came within a mile of Rozel indicates the tornado had speeds of up to 185 miles an hour.

That would elevate the tornado’s rating to an EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The tornado damaged five farms, including a house in which two people were sheltering. They escaped injury.

Confirmation of the tornado’s wind speeds and EF rating is pending.

The National Weather Service has rated the tornado that touched down southwest of Wichita Sunday afternoon as an EF-1, with winds of up to 110 miles an hour.

The tornado touched down at about 3:30 p.m. about five miles north of Clearwater and traveled northeast for about 4.5 miles, according to the weather service.

Here’s a photo of the tornado by Shalyn Phillips, who was tracking the storm with Dick McGowan and Darin Brunin.

Damage was reported to multiple homesteads in the area, including power poles, trees and outbuildings. These damage photos, taken by the weather service’s damage survey team, were collected in an area between five miles north of Clearwater and two miles south of Mid-Continent Airport.

No injuries were reported. The tornado prompted the issuance of a “tornado emergency” for the city of Wichita by the National Weather Service, since the tornado was on a track that would have brought it right through the heart of the city if it had stayed on the ground.

Winds were strong enough to snap fully grown trees, but weather researcher Jon Davies said the conditions in the Wichita area weren’t conducive to long-lasting tornadoes – “only brief spin-ups compared to the much better environment in Oklahoma with long track tornadoes there.”

One person was killed in Pottawatomie County in Oklahoma when a tornado decimated a trailer park. More than 20 people were injured.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., logged 28 reports of tornadoes in five states, most of them in Kansas and Oklahoma. Some of those reports, however, could be multiple views of the same tornado.

ABC’s Ginger Zee was tracking the Sedgwick County storm and filed this report last night from outside Clearwater.

The Storm Prediction Center has posted a moderate risk for severe weather in portions of Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri later today.

Among the cities included in the moderate risk are Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

“The overall environment appears quite favorable for tornadoes,” the SPC outlook states.

However, small-scale details could impact when and where storms develop. Among those is the strength of the “cap” in the atmosphere, which inhibits thunderstorm development. “Caps” are typically a layer of warmer air aloft which serves to deflect lower-level air rising into the cooler air of the atmosphere. That “lift” helps give thunderstorms their power.

Large hail and strong tornadoes are the primary threats from this set-up. The moderate area covers more than 62,000 square miles and involves more than 6 million people. Monitor conditions and alerts closely and be prepared to seek shelter.