Today marks the seventh anniversary of the large night-time tornado that struck Hoisington in northern Barton County, killing two people and injuring 28 others.
The tornado touched down a mile southwest of Hoisington at about 9:15 p.m., rapidly grew to F-3 intensity and entered the west side of town. Within a couple of minutes, it grew to an F-4 and carved a path of destruction two miles long and two blocks wide through the northern part of the city, which has a population of about 3,000 people.
By the time the tornado exited on the north side of the city, officials estimated that it destroyed 182 homes and 12 businesses and tore the roof off of the hospital. As it weakened, it curled back to the northwest and damaged two farmsteads before dissipating.
If that curl back to the northwest sounds familiar, it should: the massive tornado that struck Greensburg last May also turned to the northwest shortly before falling apart - nearly doubling back to strike the town a second time.
The Hoisington tornado alarmed meteorologists because it grew so strong so quickly after touching down. Here’s an excerpt from a story I wrote a few days after the tornado, quoting Dick Elder, meteorologist-in-charge of the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service:
The largest tornadoes - such as the ones that struck Hesston in 1990, Haysville, Wichita and Andover in 1991 and Haysville and Wichita again in 1999 - routinely dip down a few times before gaining strength and staying on the ground for extended periods.
But the Hoisington tornado went from infant to monster in seconds: Less than half a mile from where it touched down just west of the city, the tornado developed wind speeds exceeding 200 mph.
“In all my years of doing this, I’ve never seen one do that that quickly,” Elder said. “That’s something I’ll never forget as long as I live.
“Even if we would have said ‘Tornado Warning, a tornado is on the ground,’ it wouldn’t have done Hoisington any good, because it was so close to the town,” he said.
What kept the tornado’s death and injury toll so low, meteorologists said, is that Hoisington residents were paying attention to the conditions and telecasts about the threatening weather and took shelter before the tornado hit.