I kept hearing from storm chasers that there was more than one tornado in the Belpre/Macksville area Monday, and a damage survey conducted Tuesday confirmed that.
In fact, there were five tornadoes that touched down in the region that day, according to the report filed by Jeff Hutton, warning coordination meteorologist for the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service.
From Jeff’s statement posted on the weather service’s Dodge City Web site:
The first tornado was a brief touchdown in an open area about 5 miles north northeast of Dodge City at 4:26 p.m. The second touched down at 5:27 p.m about 5 miles south southeast of Dodge City, was on the ground for about 1.5 miles and was 120 yards wide. Ten minutes after that tornado lifted, the storm spawned another tornado at 5:37 p.m. about 4 miles southeast of Dodge City.
What chasers now call the Belpre tornado developed at approximately 5:56 p.m. about 6 miles southwest of Belpre and dissipated around 6 p.m. 4 miles southeast of Belpre. It damaged a grain bin and several utility poles and carried an oil tank for one-quarter of a mile. This tornado was rated EF1 in intensity.
The strongest tornado of the bunch was the last one, which touched down at 6:03 p.m. about 8 miles southwest of Macksville and passed within 3 miles of the city. Hutton determined it was a multi-vortex EF2 tornado that grew as wide as 3/4 mile and was on the ground for 12 miles before lifting at 6:30 p.m.
No injuries were reported in connection with any of the tornadoes.
