“We Encourage All Citizens to Take Steps to Prepare Themselves for Any Type of Emergency or Disaster"

The title of this essay is from a press release that indirectly "blames the victim." The author is Sedgwick County Emergency Management regarding a fatal tornado that occurred just north of Wichita at 1:14 this morning. The tornado was rated EF-2 ("strong") intensity. I believe the wording is unfortunate as discussed below. 

Photo: KAKE.com. Note that with a basement, as little as seconds to dash down
the stairs might have been sufficient to avoid injury. 

In what has increasingly and unfortunately become the norm in tornado situations, no NWS tornado warning was issued even though:

• Rotation was depicted on radar
• Radar shows lofted debris
• People from outside the NWS are observing tornadoes and bringing them to NWS's and the public's attention. 

I want to be clear: the tornado formed practically on top of the home and there was probably no way to have warned in time to help the man killed. But there is absolutely no reason a tornado warning could not have been issued for areas to the immediate northeast. 

Let's recap the event. 

Earlier Tornado Near Burrton, Kansas

There was a tornado (above) to the west of, and approximately 20 minutes before, the fatal tornado. No warning was issued on this tornado, either, even though "Weather Watcher X" and others were reporting the tornadoes on Twitter/X. This event should have served as a "heads up."

The tornado was part of a "mesoscale" area of rotation (below) that was clearly depicted on radar and had been producing small tornadoes. That, too, signaled that tornadoes were possible. 

12:48am radar image showing rotating area of storms
near Hutchinson, Kansas

Fatal Tornado Near Sedgwick, Kansas

This was the first solid radar indication of the tornado. Tragically, the tornado practically formed on top of the destroyed home.

Three minutes later, the lower image shows lofted debris -- clearly indicating a tornado in progress.

Weather science, at this point in our development, has no way to predict when a tornado is going to end. Given a tornado was occurring and causing damage, a warning should have been issued by 1:18 am, if not sooner. 

With both rotation and lofted debris at 1:21am, a tornado warning should have been in effect. 

This was a tragedy. We are fortunate that the strong EF-2 tornado lifted quickly and did not come in contact with any other buildings farther to the north northeast. 

The NWS did not issue a tornado warning when one should have been issued. Sedgwick Co. Emergency Management (perhaps to divert attention from the fact tornado sirens were not sounded) should not be preaching to the taxpayers in situation when it and the NWS -- the organizations they rely on for weather protection -- failed in their mission. A much more constructive action would be to examine this case to learn how to insure a similar failure does not occur in the future.