BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) - The National Weather Service has rated the tornado that struck the southeast Kansas town of Baxter Springs an EF2 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 130 mph.
A team from the agency’s office in Springfield, Mo., issued the rating Monday after surveying damage from the tornado that struck around 5:39 p.m. Sunday.
The Weather Service says the tornado traveled about eight miles, starting in Quapaw, Okla., and ending about two miles northeast of Baxter Springs. The twister was roughly 150 yards wide in the Baxter Springs area.
Survey teams also confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down around the same time Sunday near Hammond, in southeast Kansas’ Bourbon County. The tornado toppled a grain elevator onto railroad cars and damaged six homes before quickly moving north into Linn County.
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