The tornado on Wednesday night near Chapman, a town of 1,400 about 140 miles west of Kansas City, Kan., damaged or destroyed about 20 homes but edged past Chapman’s southern side after forecasters declared a “tornado emergency” for the town.
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The twister destroyed eight homes and heavily damaged between 15 and 20 homes and farmsteads.
Preliminary reports indicate at least one of those tornadoes was a half mile wide, the Associated Press reports.
A survey team from the National Weather Service office at Topeka said on the office’s Twitter account the storm had winds up to 165 miles per hour.
There were no deaths of injuries caused by the tornado.
The tornado left a path of destruction and survey teams assigned an EF1 rating to the storm – this means that its winds were estimated between 160 to 180 kilometres per hour. The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of rain fell in parts of Oklahoma, and that a flood warning was in effect through Wednesday afternoon.
Police say the twister struck a couple of residential neighborhoods in the Bryan-College Station area early Thursday afternoon, mangling trees and a number of roofs.
The tornado formed just after 7 p.m. near the Ottawa County community of Niles and stayed on the ground continuously until around 8:35 p.m. when it dissipated, National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Omitt said. No injuries were reported.
At least 26 tornadoes have been reported from Colorado to MI central and eastern Wyoming, and as far north as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Other tornadoes also touched down in Adams County, near Akron and in Yuma County.
Emergency management agencies from the state of Kansas and Shawnee County have set up command centers in response to the storms.
There’s a possibility of a few tornadoes and very large hail in extreme northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas, according to the National Weather Service. Some storms could also form in northwestern Oklahoma.
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Tornado damage in Washington County, Colorado, on May 24, 2016.
