Officials say the half-mile-wide tornado carved a path about 26 miles long and was on the ground for 90 minutes.
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Earlier Thursday the weather service had rated the tornado as an EF3. The airport reported the all-clear signal was given about 4:30 p.m.
There were no immediate reports of damage at or around the airport.
Damage was also reported north of Abilene.
Duck-and-cover alerts were issued for nearby schools.
The college students and four tour guides ehad ntered the Hidden River Cave around 10 a.m. Thursday morning and were stranded after a severe thunderstorm brought rising water into the cave, the Kentucky State Police said in a stamen.
Thunderstorms producing large hail and damaging winds along are possible again along the Front Range and northeastern Colorado.
Flash flood emergencies are in effect Friday for much of southeast Texas after it received more than 16 inches of rain the day before.
Thunderstorms have affected parts of Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska, closing down roads and leaving residents stranded, while central Oklahoma remained under tornado watch. No injuries were reported.
The Storm Prediction Center said more bad weather was expected later Thursday, and the Norman, Oklahoma-based office said much of Kansas faced a “moderate risk” of severe weather, including storms with winds exceeding 136 miles per hour.
At the same time, several southwestern Kansas counties were under tornado warnings, but no twisters had touched down.
Below: The Weather Network’s Storm Hunters, Mark Robinson and Jaclyn Whittal, were on the scene Wednesday as tornadoes ripped through Kansas. The best place to turn for information is the National Weather Service.
Brad Guay, a meteorologist who is a field assistant with the Center for Severe Weather Research, said: “The dual tornadoes in the photo (he posted on Instagram) were very impressive”.
Tornado on the ground northeast of Salina, Kansas during Wednesday evening.
The storms dropped a lot of hail, up to ping pong ball-sized, in some areas.
The central plains could continue to see clusters of strong storms – including isolated and intense supercells. In Kansas, the chance jumps to 15 percent – including in Chapman, where Wednesday night’s storm struck.
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The tornado hit in a sparsely populated, rural area and missed Chapman, a small town of about 1,400 residents on the eastern edge of the tornado’s path, he said.
