Remembering Greensburg - 12 years later

Friday we looked back on the Haysville tornado from 20 years ago and today (Saturday), we remember the Greensburg tornado from 12 years ago. It was the first EF5 tornado ever recorded in the nation and the last tornado rated an EF5 our state has experienced.

The setup that day was very classic for strong-severe storms. In the upper levels of the atmosphere, we had POWERFUL winds of over 100 mph coming in from the southwest. That helps to energize storms and create some of the spin that you need in order to get tornadoes.

The severe weather outlook from Storm Prediction Center had a "moderate" risk for severe storms throughout the day. It wasn't until 6:15 pm that a tornado watch would be issued for western Oklahoma and southwest Kansas. Storms were just starting to flare up in western Oklahoma, and they were pushed north around 8 pm in the evening.

There aren't many pictures of the actual tornado given the time of day (happened after 9 pm), but the radar image that gets shared so often is this one from the Dodge City radar. It shows the intense rotation just south of Greensburg.

Greensburg was a devastating storm, but given how much of the town was hit, we have to be thankful there weren't more people killed in the storm. The tornado warning procedures do work and it's a collective effort between storm chasers, National Weather Service, Emergency Managers, and broadcasters to get the word out.