2025 South Kansas tornado family

Throughout the night hours of May 18–19, 2025, a lone supercell thunderstorm produced a family of multiple large and intense tornadoes across the southern portions of the state of Kansas, in the Great Plains region of the United States. Five intense tornadoes, all rated EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, were confirmed. Many rural farmsteads and communities across Kiowa, Edwards, Pratt, Stafford and Reno Counties were struck by these powerful tornadoes. The small city of Plevna took a direct hit from one of these tornadoes around midnight. Despite the large-scale tornadic activity, no casualties were reported with these tornadoes.

The tornadoes themselves were a part of a large tornado outbreak that lasted from May 18–21, which followed after another major and deadly outbreak on May 15–16 during the active 2025 season. In the wake of the tornadoes, storm chasers, meteorologists, local news, and residents of southern Kansas were astounded, with some having memories of what happened over 18 years earlier, when a massive and devastating EF5 tornado struck the city of Greensburg on May 4, 2007.

Meteorological synopsis

Model synoptics

A deep upper-level trough across the western U.S. set the stage for the beginning of the multi-day outbreak on May 18. Strong southwesterly mid-level flow overspread the central and southern Plains, with 500 mb winds of 60–70 knots (69-81 mph) moving over a destabilizing warm sector. At the surface, a sharpening dryline extended from southeastern Colorado into the eastern Texas Panhandle, while a retreating warm front was draped across northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas.