Rare December tornado

Rare December tornado strikes Harper county

Around 5:30pm on December 14th, a tornado touched down just east of the town of Harper, KS and tracked north for around 5 miles. This tornado was rated an EF0 and was 100 yards wide.

While December tornadoes in Kansas are not unheard of, especially over far southeast Kansas, this was the first December tornado in the 26 counties covered by the NWS office in Wichita since 1956!

Tornado track

Damage survey information

Tornado pictures & video

Near Harper, #Kansas earlier RT@KWCH12: Storm shot 5 miles of Harper. Thanks Jim Crombie for the photo. #kswx pic.twitter.com/nZbtbL79d7
— Jennifer Watson (@JWatson_Wx) December 15, 2014

Picture taken by Jim Crombie

Damage pictures

Tree damage around 1 mile northeast of Harper

Large hay bale rolled across road and toppled.

Tree damage around 1 mile northeast of Harper. Picture courtesy of KWCH.

Radar images

Radar reflectivity image from 5:29 pm

Radar storm relative velocity image from 5:29 pm

Radar reflectivity image from 5:34 pm

Radar storm relative velocity image from 5:34 pm

December tornadoes in Kansas

Date	County
12/14/2014	Harper
12/18/2002	Cherokee
12/1/1982	Crawford
12/13/1975	Nemaha
12/26/1959	Dickinson
12/4/1956	Kingman