Looking across Harveyville after an EF-2 tornado destroyed about 60-percent of the community.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Meterologists in the Topeka bureau of the National Weather Service say the tornado that hit Harveyville last week formed too quickly to have time to issue a warning.

The EF2 tornado killed one person, injured 11 others and damaged about 40 percent of the Wabaunsee County town last Tuesday.

Chad Omitt, meteorologist in charge of the Topeka branch, says the storm that had produced two tornadoes in Reno County appeared to be weakening. And radar did not show the rotation until the tornado was directly over Harveyville.

Another problem was how quickly everything happened. The storm went from looking like a thunderstorm on one radar scan to showing a tornado in another scan four minutes later. On the next scan, the tornado was gone.