Wichita, KS Tornado History — 171 Tornadoes Since 1950
How many tornadoes has Wichita, KS had?
Wichita has had 171 tornadoes on record within 25 miles since 1950, including 15 violent (EF3+) tornadoes.
When was the most recent tornado near Wichita?
The most recent tornado within 25 miles of Wichita was an Unrated on April 30, 2024.
When is tornado season in Wichita?
May is historically the peak month for tornadoes near Wichita, with 53 on record. Spring through early summer (April–June) generally sees the highest activity across most of the central and southern United States.
At a Glance
Recent Tornado Activity Near Wichita
The last 20 years of confirmed tornadoes within 25 miles — 31 total, averaging 1.6 per year over this window.
Preliminary tornado reports near Wichita since December 29, 2025
These are 3 preliminary reports, not confirmed tornadoes. They have not yet been through an NWS damage survey, and are not counted in the confirmed totals above.
Preliminary reports are revised, merged, and sometimes withdrawn — historically about 23% are consolidated downward once surveys complete. Ratings are omitted until a survey assigns one.
Confirmed records above are complete through December 29, 2025. NOAA publishes the confirmed archive annually, so tornadoes after that date appear here first and move into the totals above once finalized.
Within 25 miles of Wichita. Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center preliminary storm reports, updated daily.
Tornadoes by Decade
Tornadoes by Enhanced Fujita Rating
F0–F5 ratings (pre-2007) are grouped with their EF equivalents. The Enhanced Fujita scale replaced the original Fujita scale in February 2007.
Tornadoes by Month
Casualties on Record Near Wichita
38 fatalities have been recorded within 25 miles of Wichita since 1950, across 3 events. 515 injuries have been reported across all events. 1991 was the deadliest year on record.
The deadliest single event was a F5 on April 26, 1991, which caused 17 fatalities along a 46.0-mile track.
Notable Tornadoes Near Wichita
About Tornadoes in Wichita
This overview was written April 23, 2026. The tornado counts and notable-event figures elsewhere on this page reflect the latest data and may differ from this summary.
Wichita is the largest population center in Kansas and sits squarely in the most active part of the Plains tornado belt. The metro averages more tornadoes per year than most major US metros and has been hit by multiple violent (EF/F4+) tornadoes in the modern record. Sedgwick County and surrounding Butler, Sumner, and Harvey counties consistently rank in the top 10 US counties for both annual tornado count and violent-tornado risk per capita.
The Andover tornado of April 26, 1991
The defining event in Wichita's modern tornado history is the F5 Andover tornado of April 26, 1991, which tracked from southwestern Sedgwick County through south Wichita, McConnell Air Force Base, and into Andover, killing 17 people. The Andover Mobile Home Park took particularly heavy damage — one of the most-cited examples of why mobile homes are unsuitable shelter during a tornado warning. The 1991 event led to fundamental rewrites of Kansas mobile-home park shelter requirements.
The Greensburg/Wichita region 2007 outbreak
The Greensburg EF5 of May 4, 2007 didn't strike the Wichita metro directly — Greensburg is about 100 miles west — but it occurred during a multi-day Kansas outbreak that produced multiple long-track tornadoes across south-central Kansas. The Greensburg event was one of the first violent tornadoes rated under the new Enhanced Fujita scale (which had taken effect on February 1, 2007 — only three months earlier). Greensburg's near-total destruction reset public expectations of what an EF5 looks like and led to substantial improvements in Wichita-area community shelter capacity.
The April 14, 2012 outbreak
The April 14, 2012 Wichita EF3 tornado tracked through south Wichita, hitting Oaklawn-Sunview, Haysville, and the Spirit AeroSystems facility. The 2012 outbreak was widely forecast 4–5 days in advance — a milestone for high-confidence multi-day severe-weather forecasting — and the long lead time substantially reduced casualties despite the storm's intensity. SPC issued a rare PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) tornado watch the morning of April 14, and Wichita media coverage was wall-to-wall by mid-afternoon.
Tornadoes by neighborhood
Wichita's highest-frequency tornado corridors run through three areas: the I-235 corridor through south Wichita and Haysville (the 1991 and 2012 paths both crossed this corridor), the K-96 corridor through northeast Wichita (Andover, Augusta), and the I-135 corridor north toward Park City and McPherson County. The Wichita metro proper has seen at least four EF/F3+ tornadoes since 1955; surrounding rural Sedgwick, Sumner, Butler, and Harvey counties have collectively seen more than 50.
What this means for Wichita residents today
Wichita has one of the strongest tornado-preparedness cultures of any US metro. Outdoor sirens are dense, NOAA weather radio coverage is excellent, and TV severe-weather coverage from KAKE, KSN, and KWCH is among the most consistent in the region. Many homes built since 2000 include basements (the Kansas water table allows it across most of Sedgwick County) or in-home FEMA-rated shelters; community shelters at schools and churches are widely available.
For nighttime alerting, residents typically run multiple redundant layers: NOAA radio, phone-call alerts, push notifications, and the local TV news. The Wichita NWS office (ICT) issues tornado warnings with consistently long lead times (often 18+ minutes for supercell tornadoes), which is meaningful margin for residents with shelter plans already in place. Kansans tend to take warnings seriously — the cultural memory of Andover, Greensburg, and the 2012 outbreak is current enough that the "it can happen here" awareness is high.