Kansas
Kansas averages 96 tornadoes per year. Supercell thunderstorms produce the largest hail on Earth. Blizzards bury the western plains. And the town of Greensburg proved that an EF5 can erase a community in minutes. Preparedness here is not a suggestion.
Enter your Kansas ZIP for live alerts, forecasts, and county-specific data.
Know your region
Wichita, Hutchinson, Salina, McPherson. The I-35 corridor sits in the heart of Tornado Alley. The 2012 Wichita area storms caused hundreds of millions in hail damage. The Arkansas River floods through Wichita after heavy rain. Summer heat regularly exceeds 105 degrees F.
Primary hazards: tornadoes, giant hail, flooding, extreme heat
Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Greensburg. The 2007 Greensburg tornado (EF5) destroyed 95 percent of the town. This is the most tornado-dense region in the state. Blizzards in winter bring zero visibility. Drought cycles threaten the Ogallala Aquifer.
Primary hazards: tornadoes, blizzards, drought, extreme heat
Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan. The Kansas River flooded catastrophically in 1951. Severe thunderstorms with damaging hail hit the metro regularly. Ice storms cause widespread outages in this region more often than heavy snow.
Primary hazards: severe storms, flooding, ice storms, tornadoes
Your hazard profile
Each links to a full guide with during-event protocol, recovery steps, and resources specific to KS.
Kansas averages 96 tornadoes per year, among the highest in the nation. The 2007 Greensburg tornado (EF5) destroyed 95 percent of the town. Violent, long-track tornadoes are a real possibility from April through June. Every household needs a shelter plan.
Read the tornadoes guide →
Kansas supercells produce some of the largest hail in the world. Softball-sized hail is documented multiple times per decade. The 2017 hailstorm in the Wichita area caused over $1 billion in damage. Covered parking is essential.
Read the giant hail and severe storms guide →
The Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers flood during heavy rain. The 1951 Kansas River flood remains one of the worst natural disasters in state history. Flash flooding in urban areas develops rapidly. Never drive through standing water.
Read the flooding guide →
Western Kansas blizzards bring zero visibility and dangerous wind chill. The 2007 ice storm left hundreds of thousands without power in eastern Kansas. Ice accumulation causes more damage than snow in the eastern half of the state.
Read the blizzards and ice storms guide →
Kansas summers bring temperatures above 100 degrees F with heat indices exceeding 115 degrees F. The 2011 and 2012 heat waves broke records statewide. Heat is a serious risk for agricultural workers and livestock.
Read the extreme heat guide →
Kansas resources
Kansas Division of Emergency Management. Coordinates disaster response, manages shelters, and administers FEMA programs for the state.
South-central Kansas forecasts. Severe weather outlooks, tornado watches, and the storm prediction discussions that track supercell development across the state.
Western Kansas forecasts. Tornado warnings, blizzard advisories, and fire weather alerts for the most tornado-prone region of the state.
Statewide information and referral. Disaster recovery, energy assistance, food banks, and housing resources.
May 4, 2007
On May 4, 2007, an EF5 tornado with 205 mph winds struck Greensburg, Kansas. It destroyed 95 percent of the town. Eleven people died. The entire community had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Greensburg chose to rebuild green, becoming one of the first LEED-certified cities in the country. But the rebuilding took years. Many residents never came back. The population dropped from 1,400 to under 800.
The lesson of Greensburg is not about rebuilding. It is about the 20 minutes before the tornado arrived. The warning was issued with enough lead time for most residents to reach shelter. The people who survived were the people who had a plan and acted on it. In Kansas, that plan starts with a storm shelter or reinforced safe room. Nothing else provides reliable protection from an EF5.