Tornado Warning — Pawnee, KS; Rush, KS was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Wednesday, 30 September 2026 at 20:40 UTC. The event is classified as a tornado incident with a severity rating of Extreme, and was detected through the US National Weather Service (NWS).

Tornado Warning issued September 30 at 3:40PM CDT until September 30 at 4:30PM CDT by NWS Dodge City KS TORDDC The National Weather Service in Dodge City has issued a * Tornado Warning for... Northeastern Pawnee County in south central Kansas... Southeastern Rush County in central Kansas... * Until 430 PM CDT. * At 339 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Sanford, moving northeast at 35 mph. HAZARD...Weak, brief tornado. SOURCE...Weather spotters reported funnel cloud. IMPACT...Expect damage to mobile homes, roofs, and vehicles. * This dangerous storm will be near... Ash Valley around 345 PM CDT.

Where this happened

The incident is located in United States (North America), whose capital is Washington, D.C.. Historically, United States is most affected by hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the United States incident tracker.

Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 38.268°, -99.198°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.

Understanding tornado events

Violently rotating columns of air producing concentrated destruction. Tornado intensity is rated on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale from observed damage. Because warning times are typically measured in minutes, the difference between injury and safety is usually whether people can reach an interior room on the lowest floor.

How severity is rated

Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Extreme. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.

Safety guidance for tornado situations

  • Go to the lowest floor, in an interior room, away from windows — a basement or reinforced room is best.
  • Cover your head and neck; most injuries come from flying debris.
  • A vehicle or mobile home is not shelter; leave for a sturdy structure if there is time.
  • Keep a weather-alert app or radio active during watch periods.
  • Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.

Data and verification

This record was generated automatically from the US National Weather Service (NWS) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.

Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every tornadoes we track on the Tornado tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.

Timeline and sources

Official warning

Issued by U.S. National Weather Service. A warning or forecast describes a hazard; on its own it is not a report that harm occurred.

How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.

  1. · received · event time 30 Sep 2026, 20:40 UTC
    First report Official warning

    First recorded from U.S. National Weather Service.

    U.S. National Weather Service ↗

  2. · received · event time 30 Sep 2026, 21:00 UTC
    Also reported Official warning

    Also reported by U.S. National Weather Service: "Tornado Warning — Pawnee, KS; Rush, KS"

    U.S. National Weather Service ↗

  3. · received · event time 30 Sep 2026, 21:08 UTC
    Also reported Official warning

    Also reported by U.S. National Weather Service: "Tornado Warning — Pawnee, KS; Rush, KS"

    U.S. National Weather Service ↗

Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. 3 reports are attached to this incident. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.

Conditions at the time

20.7mm
Rainfall that day
25°C
Maximum temperature
20°C
Minimum temperature
38km/h
Peak wind speed

20.7 mm of rain fell that day, and the temperature peaked at 25°C, and winds reached 38 km/h.

Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.