TORNADO NUMBER 30 - Rolla, Kansas

Date: May 31, 1996
Location: 3 miles NNW of Wilburton, KS to 1 mile W of Rolla, KS
Time: 1740 to 1803 CDT
Length: 8 miles
Width: 75 yards
Rated: F0
Killed: 0
Injured: 0
STORMDATA: No damage in open fields.
*
Distant view of updraft and start of tornado.
Closer look at tornado.
Very large hail in Rolla.
Very large hail continues....and a lot of it.
*
We put ourselves in a good spot this afternoon... but a gas problem led to us being out of position when it counted. We were on this storm from the start in southeast Colorado. It got well southeast of us as we were trying to find a place to fill-up. We ended up dropping south into the hail core trying to play catch-up which ended up giving us quite the pounding in the town of Rolla.