Weather History for Friday, May 7, 2021, from the National Weather Service in Wichita:
In 1927, a huge F5 tornado nearly two miles wide raced 95 miles from extreme south-central Kansas to central Kansas. The tornado killed 10, injured 300, and caused around $1.3 million damage. Most of the approximately 100 farmsteads that were hit vanished.
The twister began in extreme southeast Comanche County. The vortex quickly intensified, reaching nearly one mile wide. The tornado tore through Barber, Kingman, eastern Reno and southwest McPherson counties before lifting seven miles south-southwest of McPherson.
Four fatalities occurred one mile southeast of Medicine Lodge, one was two miles west of Kingman, three were in east Hutchinson, and two were in McPherson County. Damage in east Hutchinson totaled $750,000.
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In 1840, the Great Natchez, Miss., Tornado roared into the record books. The huge vortex formed just southwest of Natchez just before 1 p.m. and moved northeast along the Mississippi River. The tornado killed 317 and injured 109. It was the deadliest tornado in United States history until the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, that killed 695 and injured 2,027. It is still the second deadliest United States tornado on record. It is also the only massive tornado in United States history to have killed more people than it injured, at almost a 3 to 1 margin.