A significant four-day outbreak of tornadoes impacted areas across the High Plains, central Midwest, and parts of the Ohio Valley in early May.

The tornado outbreak developed along a cold front alongside an area of low pressure while situated north of the United States–Canada border.

Near the High Plains, a dry line began to coalesce as wind shear started climbing to levels favorable for tornadoes.

Tornadic activity started with a large multiple-vortex EF2 tornado that tossed several RVs into the air and injured two people near Wiggins, Colorado on May 7.

However, a strong EF2 tornado caused considerable damage to outbuildings and high-voltage transmission line poles near Catharine, Kansas.

An extremely large EF3 multiple-vortex tornado reached a maximum width of about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) as it passed near Boswell, snapping and denuding numerous trees, destroying mobile homes, heavily damaging frame homes, and toppling two large metal power line truss towers along its path.

The tornado then intensified to EF3 strength east of that location, where a home was left with only interior walls standing, and large trees were denuded and stripped of foliage.

Shortly afterward, the tornado inflicted EF4 damage to a well-built, anchor-bolted brick home, which was almost entirely flattened with a large portion of the foundation slab swept clean of debris.

The tornado intensified as it crossed Meadow Road further to the east, where trees were debarked and an unanchored home was swept completely away at high-end EF3 strength.

Widespread EF3 damage occurred as the tornado crossed Burnside Road, where multiple homes were left with only their interior walls standing.

At one home in this area, 18-year-old resident Daniel Parks and his cousin survived the tornado without injury by taking shelter in an interior bathroom and hanging on to a toilet.

The tornado continued to narrow as it moved further east, producing EF0 outbuilding damage before dissipating to the southwest of Roff at 5:17 PM CDT.