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Three tornadoes were confirmed on Christmas Day 2016 in western Kansas, the state's first documented Christmas tornadoes in almost 67 years of modern records.

(2016 RECAPS: Top Weather Stories | Weirdest Weather | Best Photos)

The trio of tornadoes, all rated EF0, only lasted a few minutes each. A cattle facility near Greensburg, Kansas, suffered significant damage, according to the National Weather Service office in Dodge City, Kansas.

A fourth tornado has yet to be surveyed by the NWS-Dodge City.

The holiday tornadoes formed along a squall line of thunderstorms that also produced reports of straight-line wind damage from Nebraska to Oklahoma.

Unusual, Even For Kansas

Dating to 1950, these were the first Christmas Day tornadoes of record anywhere in the state of Kansas, according to Storm Prediction Center warning coordination meteorologist Dr. Patrick Marsh. 

Before 2016, the lion's share of Christmas Day U.S. tornadoes in the modern era were in the Deep South or near the Gulf Coast. Almost 60 percent of those were in Alabama or Florida.

No Christmas Day tornadoes had been reported in the southern Plains farther north or west than east Texas before the Kansas 2016 tornadoes.

This event was also the first Christmas Day severe weather event - either with strong or damaging thunderstorm winds, large hail, or tornadoes - in the Sunflower State dating to 1955, according to the NWS office in Wichita.

A comprehensive study of Kansas tornadoes from 1950-2009 by NWS-Wichita found December and January to be the two quietest months, due to the dominance of arctic cold in the Plains in those winter months. 

Only eight tornadoes had been documented in the entire month of December in the Sunflower State prior to 2016, making the Christmas Day 2016 event the most tornadoes of any December day on record dating to 1950.

Furthermore, these Christmas Day tornadoes occurred during the late-morning hours, a rather unusual time of day for Kansas tornadoes, reflecting how these brief spin-ups were along a squall line forced by a cold front, rather than discrete supercells in warm, humid air ahead of a dryline or cold front, as more typically occurs.

If that wasn't strange enough, a downed power line touched off a Christmas Day grass fire uncomfortably close to both the Dodge City, Kansas, airport and the NWS office, there.

The unusual weather wasn't just limited to Kansas.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, reported Christmas Day thunderstorms for the first time on record, as Winter Storm Europa was hammering the western part of the state.

Some wind damage, including downed traffic signals, business signs, and tree limbs, was reported Sioux City, Iowa, Christmas night into early the following morning.

Recent Tornadoes Elsewhere on Christmas

In 2015, deadly tornadoes and flooding impacted parts of the South and Midwest during the week of Christmas.

According to The Weather Channel severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes, 67 tornadoes were confirmed from Dec. 23-28. Six of those tornadoes resulted in 24 deaths. Of the 67 tornadoes, two were rated EF4 and three were EF3. This was also the deadliest December since 1953.

(RECAP: Tornadoes and Flooding Rain Hit the South, Midwest Christmas Week 2015)

In 2012, the largest Christmas Day tornado outbreak on record occurred in the U.S. 

According to Forbes, 30 tornadoes were confirmed on Christmas Day 2012, including two EF3 tornadoes. One of the EF3 tornadoes lasted for 61 miles in Mississippi.

(MORE: Worst Christmas Weather)

Fortunately, no deaths were directly due to the tornadoes, although two people were killed by falling trees not associated with any of the tornadoes.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.

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