TornadoLookup

Home / Oklahoma / Roger Mills

EF2 tornado in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma

Tornado February 26, 2023 · Roger Mills County, Oklahoma

EF2
Rating
7.0 mi
Path length
500 yd
Path width
1
Death
3
Injuries
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down just south of State Highway 47 and just southwest of the Cheyenne cemetery. The tornado initially moved east-southeast, then turned northeast moving through the northwestern portion of Cheyenne including a portion of the Washita Battlefield. A number of mobile homes were destroyed both west of Cheyenne and also along US-283 north of Cheyenne. Other homes were also damaged along the path. One fatality occurred in a mobile home that was destroyed. The tornado continued moving northeast damaging trees, power poles and at least one outbuilding southwest of and immediately west of Strong City before dissipating. A photograph from one of the destroyed mobile homes near Cheyenne was recovered near Lambert, OK in Alfalfa County, about 100 miles northeast of Cheyenne.

The wider storm

A powerful storm system, with highly anomalous magnitudes of wind shear and moisture for late February, impacted the forecast area on the evening of the 26th. A broken line of severe thunderstorms developed across the eastern Texas Panhandle/far western Oklahoma and quickly swept through much of the forecast area. Widespread wind damage, including gusts near 90 mph, along with a record number of tornadoes (13) for February occurred. Several reports of large hail were also received. Behind the line of thunderstorms, a tight pressure gradient and strong westerly low-level jet allowed widespread 50-60 mph winds gusts to continue through the late evening hours.

Began near Cheyenne (35.6090, -99.7000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

13 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1081667. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.