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EF1 tornado in McClain County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 19, 2023 · McClain County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
2.2 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
$30K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

While the Cole-Goldsby tornado was still ongoing, the fifth tornado of the outbreak developed to the south. This tornado touched down just northwest of 260th Street and Fernwood Road, initially moving southeast then curving northeast dissipating southeast of Santa Fe Avenue and State Highway 74B. The tornado partially unroofed a home, heavily damaged an outbuilding, and produced tree damage along the path.

The wider storm

Broad troughing was present aloft across the Western US during the afternoon/evening of the 19th. An area of surface low-pressure slowly deepened and moved towards north-central Kansas, with dryline extending from central Kansas through western-north Texas by the late afternoon hours. A well-timed lead upper wave, combined with broken insolation, led to the development of a few supercell thunderstorms across central Oklahoma. Multiple instances of large to very large (>2 inches) hail, along with 18 tornadoes, occurred across central Oklahoma.

Began near Cole (35.0900, -97.5400).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1094956. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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