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EF1 tornado in McClain County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 19, 2023 · McClain County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
0.8 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$4K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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 observing the Washington-Slaughterville Tornado, a storm chaser observed another tornado north of State Highway 74. An NWS Damage Survey Team found a path of damaged trees, power poles and fences. This was the seventh tornado of the outbreak.

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 Washington (35.0870, -97.4600).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 McClain County 1 deadEF3 Pottawatomie CountyEF2 Cleveland CountyEF2 Cleveland CountyEF2 Pottawatomie CountyEF2 Pottawatomie CountyEF1 Grady CountyEF1 McClain CountyEF1 McClain CountyEF1 McClain CountyEF1 Cleveland CountyEF1 Pottawatomie CountyEF1 Pottawatomie CountyEF0 Cleveland CountyEF0 Cleveland CountyEF0 Cleveland County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1094985. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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