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EF2 tornado in Cleveland County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 19, 2023 · Cleveland County, Oklahoma

EF2
Rating
4.2 mi
Whole path
2,200 yd
Path width
$775K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Cleveland County → Pottawatomie County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,200 yards (1.25 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

The eleventh tornado of the outbreak, and the fourth of four in the Etowah area, developed a minute or two after tornado #9 dissipated. This tornado developed near 180th Avenue and Post Oak Road and quickly become a very wide tornado as it moved north-northeast, and then northeast before crossing into Pottawatomie County just south of Lindsey Street. Numerous EF2 rated points were observed during the first two miles of the tornado path including significant damage to homes and destruction of mobile homes.

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 Lake Thunderbird Dam (35.1590, -97.1730).

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 1095005. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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