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EF3 tornado in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 19, 2023 · Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma

EF3
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 twelfth tornado of the outbreak developed about 2 miles south-southeast of Pink. This tornado was very slow, moving only 0.6 mile in 5 minutes near the intersection of Okay Road and Willow View Road. A metal truss electric transmission tower collapsed in the tornado and is the source of the EF3 rating. The tornado also damaged at least two homes and numerous trees.

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 Pink (35.2290, -97.1110).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 McClain County 1 deadEF2 Cleveland CountyEF2 Cleveland CountyEF2 Pottawatomie CountyEF2 Pottawatomie CountyEF1 Grady CountyEF1 McClain 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 1095008. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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