EF2 Tornado — Pottawatomie, Oklahoma

2023-04-19 · near Tecumseh, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma

Event narrative

The Shawnee Tornado was the seventeenth tornado of this outbreak. This large, mulitple-vortex tornado initially developed near New Hope Road and Gaddy Road just southeast of Bethel Acres. It moved northeast quickly become a large tornado with a width of up to 1.3 miles. The tornado moved northeast into Shawnee, then turned north moving through western and northern portions of Shawnee with damage at Oklahoma Baptist University, areas near the Shawnee Mall near Interstate 40 and Kickapoo Street, and numerous locations in Shawnee. The large tornado continued north and north-northwest producing damage along both Kickapoo Street and Leo Road all the way north to the Lincoln County line. The tornado moved into Lincoln County just west of Kickapoo Street and dissipated soon after.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.2720, -97.0000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1095066. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.