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EF1 tornado in McClain County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 11, 2023 · McClain County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
9.4 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
$100K
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 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

A tornado was observed by many spotters and storm chasers moving from southwest of Cole to Goldsby, remaining to the south of the damage path of the large EF3 tornado that affected Cole on April 19. This tornado was a multiple vortex tornado at times, developing initially 2 miles southwest of the center of Cole and move east-northeast through the southern portion of Cole producing tree and roof damage, including removing a large section of roof to a home just east of the Cole city limits. The tornado turned northeast towards Goldsby continuing to produce tree and roof damage. At the end of the path in Goldsby, the tornado took a hard left and moved northwest for the final half-mile dissipating just northwest of NW 12th Avenue and Center Road, crossing the damage path from the February 26 Goldsby-Norman Tornado along Center Road.

The wider storm

A deepening upper/low pressure system slowly approached portions of the Central Plains on the 11th. Combined with increasing instability and wind shear, a favorable environment for severe weather (capable of producing all severe hazards) developed across much of western into central Oklahoma on the evening of the 11th. Numerous supercell thunderstorms developed and produced twelve tornadoes and large hail across portions of these areas.

Began near Cole (35.0700, -97.6010).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1100944. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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