EF3 Tornado — Ochiltree, Texas

2023-06-15 · near Perryton, Ochiltree, Texas

Event narrative

The tornado touched down to the northwest of Perryton and crossed

Highway 143. It entered town, where it caused significant damage

to a mobile home community. Dozens of mobile homes were

completely destroyed. It continued into downtown and caused

structural damage to several downtown shops, some with collapsed

walls. A microwave tower was also folded in half. The tornado

intensified and caused low end EF3 damage to a few retail stores

in downtown and along Ash Street, some of which were completely destroyed.

As the tornado continued to the southeast across Birch and Cedar

Streets, it damaged numerous mobile homes and single family structures,

continuing as an EF2 in this area. A cell phone tower was also brought

down, which resulted in telecommunication outages. The tornado affected an

industrial park area where it tossed several empty fuel tanks

across Texas 143 Loop and into a field. It also pushed a full tanker

truck into a pond along Loop 143. The tornado then crossed a

field, before damaging a grain bin and downing about ten power

poles along Highway 377. It crossed Highway 377 and lifted in an

open field before it reached County Road 20.

Wider weather episode

During the evening of the 15th a line of storms, of which contained supercells, formed over portions of southwest Kansas and extend south through Beaver County, OK into the northeastern portions of the Texas Panhandle. The supercell furthest south dropped a tornado on Perryton, TX killing three people and leaving a path of distruction over 6 miles. Several other landspout tornadoes spun up further south of Perryton along the flanking line of the tornadic supercell. One of these landpouts took out some power poles, but remained mostly in grasslands. These tornadic supercells also produced large hail between 1 and 2.5 in diameter.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.4135, -100.8302)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1112298. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.