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EF3 tornado in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 27, 2024 · Okfuskee County, Oklahoma

EF3
Rating
27.9 mi
Whole path
1,100 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
4
Injuries
$1.8M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,100 yards (0.62 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

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado that started in Hughes County, where it also produced EF-3 damage. This strong tornado moved north-northeast from Hughes County, crossing into Okfuskee County between the N3730 and N3740 Roads. A home was destroyed just north of the county line. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, and numerous power poles were blown down through the E1170 Road, then it moved into the Bearden Oil and Gas Field, where road access was very minimal. Two high tension metal pole structures were blown down in this area, just south of the E1160 Road, and east of the N3740 Road. The tornado continued to move north-northeast severely damaging a home, and snapping numerous trees along the N3760 Road, before dissipating south of the E1110 Road and west of Highway 27. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 135 to 145 mph.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of the 27th over central Oklahoma, along and ahead of the dry line, as a strong upper level low pressure system deepened into the Southern Rockies. Strong instability and strong wind shear over eastern Oklahoma supported organized severe thunderstorms, including supercells. The first round of storms affected portions of far northeastern Oklahoma during the early evening. By late evening, a line of severe thunderstorms moved into eastern Oklahoma from the west, with embedded supercells within the line, as well as a supercell ahead of the line. A strong tornado moved into Okfuskee County with the supercell ahead of the line. Multiple other tornadoes occurred as the storms moved through the area during the early morning hours of the 28th, along with damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. Isolated areas of flash flooding also occurred.

Another round of severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 28th. The strongest storms produced tornadoes, large hail to quarter size, and damaging wind gusts.

Began near Bearden (35.2900, -96.3630).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1175411. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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