EF4 Tornado — Love, Oklahoma
2024-04-27 · near Marietta, Love, Oklahoma
Event narrative
The Marietta-Lake Murray-Dickson tornado first produced damage near Peanut Road south of Indian Trails Road about two miles southwest of downtown Marietta. Trees and power poles were damaged near the beginning of the path and a house received some shingle damage. EF2 damage was observed as the tornado moved north-northeast and crossed Indian Trails Road where a home was unroofed and many trees were snapped.
As the tornado turned more northeast, it struck a Dollar Tree Distribution Center just west of Interstate 35 on the west side of Marietta causing significant roof and exterior wall damage to the facility. The company reported that the building and the inventory were not salvageable. A fatality occurred as the tornado crossed Interstate 35 just northeast of the distribution center and south of State Highway 32 as a southbound semi truck was overturned by the tornado. The driver was injured and the passenger was killed.
Just east of Interstate 35 along State Highway 32, the tornado destroyed a Dollar General store and a Homeland Grocery Store. NWS surveyors in coordination with a wind engineer rated the destruction of these two buildings as EF4. In this area, the tornado also caused significant damage to a truck stop, hospital and nursing home. The tornado continued north-northeast through the northwestern sections of Marietta continuing to produce tree, roof and power pole damage although damage intensity was not as strong as near State Highway 32.
After moving out of Marietta, the tornado turned northeast again snapping numerous trees and damaging a barn as it approached Lake Murray. The tornado crossed the southeastern portion of Lake Murray near the dam. It severely damaged a mobile home, destroyed a barn and snapped more trees after crossing the lake. The tornado then moved into Carter County near Scott Road.
Wider weather episode
A widespread, long-duration and historic severe weather and tornado outbreak occurred from the late morning through late evening on the 27th. In all, 32 tornadoes affected portions of the WFO Norman Forecast Area, the third most in a single day during the period of reliable record. This included six significant (EF-2+) tornadoes and one violent (EF-4) tornado that struck Marietta (Love County).
Synoptically, a slow-moving and deep mid/upper-level wave progressed across the Four Corners region during the day. At the surface, an area of low-pressure strengthened/deepened across southwest Kansas, with a trailing dryline extending near and just west of the 100th meridian through much of the day. As ascent overspread this feature, numerous (organized) severe thunderstorms developed across the WFO Norman Forecast Area, even by as early as daybreak/early morning hours. The boundary layer was characterized by strong instability and wind shear, favorable for an organized/supercell storm mode. Initial supercells across western Oklahoma produced a few reports of large hail and the first (brief) tornadoes of the event just after 10 AM. Supercell storm development continued across portions of the area, focusing along an axis from western-north Texas into north-central Oklahoma through much of the afternoon. The first significant (EF-2) tornado of the event impacted the eastern edge of Knox City (Knox County, Texas) just after 3 PM. Through the evening, a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) organized and swept across much of southern/central Oklahoma and adjacent north Texas. Numerous mesovortex-type tornadoes developed and impacted the aforementioned areas. Ahead of the main convective line, strong warm air advection, driven by an increasing (45-60 knot) low-level jet, promoted the development of pre-frontal/line supercell thunderstorms. Multiple of these storms became strongly tornadic, producing multiple strong and long-tracking tornadoes. This included an EF-2 tornado impacting the western portions of Ardmore, an EF-3 tornado making a direct impact on the historic downtown district and adjacent neighborhoods in Sulphur, an EF-3 tornado traversing western portions of Hughes County, just west of Holdenville, and an EF-4 tornado destroying a Dollar Tree distribution center and nearby large retail stores on the western side of Marietta. The latter three tornadoes resulted in fatalities (1 in Sulphur, 2 near Holdenville and 1 in Marietta) along with additional injuries.
Beyond severe weather outcomes, a significant flash flooding event occurred from the late evening of the 27th through mid-morning of the 28th. The corridor of highest rainfall, with observed 24-hour totals of 5-to-8 inches, occurred across portions of south-central into southeast Oklahoma, on the heels of a cluster of significant tornado impacts earlier in the evening. Additional flooding occurred across far northern Oklahoma (Kay County) during the evening of the 27th.
View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.9150, -97.1440)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1175811. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.