EF3 Tornado — Hughes, Oklahoma
2024-04-27 · near Spaulding, Hughes, Oklahoma
Event narrative
The Spaulding-Holdenville Tornado developed along County Road N369 in the south side of the town of Spaulding and moved north through Spaulding causing roof damage to a few homes and damaging some outbuildings, metal buildings and trees. The damage in and near Spaulding was primarily EF1 damage.
The tornado became wider as it moved north-northeast from Spaulding becoming almost two-thirds of a mile wide as it crossed County Road E135 and a mile wide as it moved north of County Road E134. Most of the damage west of Holdenville was between Spaulding Road and County Road N369 missing the most populated part of Holdenville to the west and the missing the Davis Correctional Facility to the east. The tornado continued producing roof damage to homes as well as damage to outbuildings, metal buildings, trees and power poles.
The tornado was still about one mile in width as it moved north-northeast crossing US Highway 270 and County Road E132, but the intensity increased from EF1 to EF3 as it approached County Road E131. Multiple mobile homes were completely destroyed in this area. Two fatalities occurred in mobile homes here where a 35 year old man was killed in one mobile home and a 4 month old girl was killed in another.
Although the tornado moved through less densely populated areas of Hughes County continued moving north-northeast through less densely populated areas of Hughes County, it still produced significant roof damage to homes and destroyed mobile homes as it continued moving north-northeast, especially along State Highway 48 north of Holdenville, County Road E125 just east of State Highway 48, and E120 Road where EF2 damage was observed in each of these areas. The tornado then crossed E119 Road into Okfuskee County. See the Eastern Oklahoma entry from NWS Tulsa for the continuation of this tornado.
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 → (35.0010, -96.4420)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1175819. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.