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EF1 tornado in Mayes County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 25, 2024 · Mayes County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
6.1 mi
Path length
2,000 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,000 yards (1.14 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

This tornado developed over Lake Hudson and moved generally east-southeast. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, about 30 homes were damaged, one of which was destroyed, more than 30 outbuildings were destroyed, and power poles were snapped along its path from the lake shore to near Kenwood Road. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KINX WSR-88D. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 105 to 110 mph.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 25th, along a sharpening dry line, and moved east across Oklahoma through the evening and into the early morning hours of the 26th. The atmosphere east of the dry line across Oklahoma was moist and very unstable. Wind fields above the ground and deep layer wind shear strengthened during the afternoon through the early morning hours of the 26th, as an upper level disturbance translated into the Southern Plains. Additionally, low level wind shear increased late in the evening and continued very strong into the early morning hours of the 26th. These conditions were very supportive for the development of supercell thunderstorms. One of these supercells became particularly intense and long-tracked as it moved across northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, producing multiple tornadoes, several of which were strong. Large hail to base ball size and swaths of damaging straight-line wind also occurred, resulting in considerable damage.

Began near Salina (36.3196, -95.1669).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1184521. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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