EF1 Tornado — Mayes, Oklahoma

2024-05-25 · near Salina, Mayes, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This tornado developed just north of Salina, and moved south-southeast across town, dissipating over an inlet of Lake Hudson. The tornado damaged about 40 homes and businesses, of which seven were destroyed, damaged more than a dozen government and commercial buildings, destroyed about twenty outbuildings, uprooted and snapped trees, and blew down power poles. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KINX WSR-88D. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.2998, -95.1594)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1184522. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.