EF1 Tornado — Le Flore, Oklahoma

2025-05-19 · near Williams, Le Flore, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This is the first segment of a two segment tornado. The tornado developed south of Williams Road and west of Green Road, where a few trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped. It moved northeast and crossed Poker Bend Road, where a tree was blown down and large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado continued northeast across Highway 112, then turned more east as it crossed into Arkansas west of Bonanza. The tornado was weak between Highway 112 and the Sebastian County line. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed over central Oklahoma along and ahead of a dry line during the afternoon of the 19th, as an upper level disturbance approached the Southern Plains. These thunderstorms moved northeast off the dry line and across portions of eastern Oklahoma during the mid afternoon and evening hours. The atmosphere east of the dry line across eastern Oklahoma became very unstable during the afternoon and evening, and this instability combined with strong deep-layer and low-level wind shear, resulted in the development of a few supercell thunderstorms and a severe squall line. Multiple tornadoes, large hail slightly larger than golf ball size, and damaging wind gusts occurred with these thunderstorms across eastern Oklahoma. Locally heavy rainfall also produced some localized flash flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.1620, -94.5540)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1264152. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.