Thunderstorm Wind in McClain County, Oklahoma

A wide swath of very strong thunderstorm winds moved out of Grady County and into southwestern McClain County. There was extensive damage for a distance of at least 18 miles from the Grady County line to southwest of Wayne. The width of the damage swath was up to 3.5 miles wide in the Payne area. The most significant damage and winds estimated to be near 120 mph were south of Payne along Western Avenue and along 120th Street where a well constructed barn was destroyed, numerous power poles were snapped, and trees snapped and partially debarked.

Elsewhere, power pole and significant tree damage occurred throughout this damage swath. At least six homes suffered roof damage and nine barns or outbuildings were damaged or destroyed.

There were three locations of concentrated damage within the very large damage swath that showed a somewhat convergent damage pattern where it is possible tornadoes may have occurred, but overall the evidence was inconclusive if this was a tornadic circulation or convergent winds along the front flank gust front of the supercell with a strong north component to the winds underneath the front flank core, a south component to the winds in the inflow region, and a west component to the winds in the rear flank downdraft. Overall the broad range of evidence suggests the latter, but it does remain possible that there were embedded tornadoes within this large-scale significant wind damage swath.

While the upper air pattern across Oklahoma and north Texas was benign (from a thunderstorm perspective) for much of the 5th, a cluster of occasionally intense thunderstorms tracked along a quasi-stationary boundary from the eastern Texas Panhandle through portions of western and south-central Oklahoma during the afternoon and evening hours. This activity initiated along a mid-level front within a zone of strong isentropic ascent. Thunderstorm wind damage, including a swath of significant damage across portions of southern McClain and northern Garvin Counties, and large hail were noted episodically with this activity.