EF1 tornado in Mayes County, Oklahoma

This tornado began south of Boatman, west of the S 439 Road. It moved east-northeast, uprooting trees and snapping numerous large tree limbs as it crossed the S 439 and S 440 Roads, as well as the E 530 Road. It moved across Lake Hudson, and then Highway 82. The tornado moved northeast, roughly paralleling the E 523 Road, and then crossed the S 4437th Road, and the E 508 Road before dissipating. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted in the path east of Lake Hudson. This tornado 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.

Thunderstorms developed over north central and northwestern Oklahoma during the early evening of the 17th, near an outflow boundary from earlier thunderstorms, and north of a developing warm front that stretched across the area. The atmosphere ahead of the thunderstorms over eastern Oklahoma had become very unstable. The strong instability combined with strong wind fields and strong wind shear associated with an intense upper level disturbance moving through the region, resulted in a few supercells that evolved into a severe squall line that moved through the area during the mid to late evening of the 17th, and early morning of the 18th. Widespread damaging wind, multiple tornadoes, and large hail up to golf ball size occurred across northeastern Oklahoma as the storms moved through the area.