Tornado in Kay County, Oklahoma

The tornado that began west of Ponca City moved back crossed a bend of the Arkansas River moving back into Kay County from Osage County. This tornado moved through a rural area of bottomlands along the Arkansas River. No known damage occurred in this area before the tornado crossed the Arkansas River again into Osage County. See Storm Data from NWS Tulsa for the documentation of this tornado in Osage County.

A severe weather episode, with widespread reports of large to very large hail and a tornado, impacted portions of northern Oklahoma during the afternoon and evening of the 17th. Numerous supercells developed along a trailing cold front, with strong wind shear and instability promoting hail sizes as large as tennis ball to just smaller than softball with multiple thunderstorms. A more organized supercell also produced a tornado on the south side of Ponca City, continuing into portions of Osage County (see NWS Tulsa writeup for more information). Additional thunderstorm activity continued into the late evening and early morning hours of the 18th, focusing along a southeastward advancing cold front. This portion of the event featured mainly occasional damaging wind gusts and small hail.