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EF1 tornado in Osage County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 17, 2026 · Osage County, Oklahoma

EF1

Rating

20.8 mi

Whole path

75 yd

Path width

$110K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Kay County → Osage County → Kay County → Kay County → Osage County → Osage County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. This tornado crossed into Osage County from Kay County, after damaging boat docks at the marina. In Osage County, a few trees were uprooted south of Kaw Dam Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 85 to 95 mph.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed over north central Oklahoma during the early evening of the 17th, as a cold front moved into the area. The atmosphere became moderately unstable ahead of the cold front across northeastern Oklahoma and deep-layer wind shear increased during the afternoon and evening with the approach of an upper level disturbance. The resulting combination of instability and wind shear supported the evolution of a supercell thunderstorm that produced a couple tornadoes in Osage County. The thunderstorms also produced damaging wind.

As the cold front progressed through eastern Oklahoma during the late evening of the 17th and early morning hours of the 18th, thunderstorms continued to develop across the area. The strongest thunderstorm produced golf ball size hail in Choctaw County.

Began near Apperson (36.7000, -96.9250).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1331454. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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