EF3 Tornado — Pottawatomie, Oklahoma

2010-05-10 · near Tecumseh, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This tornado lasted for at least 30 miles and continued into Seminole and Okfuskee counties, with significant damage along almost its entire path. At times, the tornado damage path widened up to a mile. The most significant damage was located north and northeast of Earlsboro near the Pottawatomie/Seminole county border. Here a two story home was destroyed except for a few interior walls. A pick-up truck was also lofted approximately a quarter of a mile, and a semi-trailer was lofted or rolled approximately 200 yards. Farther east along its path, seven high tension towers were downed. Significant tree damage was reported along the entire track of the tornado, some of them debarked and stripped off all their branches. This tornado is labeled #J4.

This tornado moved into Seminole County.

Wider weather episode

A significant outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes affected a large part of northern, central, and southern Oklahoma. Tornadoes were most numerous across central and southern Oklahoma, with significant damage occurring over many areas.

Severe thunderstorms erupted by mid afternoon across northern and western Oklahoma. Given the potent combination of ingredients in place, storms began to produce tornadoes quickly after initiation. Storm motions of 50 to 60 mph were common.

During the mid afternoon hours, severe weather was confined to northern Oklahoma. It was there a long track supercell storm produced tornadoes near the Kansas border - including one rated EF3 - from near Wakita to north of Braman.

The capping inversion that had delayed thunderstorm development into central Oklahoma weakened, allowing for explosive supercell development along the dry line along and west of the Interstate 35 corridor. Rapid development and intensification was common with the late afternoon storms, with storms becoming tornadic within a very short time after initiation. This round of storms would directly impact a large part of the Oklahoma City metro area at rush hour, and posed a significant threat to the area. The first tornado in this area occurred in Canadian County.

During the next several hours, tornadoes were clustered around the metro area, and at times there were multiple significant damaging tornadoes occurring simultaneously. Several of the tornadoes had long tracks. Damage from the tornadoes was substantial, with numerous structures, vehicles, trees and power poles/lines significantly damaged or destroyed. One of the more intense tornadoes moved across Lake Thunderbird east of Norman destroying numerous boats.

More storms developed across southwest and south central Oklahoma, and also quickly became tornadic.

By 9 pm, 35 tornadoes had been reported. While the loss of three lives was tragic, the casualties could have been much higher given the storm's fast motions, their intensity, the time of day and the areas impacted.

While exact monetary damage figures were not available, it is estimated that losses were in excess of $595 million. At least 450 sustained injuries, most of them minor. Unfortunately three people lost their lives.

Note: The large number of injuries and tornadoes made it difficult to associate injuries with specific tornadoes. Injury numbers were included when we had confidence in the numbers.

Note: The complex nature of storm evolutions and interactions made the job of classifying tornadoes difficult. This represents our best scientific assessment based on ground and aerial surveys, data from multiple radars, photographic and video evidence and anecdotal information.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.2460, -96.9840)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 231985. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.