EF2 tornado in Adair County, Oklahoma

This segment is the first of six segments of this long-track tornado. A tornado developed just northeast of Westville and moved rapidly northeastward damaging a home, tossing or rolling four vehicles, snapping at least 13 large power poles, and snapping or uprooting large trees. Estimated maximum wind based on this damage was 125 mph. This tornado continued into Washington County, Arkansas.

Unseasonably warm and moist air spread into eastern Oklahoma ahead of a cold front. Scattered thunderstorms developed in the late evening and early morning hours ahead of the cold front as a weak upper level disturbance passed through the region. Large hail and damaging wind gusts occurred with some of these storms. Another round of storms developed on the cold front as it moved into eastern Oklahoma a few hours before sunrise. Weak to moderate instability combined with very strong low level wind shear created an environment that supported supercell thunderstorm structures. Several supercells developed resulting in large hail and damaging wind gusts in the hours just before and after sunrise on the 31st. One of these supercells produced a long-track, strong tornado that began in Adair County, Oklahoma, and moved into Washington County, Arkansas, where it killed four people in and near the town of Cincinnati.