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EF1 tornado in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 14, 2011 · Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
1.0 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$8K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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

Radar, storm chaser, and local medial reported a small tornado. The tornado was embedded in a larger area of thunderstorm wind damage associated with the rear-flank downdraft. A number of large trees were snapped. One tree fell on top of a car, damaging it. Monetary damages were estimated.

The wider storm

An upper level trough moved onshore along the west coast on the 13th, and continued east toward the plains. The storm system strengthened as it moved east of the Rocky mountains, eventually becoming a major storm system, with blizzard conditions on the west and north sides of it, and powerful thunderstorms to the south and east. A surface low pressure moved from the Texas panhandle into southern Kansas, with a dry line extending to the south. The dry line moved quickly east before slowing to the east of I-35 in Oklahoma. Dew point temperatures reached the middle 60s east of the dry line, with bone-dry conditions advecting in on the back side of the dry line. The cap that was in place was all but erased by mid afternoon, and thunderstorms quickly developed over eastern Oklahoma. The wind shear in place was more than sufficient for rotating thunderstorms, with most storms become supercells. Very large hail and wind damage was common early in the thunderstorm life cycle. A weak tornado developed northwest of Stroud, with other storms showing signs of rotation by late afternoon. Additional tornadoes developed through the early evening, with a couple of them doing damage. The tornadoes were in addition to the hail up to softball size. By late evening, at least five tornadoes were reported, with one of them rated and EF-3.

Began near Stonewall (34.6166, -96.5468).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 305893. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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