Home / Oklahoma / Delaware

EF2 tornado in Delaware County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 22, 2011 · Delaware County, Oklahoma

EF2

Rating

4.5 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

$250K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 of two segments of this tornado. In Delaware County, this tornado severely damaged several homes in the Fiddler's Bend area and snapped or uprooted many trees. Maximum estimated wind in the tornado based on this damage was about 115 mph. Several citizens witnessed this tornado.

The wider storm

A very moist and very unstable air mass developed across eastern Oklahoma on the afternoon and evening of the 22nd as a dry line moved into the area from the west. Severe thunderstorms, including supercells, developed ahead of the dry line and moved across the area producing tornadoes, large hail up to softball size, and damaging wind gusts.

Began near Flint (36.1618, -94.7352).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Delaware County EF2 Delaware County EF2 Delaware County EF1 Wagoner County EF1 Cherokee County EF1 Delaware County EF1 Delaware County EF0 Delaware County EF0 Cherokee County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 310059. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.