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EF1 tornado in Cherokee County, Oklahoma

Tornado August 10, 2011 · Cherokee County, Oklahoma

EF1

Rating

5.0 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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 of three segments of this tornado. The tornado tracked northeast across the extreme northwestern corner of Cherokee County, uprooting and snapping numerous trees. Based on the tree damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was about 105 mph. The tornado continued northeastward into Mayes County.

The wider storm

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours of August 10th near a stationary frontal boundary that extended across eastern Oklahoma. Strong, damaging winds occurred across much of eastern Oklahoma as these storms moved across the region as well as a tornado.

Began near Peggs (36.1540, -95.1184).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 340630. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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