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EF1 tornado in Grady County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 8, 2007 · Grady County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
1.5 mi
Path length
30 yd
Path width
$70K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 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

Damage was first observed to dairy facility 2.7 miles southwest of Minco where the western portion of the south wall was pushed in which in turn pushed the roof and the northern wall of the building to the north. To the northwest, a farm sustained roof damage to the house, and damage to three metal storage buildings and two barns. Fences and trees were also damaged along the path. Monetary damages were estimated.

The wider storm

An upper level storm system moved slowly east northeast through southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. A couple of disturbances rotated around the storm system and moved over the southern plains during the morning and afternoon hours. One disturbance moved over Oklahoma during the morning hours, with the other moving over Oklahoma during the evening hours. A stationary front remained located south of the Red River, with another front establishing itself over the southeast third of Oklahoma. Showers and thunderstorms developed and moved over the main body of Oklahoma during the morning hours. Widespread flash flooding was reported over central Oklahoma, with rivers rising out of their banks. After a lull in precipitation for a few hours the other disturbance moved over Oklahoma during the late afternoon and evening hours. Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed over southwest Oklahoma and continued to develop into central and southern Oklahoma. Large hail and severe wind gusts were reported, with flash flooding and river flooding continuing to be a concern due to the heavy rainfall earlier in the day. Supercell thunderstorms formed in southwest Oklahoma producing one tornado near Lake Ellsworth. As the showers and storms continued to develop and move northeast, a mesoscale convective vorticity maximum (MCV) developed. In the vicinity of this MCV, transient circulations on many scales were observed in the storm-relative radar velocity fields and in the storm motions themselves. Some of the circulations briefly tightened to tornado scale causing damage west of Minco, west of Union City, and in El Reno. Monetary damages were estimated.

Began near Minco (35.2924, -97.9638).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 35827. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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