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EF1 tornado in McCurtain County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 30, 2013 · McCurtain County, Oklahoma

EF1

Rating

8.6 mi

Whole path

330 yd

Path width

Injuries

$295K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through McCurtain County → Polk County, Arkansas; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 330 yards (0.19 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

A supercell thunderstorm moved through McCurtain county on the afternoon of May 30th. The storm produced an EF1 tornado about 6 miles southeast of Watson, Oklahoma. The tornado mainly uprooted and snapped trees. A tree fell on a home in this rural community, causing damage to the roof. The tornado then crossed over the state line into Arkansas about 3 miles southwest of Cove, Arkansas. Please see the report from WFO Little Rock on the continuation of this tornado.

The wider storm

A broad upper trough ejected out of the Great Basin and moved into the Central Plains. Broad southwest flow aloft developed across the Southern Plains into the Lower Mississippi Valley. A disturbance rotated around the trough and provided the lift needed for scattered thunderstorms across the Middle Red River Valley. Instability was extreme across the region and low level shear values were supportive of rotating thunderstorms during the early afternoon hours.

Began near Plunkettville (34.3652, -94.4992).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 444288. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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