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EF3 tornado in Lincoln County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 19, 2013 · Lincoln County, Oklahoma

EF3
Rating
20.8 mi
Whole path
1,200 yd
Path width
4
Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,200 yards (0.68 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The large tornado continued to move northeast from Logan County into Lincoln County. The tornado passed just southeast of Fallis and then clipped the southeastern portion of Carney. It produced EF3 damage to a number of homes from just south of Carney into the southeast portion of the town. The tornado finally dissipated about 3 miles southeast of Tryon. Motions observed visually in this tornado suggest that the tornado was likely stronger then EF3 in western Lincoln County, but no damage indicators were available that would have supplied a rating higher than EF3 in this area.

The wider storm

A moist and very unstable airmass was in place over the eastern two thirds of Oklahoma, to the east of a dryline. Additionally, strong wind shear was present as a mid-level jet streak carved into the southern Plains. Several supercells developed along the dryline during the mid and late afternoon hours, producing large hail. Two supercells in central Oklahoma also produced tornadoes, including a few significant, damaging tornadoes.

Began near Fallis (35.7300, -97.1410).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 451535. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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