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EF1 tornado in Rogers County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 20, 2013 · Rogers County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
6.0 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width
$30K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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 and final segment of this tornado. In Rogers County, this tornado remained over open country for much of its life cycle but an NWS damage survey team did find a home that received roof damage and a barn that had two doors blown out by the tornado. A cattle trailer was also thrown across a field. Several trees were also damaged. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 mph but video of this tornado indicates that it may have been stronger over open country before it hit the home and barn. Multiple storm spotters and storm chasers photographed the tornado until it dissipated.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed along a nearly stationary frontal boundary over central Oklahoma during the early afternoon hours of the 20th. Very unstable air combined with strong low-level and deep-layer shear resulted in long-lived supercells forming over central Oklahoma and moving eastward into eastern Oklahoma. Several tornadoes occurred from these storms across Osage, Washington, and Nowata Counties. The storms organized into bow echos and line segments over eastern Oklahoma, from which several other tornadoes developed during the early evening hours across Ottawa, Adair, and Le Flore Counties. Damaging wind and large hail was also widespread across the region from these storms.

Began near Talala (36.5531, -95.8122).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 455289. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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