F3 tornado — Creek County, Oklahoma

F3 tornado in Creek County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 29, 2004 · Creek County, Oklahoma

Rating

12.1 mi

Whole path

700 yd

Path width

$500K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado moved from the west northwest of Depew to the north northeast of Depew. At its strongest it produced F3 damage. The F3 rating was based on a 20 foot section of a concrete anchored iron pipe cattle gate being removed from the ground and displaced 30 feet. The gate was anchored by 3 posts. All of the posts were set in 24 inches of concrete. Another tornado formed near and just after this tornado dissipated. The two tornadoes formed a nearly continuous damage path. The damage produced by the two tornadoes in western Creek County included 5 mobile homes destroyed, 2 houses destroyed, and 4 houses with significant roof damage. The path of the second tornado is described in a subsequent entry.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5398962. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F3 tornado in Creek County, Oklahoma

What the National Weather Service wrote

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Tornadoes near your address