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EF0 tornado in Tulsa County, Oklahoma

Tornado March 25, 2015 · Tulsa County, Oklahoma

EF0
Rating
2.3 mi
Path length
600 yd
Path width
$200K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 tornado developed in an undeveloped area south of the Tulsa International Airport and moved southeast toward Admiral Blvd. The tornado damaged several mobile homes, a number of permanent homes, and snapped large tree limbs north of I-244. Numerous homes, a number of mobile homes, a strip mall, an apartment complex, and businesses were damaged south of I-244 and west of Highway 169. The tornado continued southeast as it crossed Highway 169 at and south of Admiral Blvd., damaging the roofs of numerous homes and snapping many large tree limbs. A carport was destroyed and a garage door of a home was blown inward as the tornado turned more southerly before dissipating near E 11th Street South, just west of Garnett Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 70 to 80 mph.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours to the east of a surface low pressure system located over southwestern Oklahoma and near a stationary frontal boundary that was draped across northeastern Oklahoma. Several of these storms developed supercell characteristics due to a very unstable air mass that was in place over the region coupled with strong vertical wind shear. These supercells produced several tornadoes, including a strong tornado that resulted in a fatality in Sand Springs. The storms also produced hail up to softball size and wind gusts to around 90 mph.

The storms evolved into a line during the evening hours and moved swiftly across eastern Oklahoma producing wind damage and hail to golfball size.

Locally heavy rainfall as a result of storms moving repeatedly across the same locations resulted in flash flooding. Two flash flood fatalities occurred in Muskogee County when a vehicle was driven into flood waters and was swept off the road.

Began near Dawson (36.1689, -95.8815).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 560273. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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