Flash Flood — Muskogee, Oklahoma

2015-03-25 · near Warner, Muskogee, Oklahoma

Event narrative

A vehicle with two occupants was driven into a flooded low water crossing where an estimated 1 to 1.25 inches of rain had fallen over the previous few hours. The vehicle was washed off the road and the occupants died in the flood waters.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4522, -95.2199)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 569005. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.