F3 Tornado — Creek, Oklahoma

1999-05-03 · near Milfay, Creek, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This tornado started out in central Lincoln County, travelling northeast and passing through the eastern Lincoln County town of Stroud. This tornado caused considerable damage in Stroud, most notably to the Tanger Factory Outlet Center. For more information on the Lincoln County portion of this tornado, refer to the Tornado entry for the Central and Western Oklahoma Storm Data compiled by the National Weather Service Office in Norman. This tornado continued on into Creek County, travelling on the ground for two miles before lifting just northwest of Milfay. This tornado reached F3 strength at its peak in Lincoln County but had started weakening by the time it entered Creek County. The path length listed with this Tornado entry only incorporates that part of the tornado path in Creek County. Fortunately in Creek County, the tornado travelled through an unpopulated rural area and was only responsible for tree damage.

Wider weather episode

Summary of events for May 3-4 1999:Following a week-long blocking weather pattern, a strong upper level trough finally moved out of the southwestern U.S. Interactions with a dryline in western Oklahoma and a slow-moving cold front brought the largest tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history from the afternoon of May 3 through the afternoon of May 4. Most notable was the F5 tornado that moved through southern parts of the Oklahoma City metro area. While the loss of life and the heaviest property damage was limited to central Oklahoma, eastern Oklahoma got into the act with a significant number of tornadoes.While there were dozens of individual storms on May 3 and 4, there are two storms in eastern Oklahoma that stand out as outstanding. The first outstanding storm moved northeast along the I-44 corridor on the evening of May 3, causing F3 damage to Stroud in Lincoln County. The storm went on to cause significant F1 damage in Sapulpa and southwestern portions of the city of Tulsa and millions of dollars in damage.The second outstanding storm got its start in southeast Oklahoma well south of McAlester. This storm moved northeast across Pushmataha, Latimer, Haskell, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties, producing several damaging tornadoes along the way. The final tornado touched down in Sequoyah County and tracked 39 miles to near Fayetteville, AR, producing F3 damage in an unpopulated forest in Adair County.Following a very wet April that saturated area grounds, another slow-moving weather system made flash flooding another serious problem to deal with as most rainfall quickly ran off into creeks, streams and mainstem rivers. One flash flood in Vinita caused millions of dollars in damage following the flooding of dozens of homes.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5700318. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.