EF2 Tornado — Wagoner, Oklahoma

2015-05-16 · near Kadashan, Wagoner, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This is the first segment of a two segment tornado. The tornado developed just east of the Tulsa/Wagoner County line near E 131st St South. It moved rapidly northeast damaging as many as 120 homes, some severely, destroying barns and outbuildings, snapping and uprooting many trees, and snapping power poles. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level disturbance translated from the Southern Rockies into the Southern Plains on the 16th. Very moist and unstable air was in place across the Southern Plains as this system approached. Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas during the afternoon and moved eastward into eastern Oklahoma in the late evening. By the time the storms reached eastern Oklahoma, a well-organized squall line had evolved but due to very strong low level wind shear, multiple tornadoes occurred across the area along with widespread damaging wind. Locally heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding in some areas through the early morning hours of the 17th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.9727, -95.7615)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 579403. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.