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EF2 tornado in Rogers County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 16, 2015 · Rogers County, Oklahoma

EF2
Rating
13.1 mi
Whole path
1,500 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,500 yards (0.85 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 near Highway 412, west-northwest of Inola. The tornado was at its widest and appeared to be strongest, creating the most damage between Highways 412 and 88. In that area, it damaged dozens of homes, some severely, destroyed barns and outbuildings, snapped or uprooted numerous trees, and snapped power poles. Damage northeast of Highway 88 through its end point southeast of the Claremore Airport was mainly to trees and barns. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Inola (36.1719, -95.5700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 579409. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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