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EF1 tornado in Ottawa County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 16, 2015 · Ottawa County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
35.0 mi
Whole path
650 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$445K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Craig County → Delaware County → Delaware County → Ottawa County → Ottawa County → Ottawa County → Newton County, Missouri; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 650 yards (0.37 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 just south of the E 230 Road and moved north-northeast destroying a mobile home, destroying several outbuildings, and snapping or uprooting trees. As the tornado approached the E 190 Road near the S 600 Road, it turned more to the northeast. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, a home was damaged, and outbuildings were damaged between the E 190 Road and Grand Lake. After moving over Grand Lake, the tornado damaged chicken houses and snapped or uprooted trees before dissipating east of Highway 10 near the E 160 Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 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 Fairland (36.6812, -94.8289).

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 579435. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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