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EF2 tornado in Harper County, Oklahoma

Tornado November 16, 2015 · Harper County, Oklahoma

EF2

Rating

27.2 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

$7K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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 moved from Ellis County into Harper County to the west of Fort Supply. Four electrical transmission poles were broken as well as several trees 4 miles west of Fort Supply. Outbuildings were heavily damaged north of Fort Supply as the tornado continued northeast, and more power poles were broken east of Buffalo near the end of the tornado's path.

The wider storm

A line of storms formed along an eastward moving front overnight on the 16th and continued into the morning of the 17th. Several of these storms produced severe winds, and a few produced tornadoes.

Began near May (36.5930, -99.6590).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Ellis County EF1 Woods County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 603783. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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