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EF0 tornado in Mayes County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 26, 2016 · Mayes County, Oklahoma

EF0
Rating
4.7 mi
Path length
750 yd
Path width
$20K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 750 yards (0.43 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 uprooted a few trees, snapped numerous large tree limbs, and damaged outbuildings. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 75 to 85 mph.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed over northeastern Oklahoma during the late morning and early afternoon hours of the 26th, as a weak upper level disturbance passed through the area. The storms produced small hail over portions of northeastern Oklahoma.

By late afternoon, the atmosphere over central and eastern Oklahoma had become very unstable. Thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a dry line that had moved into western Oklahoma. These storms quickly became severe as they moved eastward during the late afternoon and evening hours. The storms formed into a very organized squall line over central Oklahoma during the evening. Ahead of this squall line over eastern Oklahoma, very strong low level wind shear had developed as the low level jet strengthened across the area. As a result of this strong wind shear, coupled with moderately strong instability that persisted well into the overnight hours, this squall line was able to produced numerous tornadoes and widespread damaging wind as it moved across eastern Oklahoma.

Began near Strang (36.3815, -95.1287).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 632433. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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