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EF4 tornado in Garvin County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 9, 2016 · Garvin County, Oklahoma

EF4
Rating
8.9 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
1
Death
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
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 EF4 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF4 is devastating damage: well-built houses levelled, consistent with estimated gusts of 166–200 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

A tornado developed 1.25 miles south of the community of Katie, OK, or about 3.4 miles north of Hennepin. The tornado was observed to be very dynamic as it moved east-northeast and east. Initially damage was confined to trees until the tornado crossed county road 1690 where a home was destroyed where only interior walls remained standing. To the east of this house, two mobile homes were damaged on the southern periphery of the tornado path. The tornado moved east-northeast damaging another mobile home, then east removing the roof from a home on Indian Meridian Road.

The tornado varied in movement between northeast and southeast as it approached and crossed county road 1680. A home was destroyed near county road 1680 and Indian Meridian Road where an EF4 rating was applied (DI 2, DOD 9). Further east, a fatality occurred when the tornado destroyed a modular home. After destroying another home, the tornado moved northeast and dissipated near Interstate 35.

The wider storm

With the help of an upper low, storms fired along the dryline in central Oklahoma on the 9th, with some of them becoming severe.

Began near Hennepin (34.5590, -97.3570).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 633058. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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