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EF3 tornado in Murray County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 9, 2016 · Murray County, Oklahoma

EF3
Rating
16.6 mi
Whole path
1,500 yd
Path width
$4.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Murray County → Pontotoc 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 EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

After the Katie tornado dissipated, the storm produced another tornado that developed just west of US-77 between Wynnewood and Davis. Some tree damage was noted between the Washita River and US-77. The tornado moved about three miles through open land before damaging or destroying numerous houses and other structures along and near Palmer Road and Buel Green Road to the northwest and north of Sulphur. Through this time, the tornado grew to nearly one mile in width. Numerous houses from Meadow road to just east of US-177 received EF3 damage. Near Meadow Road and Burnside Road, cars parked near a destroyed barn were displaced about 280 yards to the east. Preliminary analysis of winds from the Doppler on Wheels mobile research radar provided by the Center for Severe Weather Research indicated approximately 218 mph (+/-) at 17 meters AGL near US-177 N of Buel Green Road, however there were no structures in the immediate vicinity of this wind maximum to give a corresponding damage rating.

The tornado moved east-northeast after crossing US-177 with the path width gradually diminishing. The tornado moved along the Murray-Pontotoc County line affecting both counties for the last three miles before dissipating about 2 miles south-southwest of Roff. The center line of the tornado did move into Pontotoc County approximately three miles southwest of Roff.

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 Joy (34.5650, -97.1460).

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 633084. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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