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EF2 tornado in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 9, 2016 · Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

EF2

Rating

16.6 mi

Whole path

600 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 600 yards (0.34 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

The tornado that passed north of Sulphur in Murray County moved along the Murray-Pontotoc County line for three miles affecting both counties before dissipating approximately 2 miles south-southwest of Roff. The center of the tornadic circulation moved east-northeast into Pontotoc County approximately 3 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 Roff (34.5930, -96.8840).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Garvin County 1 dead EF3 Johnston County 1 dead EF3 Bryan County EF2 Noble County EF1 Atoka County EFU Cleveland County EFU Johnston County EFU Atoka County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 633087. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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