Tornado in Choctaw County, Oklahoma

Several storm chasers and storm spotters observed this tornado, which remained over Lake Hugo for much of its life cycle. The NWS ground survey team investigated accessible areas of land on both the west and east sides of the lake, and could find no damage. Therefore, the specific details regarding this tornado had to be estimated, and a damage rating could not be determined.

Severe thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a dry line across central Oklahoma during the afternoon of May 9th. The storms moved across eastern Oklahoma during the evening hours. Prior to the storms moving into the area, the atmosphere ahead of the dry line in eastern Oklahoma had become very unstable. This instability, combined with very strong wind shear associated with a strong trough of low pressure that moved into the Southern Plains from the Southern Rockies, resulted in the development of supercell thunderstorms. One of these supercells produced multiple tornadoes as it tracked along and near an outflow boundary from morning thunderstorms, which had settled across southeastern Oklahoma by the afternoon. One of the tornadoes was long-lived and damaging. In addition to the tornadoes in southeastern Oklahoma, the severe thunderstorms produced hail up to golfball size and damaging wind gusts across other portions of eastern Oklahoma.