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EF2 tornado in Harper County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 23, 2019 · Harper County, Oklahoma

EF2

Rating

15.7 mi

Whole path

1,500 yd

Path width

$170K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Lipscomb County, Texas → Beaver County → Ellis County → Harper 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 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

This tornado developed in Lipscomb County Texas and moved through Beaver and Ellis Counties in Oklahoma before moving into southwestern Harper County. The tornado broke numerous power poles and damaged trees as it moved northeast, crossing US Highway 412/State Highway 3, and dissipated about one mile north of the highway to the southwest of Laverne.

The wider storm

Isolated supercells that developed in the Texas Panhandle and moved into far northwestern Oklahoma with tornadoes and wind reported on the 23rd.

Began near Laverne (36.5930, -99.9840).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Harper County EFU Harper County EFU Harper County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 829981. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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