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EF3 tornado in Canadian County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 25, 2019 · Canadian County, Oklahoma

EF3
Rating
2.2 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
29
Injuries
$400K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

An intense QLCS tornado developed south of El Reno, just south of Interstate 40 and about a mile west of US-81. Initially the tornado affected rural areas, but as it moved east-northeast, it moved through the northwestern portion of an automobile dealership at the northwest corner of Interstate 40 and US-81. There it overturned or displaced a number of vehicles and removed the roof and collapsed many exterior walls of an automobile service building.

Immediately northeast of the automobile dealership, the tornado moved through the southeastern portion of a mobile home park destroying many mobile homes. Although the tornado was relatively narrow, the destruction of mobile homes was complete in the path while mobile homes just a couple of blocks away suffered minimal damage. Two residents of one mobile home were killed when their home was destroyed.

Just to the northeast of the mobile home park, the tornado hit a two-story motel. Most walls of the second story were collapsed in the portion of the motel that was in the most intense part of the tornado path and the tornado was rated EF3 at this motel.

Crossing US-81, the tornado significantly damaged another automotive service building and produced significant roof damage to a home on SE 27th Street. The tornado weakened as it moved east-northeast along and just north of SE 27th Street damaging trees before dissipating near Alfadale Road.

The wider storm

Scattered supercells merged into a linear system that produced a variety of severe weather on the 25th.

Began near El Reno (35.5000, -97.9550).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Oklahoma CountyEF0 Oklahoma CountyEF0 Oklahoma CountyEF0 Oklahoma CountyEF0 Cleveland CountyEFU Greer CountyEFU Beckham County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 830307. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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