Weather center adjusts number of county tornadoes; assigns ratings

Apr. 21—Three tornadoes touched down in Cleveland County on Wednesday night and the number could grow by two with further investigation, according to the National Weather Center.

The Cole tornado in McClain County, which resulted in three deaths, received an unofficial EF3 rating from the weather center, which is located on the University of Oklahoma campus.

An EF3 tornado will have estimated wind speeds between 136 and 165 mph, according to the National Weather Service, which operates the weather center.

The Cole tornado had maximum speeds between 150 and 155 mph, said meteorologist Max Ungar.

"It was on the ground for 11 miles over a 35-minute period from 7:30 to just after 8 p.m. on Wednesday," Ungar said.

The width of the Cole tornado was 1,200 yards or about two-thirds of a mile, the meteorologist said.

"So, it was long-lived, as well as wide, and it was an EF3 tornado, so it was intense," he said.

The Cole tornado caused damage to between 50 and 100 homes, officials said.

Of the three tornadoes that hit Cleveland County, only the Moore tornado has received an official rating, which is EF0.

An EF0 tornado is considered weak, with estimated wind speeds between 65 and 85 mph, according to the weather service.

The tornado touched down in northeast Moore just before 7 p.m. and traveled toward Tinker Air Force Base with a maximum wind speed of 85 mph.

The Slaughterville tornado, which received a preliminary rating of EF2, touched down at 8:30 p.m. and traveled 11 miles in 30 minutes in the direction of Lake Thunderbird.

An EF2 tornado is considered strong, with estimated wind speeds between 111 and 135 mph, according to the weather service.

"Again, that's preliminary-rated at the high end of 130-135 miles per hour, but we are going to look at that tornado today and check a few more spots," Ungar said. "We know there's some damage in that vicinity of the track."

The third confirmed tornado started out in Pottawatomie County and curved into the northwest part of Cleveland County, Ungar said.

He described the path as having created EF1 damage, but the rating had not been confirmed.

"That's max speeds of 105 miles per hour that began just before 9 p.m.," he said.

The weather center is looking into two possible tornado tracts in Cleveland County, one in Slaughterville and one near Lake Thunderbird on State Highway 9.

"The first one is just to the west of Slaughterville," Ungar said. "The track began in McClain County and then came across the river near the intersection of Banner Road and 48th Street, kind of near the river bottoms of the Canadian River."

Another possible tornado track is located between Highway 9 and Rock Creek Road on the east side of Lake Thunderbird, the meteorologist said.

Each of the tornadoes traveled northward, which isn't typical, according to Ungar.

"They all had northward deviations in their track, which was a little bit unusual given the set up, given how slow the storms were moving, and it had really strong low winds," he said.

Light damage in Norman

Gov. Kevin Stitt issued a State of Emergency Declaration on Thursday to include Cleveland, McClain, Pottawatomie, Lincoln, and Oklahoma counties.

The declaration marks a first step toward seeking federal assistance, according to a statement from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

Stitt's executive order also "temporarily suspends requirements for size and weight permits of oversized vehicles transporting materials and supplies used for emergency relief and power restoration,"

On Thursday, David Grizzle, Norman's emergency management coordinator, said damage in Norman was light despite high winds and hail. By late Friday his outlook had not changed.

George Mauldin, Cleveland County's emergency management director, said 180th Avenue SE reopened Friday after power lines were cleared, but damage assessment remained incomplete.

"It's going to be awhile before we have all this damage assessment completed," he said.

OG&E reported most outages in the state had been resolved, with the largest outage in Pottawatomie County where 11,160 customers were still without power as of 11 a.m. Friday,

The utility provider's map of Cleveland County showed fewer than 10 customers still required power restoration by 2 p.m. Friday.

For those affected by the storms, the Red Cross is operating temporary shelters in Noble at Noble High School, 4601 E. Etowah Road, and in Washington at Washington High School, 101 E Kerby Ave.

Brian King covers education and politics for The Transcript. Reach him at bking@normantranscript.com.