The tornado that hit the western Oklahoma town of Rocky this week has been rated an EF2 by the National Weather Service. An EF2 has winds ranging from 111 mph to 135 mph.
The tornado hit in an area where there are wind turbines but it’s unclear yet if any were destroyed or damaged by the Tuesday night storm.
As indicated in the NWS notification, the tornado traveled a total of 13 miles on the ground and damaged at least five mobile homes and outbuildings in the town of Rocky.
ROCKY TORNADO
RATING: EF2
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 115-120 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 13 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: 400 YARDS
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0
START DATE: 05/08/2019
START TIME: 11:23 PM CDT
START LOCATION: 2 NNE HOBART / KIOWA COUNTY / OK
START LAT/LON: 35.07 / -99.08
END DATE: 05/08/2019
END TIME: 11:51 PM CDT
END LOCATION: 4 SSW CORDELL / WASHITA COUNTY / OK
END LAT/LON: 35.24 / -99.01
SUMMARY: THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 2 MILES NORTH-NORTHEAST
OF HOBART WITH THE FIRST DAMAGE NOTED ALONG E1340 ROAD ABOUT ONE
MILE WEST OF US-183. THE TORNADO THEN MOVED NORTH-NORTHEAST AND
THEN NORTH NEAR AND JUST WEST OF US-183 MOVING INTO WASHITA COUNTY
AND THE TOWN OF ROCKY. AFTER MOVING THROUGH ROCKY, THE TORNADO
TURNED NORTHEAST, THEN NORTH DISSIPATING NEAR N2230 ROAD SOUTH OF
US-183.
AT LEAST FIVE MOBILE HOMES AND SEVERAL OUTBUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED,
AS WELL AS UTILITY POLES AND TREES. EF2 DAMAGE WAS NOTED IN BOTH
KIOWA AND WASHITA COUNTIES NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE PATH AND AGAIN
ABOUT 2 MILES NORTH-NORTHEAST OF ROCKY.
EF SCALE: THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE CLASSIFIES TORNADOES INTO
THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.
EF0...WEAK......65 TO 85 MPH
EF1...WEAK......86 TO 110 MPH
EF2...STRONG....111 TO 135 MPH
EF3...STRONG....136 TO 165 MPH
EF4...VIOLENT...166 TO 200 MPH
EF5...VIOLENT...>200 MPH
NOTE:
THE INFORMATION IN THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO
CHANGE PENDING FINAL REVIEW OF THE EVENT AND PUBLICATION IN
NWS STORM DATA.