What a wild 24 hours! The storms that blew through our area Monday night
into Tuesday morning kicked up straight line winds of 70 mph.
The impressive bow echo on radar rapidly raced across NE Oklahoma. There
were numerous hail reports, some power outages, street flooding, and more Severe Thunderstorm Warnings than I could count. It was a busy and long night.
I kept the 10pm production crew late fearing we would get damage reports in
and wanted to keep us spun up for wall-to-wall coverage if needed. Along the
leading edge of the line some mid level shear markers poped up on Vipir 2, but
what was more impressive were the high winds it was indicating. Velocities of
70 mph were indicated on Double Doppler 2. There were no reports of tornadoes,
no Tornado Warnings were issued, and no strong low level shear indicated.
So when I came in today, ready to deal with winter weather, I was suprised
when the Tulsa National Weather Service issued a preliminary storm
report on the damage. They had determined the damage in Broken Arrow near
43rd street South and 210 Street East was from a tornado.
These guys are very good at what they do. They sent a team of meteorologist
to look over the area. They look for damage indicators such as power line poles
snapped off, a mobile home blown apart, fences knocked over, etc. Still
I was skeptical that this could have been caused by the straight line winds and
not a tornado. I got on the phone to the N.W.S. and asked if the survey team
was back in office and what they saw.
I spoke with Meteorologist Mike Teague and he explaind what they had surveyed
and said the tornado may have tracked for 1/2 mile, or longer on the ground before
lifting. He explained there were many other damage indicators and his team was
convinced that a brief tornado did form and then lifted in that area.
Meteorologist George Flickinger was off today but lives near here. I phoned him
about 2pm to put him on "stand by" in case the freezing rain and snow became a problem.
I read him the report and he said he would go down there, snap some pictures and
report back. George is a sharp guy, great meteorologist, and always willing to
do whatever we ask him to do. George has seen a lot of tornadoes and a lot of
damage over the years.
A short time later, George sent us back a few pictures and confirmed the
report. He agreed that a tornado did indeed briefly touch down and cause
the damage in this area.
I am convinced that there likely was a brief tornado. Most of the wind damge
in NE Oklahoma was from the near hurricane force straight line winds, but
in this area very briefly a torndo sat down and lifted. A good reminder that
during Severe Thunderstorms tornadoes can and do occur. Even if it is
December, even if there is no warning, even if no tornadoes are detected on
radar, tornadoes can occur. Thank God no one was hurt.
As I write this we are 28 degrees and falling. Glad tomorrow will be a
calmer day.