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You are at: NWS » NWS SRH » NWS Norman » Significant Storms » May 9, 2003 Central Oklahoma Tornadoes

May 9, 2003 Tornadoes
in Northwest Oklahoma City

NW OKC Tornado Track Wrn Oklahoma County Tornado Track

F1 Tornado in Bethany and Warr Acres

A multiple-vortex tornado which caused mostly F0 damage with pockets of high-end F1 damage tracked from near the Glade and NW 38th, across NW 50th and Rockwell, and finally to Hammond and NW 59th. Most damage was in the F0 category to trees and roof shingles. Several pockets of F1 damage were noted embedded within the path, indicative of possible multiple-vortices. Most structures that received F1 damage were structures with susceptibilities to high wind. These included several churches, a self-storage facility, airport hangars at Wiley Post Airport, several warehouses, a few small homes, and several businesses. In each of these cases, one could draw the conclusion that the near-destruction of the structure would conclude at least F2 damage or greater. However, surrounding damage to other structures and trees, and evidence of failure points (large windows or doors upwind) leads us to conclude that the damage was no higher than the high end of the F1 range. The damage path length was about 1.5 miles, and about 0.5 mile wide.

Surrounding the multiple-vortex tornado was a wider and much longer swath of straight-line wind damage from the rear-flank downdraft - with all damage blown from southwest to north east. The RFD damage path went from just west of Frisco Rd. between SW 29th and SW15th in Yukon, across Rt. 4 and Reno, across the Xerox Factory, the south side of Lake Overholser including the south and east shoreline communities, across woodlawn park, across the aforementioned tornado area, and finally dissipating northeast of Northwest Expwy and Meridian. Another small pocket of just tree limb damage was noted in Nichols Hills, also associated with the RFD. The RFD damage path was about 12- miles long, and up to two miles wide at points. On the beginning and final 2-4 miles, damage was very spotty. Concentrated in the middle 4 miles, the damage was more widespread.

Damage photos for the Bethany/Warr Acres tornado are available here and here.



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