The recent powerful storms that have hit the central United States have left a trail of destruction in their wake. From tornadoes to severe thunderstorms, these natural disasters have caused significant damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Unfortunately, the devastation has also resulted in loss of life.
In just two months, there has been one death reported as a direct result of these powerful storms. This tragic loss serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable and deadly nature of severe weather events. It is a somber reality that despite advances in technology and warning systems, we are still vulnerable to the destructive power of Mother Nature.
The National Weather Service reported that Barnsdall, a town of about 1,000 people located a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa, was leveled shortly after 9:30 p.m. A storm survey team found damage Tuesday that is consistent with at least an EF-4 strength tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. It was the second tornado to hit the town in five weeks.
As the tornado came through, the cellar door blew open and began to fill with water up to her ankles. Insulation began blowing around her.
The storms began earlier Monday with gusty winds and rain. But after dark, tornadoes were spotted skirting northern Oklahoma. At one point in the evening, a storm in the small town of Covington had "produced tornadoes off and on for over an hour," the National Weather Service said. Throughout the area, wind farm turbines spun rapidly in the wind and blinding rain.
Elsewhere in the Southern Plains, Monday’s widely anticipated severe weather caused less destruction than feared. The extreme instability and strong wind shear were in place as expected, but most of the severe thunderstorms developed in a broken line stretching from eastern Kansas into Oklahoma, rather than as separate supercell storms. That line-based structure limited the storms’ ability to form intense tornadic circulations. In fact, the Barnsdall tornado emerged from one of the day’s few intense storms that formed well ahead of the line, merging with the line only after the tornado struck (see radar loop in embedded post from Jon Erdman below).
The winds were being created by a low pressure system north of Colorado that was also pulling up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, fueling the risk of severe weather on the Plains, according to the National Weather Service's Denver-area office.
Meanwhile, floodwaters in the Houston area began receding Monday after days of heavy rain in southeastern Texas left neighborhoods flooded and led to hundreds of high-water rescues.
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