NBC 5’s Rick Mitchell explains what he learned from watching a video taken during a fast-moving tornado in the Lamar County community of Powderly.
The tornado that ripped across Lamar County during severe weather on Friday was stronger than what forecasters earlier estimated, the National Weather Service says.
The update Wednesday upgraded the twister from an EF-3 with 160mph winds to an EF-4 with 170mph winds, the NWS said.
A preliminary survey showed EF-3 tornado damage on Saturday, but survey teams had since found damage on one Lamar County home that was consistent with an EF-4 tornado, the NWS said. The survey team wasn't able to reach that location on Saturday, the day after the storm.
The long-track tornado had a width of 1,350 yards and traveled 22 miles on the ground from Toco, near U.S. 82, and tracked northwest of Paris through Powderly, toward the Red River, before falling apart at 4:48 p.m. near Ord, Oklahoma. There were no fatalities or injuries reported with this tornado.
The NWS said the EF-4 tornado was the strongest measured in the outbreak that stretched from North Texas to northwestern Arkansas. The fall storm spawned tornadoes and produced flash flooding, killing at least two people, injuring others and leaving homes and buildings in ruins.
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