May 29, 2017 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak

Event
The May 29th - 30th, 2017 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak was a violent tornado outbreak that devastated some areas of north and central Oklahoma from the morning of May 29th to the morning of the following day.

Destructive tornadoes struck parts of Oklahoma, where an EF4 devastated the town of Wakita during the night between the two days and an EF5 struck 50 miles south of Wakita the morning after.

Tornadoes
Canton - Wakita tornado

The first violent tornado of the outbreak touched down in the Canton area around 3:30 AM CDT and started travelling north-east. The twister wasn't seen from the radar because the storm had weak mid-level rotation but it produced this tornado, that caused mostly EF0 damage in the Canton area. Moving in the direction of Fairview the tornado gained force and became a powerful EF3 twister. The tornado was seen on the radar when it was going to hit the Fairview Drive In. Here the twister destroyed the movie screen and the roof of a auto-mechanic building. Many cars were picked up and thrown by the twister, destroying them along with the fancy marquee of the drive-in and some trucks of a team of storm chasers. The tornado warning was issued seconds before the twister hit. The tornado quickly moved north-east at EF2 strengh and destroying some roofs. In the meantime, the rotation in the supercell became very weak but with a tornado still on the ground moving in rural areas. The tornado re-gained strengh and became a violent EF4 and a classic hook echo was shown on radar. At about 4:00 AM CDT a Tornado Emergency was issued for Wakita, Oklahoma and second after the tornado hit and quickly dissipated after destroying the town. In Wakita about 56 people died and 348 more were injured. The downtown area was devastated, with brick building without thier roofs and some walls. About 150 buildings in town suffered significant damage, 29 were totally demolished and 290 more suffered minor damage. The tornado tracked for about 92 miles across northwestern Oklahoma, missing the town of Helena.

Waukomis - Perry areas tornado

The second violent tornado of the outbreak, that was the last one of the system, formed form the union of two supercells that originated during the night over western Oklahoma. The tornado touched down at 10:30 AM CDT as a large cone 3 miles south of Waukomis and started destroying farms and trees at EF3 - EF4 force. The tornado became a mile wide and reached EF5 force. The twister picked up a petrolium truck and made it explode on the road. After that, the tornado destroyed a radio tower and started moving east-northeast, killing two storm chasers that were following the tornado. Then the vortex destroyed a farm equipment shop throwing tractors, threshes and an entire house on the roads around it. The tornado then destroyed corn fields before turning to the northeast and destroying a well build barn along with a couple of outbuildings and a windmill before lifting. The twister caused extreme damage to crops and farms, leveling buildings and forested areas. The vortex killed two people and injured 13 more along its path that finished 4 miles north of Perry.