2020 Stillwater Tornado

The Kingsfisher-Hominy Tornado was an extremely powerful EF5 tornado that affected parts of north-central Oklahoma along a 109.3 mile path on May 1, 2020. Part of the 2020 Super Outbreak, this was the first of many EF5s to ravage the United states over a two and a half week period, and is the first officially rated EF5 to have formed in Oklahoma since the 2013 Moore Tornado. During its nearly 3 hour lifespan, the tornado traveled 109.3 miles and killed 46 people, while also producing some of the most extreme damage ever documented since the Jarrell tornado in 1997.

The supercell that produced this tornado developed around 12:35PM CDT in the Northern Texas panhandle. Over the course of its life, it produced numerous long lived tornadoes, including a large EF3 that proceeded the Kingsfisher EF5. At around 4:10PM CDT the Kingsfisher tornado touched down just 3.8 miles NNE of the city of Kingsfisher in Kingsfisher County, Oklahoma. From here it traveled ENE at around 35mph, quickly becoming extremely violent. Extreme ground scouring up to 3ft deep occurred along much of the thin tornado's path. Passing just south of the Lemon Rd./N2880 Rd. intersection, the tornado obliterated several metal structures before cross over Lemon Rd. further to the ENE, scouring away the pavement and the underlying earth to a depth of 7 inches. The tornado continued for several miles over open fields, ripping up large, deep rooted trees and tossing them thousands of feet into the air and hurling them several hundred yards in ever direction. During this period the tornado's trunk grew larger, and as it ground away at the earth became concealed in an extremely thick cloud of dirt and tree debris with extremely violent upward motion. As it continued its trek across open land, numerous high tension powerlines were entirely obliterated, some never recovered, and piping was ripped from the ground and torn apart. Scattered houses were completely swept away and a handful of people lost their lives. The Storm would continue this largely unpopulated path south of Mulhall, tearing away swaths of pavement from I-77 and hurling cars on the interstate over mile to never be seen again. Only fragments of the cars would ever be recovered. Continuing ENE the violent column would eventually reach the city of Stillwater. Hundreds of houses would be damaged, with several dozen being completely swept away. 35 people would lose their lives. The tornado would eventually pass just north of Hominy, before taking a sharp left turn as it occludes and dissipates just north of Tallant, Oklahoma on route 11 at 7:02PM CDT.

Meteorological Synopsis
Conditions going into May 1 were unseasonable potent, with early afternoon MLCAPE values in the 5000J/kg range across much of Oklahoma. A strong shortwave had cut in from the Rockies with a tight height gradient situated in the far north Oklahoma area and much of Kansas. 25kt 925mb winds flowed in from the SE, with surfaced based winds veering more easterly due to proximity with the surface low. This, in combination with a southerly 40kt low level jet and strong upperlevel WSW flow from the shortwave gradient generated extreme shear in the warm sector, with 320 m2/s2 0-1km SRH, 720 m2/s2 0-3km SRH, and overall Effective SRH of 550  m2/s2, more the sufficient for long tracked, violent tornadoes, warranting the issuance of a High Risk outlook for central Oklahoma and a large >95/80 PDS Tornado Watch.