2017 Tulsa tornado

Tulsa tornado of 2017
EF2 tornado
	Remington Tower in Tulsa heavily damaged by August 6, 2017 tornado
Formed	August 6, 2017, 1:19 a.m. CDT (UTC−05:00)
Duration	6 minutes
Dissipated	August 6, 2017, 1:25 a.m. CDT (UTC−05:00)
Max rating1	EF2 tornado
Duration of tornado outbreak2	6 minutes
Highest winds	125–155 mph (201–249 km/h) (Estimated by damage survey);
Casualties	0 fatalities, 26 injuries
Areas affected	Tulsa County, Oklahoma
	1Most severe tornado damage; see Enhanced Fujita scale 2Time from first tornado to last tornado;

Last updated May 23, 2019

The 2017 Tulsa tornado took place on August 6, 2017 near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Major damage was inflicted on a shopping and office area in southeast Tulsa. However, because the storm struck late at night, there were no fatalities and a low number of people injured.

Oklahoma is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, Texas on the south, New Mexico on the west, and Colorado on the northwest. It is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the fifty United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It is also known informally by its nickname, "The Sooner State", in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on land before the official opening date of lands in the western Oklahoma Territory or before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which dramatically increased European-American settlement in the eastern Indian Territory. Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma when it became the 46th state to enter the union on November 16, 1907. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.

Events

The tornado formed at 1:19 A.M. CDT (Or Local Time) (06:19 UTC) south of East 36th Street South and east of South Harvard Avenue and eventually shifted west before heading to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at around 1:25 A.M. The worst damage along its 6.9-mile-long (11.1 km) path was in midtown Tulsa (between South Sheridan Road and South Yale Avenue, near East 41st Street South), where several buildings had their roofs removed and outer walls collapsed. The 18-story Remington Tower office building (near Skelly Drive and 41st Street) underwent dramatic facade and window damage. Many offices in the building were further damaged by having equipment and furnishings inside sucked through the windows and falling to the ground below. The tornado also caused roof and structural damage to Promenade Mall and impacted infrastructure at the BOK Financial Corporation operations center (near 41st and Sheridan), rendering its online, mobile and automated telephone systems inoperable. More than 7 people were rescued from T.G.I. Friday's at 41st and Yale Avenue, after the roof collapsed into the building.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Broken Arrow is a city located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, primarily in Tulsa County but also with a section of the city in western Wagoner County. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa. According to the 2010 census, Broken Arrow has a population of 98,850 residents and is the fourth-largest city in the state. However, a July 2017, estimate reports that the population of the city is just under 112,000, making it the 280th-largest city in the United States. The city is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, which has a population of 961,561 residents.

BOK Financial Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in the BOK Tower in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company is 60% owned by George Kaiser, who acquired the bank in 1991 from the FDIC. It is the largest bank in Oklahoma, with 14% of the total deposits in the state. As of December 17, 2017, 17% of its loan portfolio was to borrowers in the petroleum industry.

This was the first tornado to hit the Tulsa area in the month of August since 1958 (and only the 3rd to strike the area since 1950), the tornado injured 26 people – with two seriously injured – in the east part of the city. Even with the tornado detectable on radar, the Tulsa County Emergency Management Agency did not begin civil defense sirens in the area because the National Weather Service did not issue a tornado warning until 1:25 a.m., after which time an EF1 tornado had entered Broken Arrow, damaging multiple home roofs and several large tree branches.^[5]^[6] A second EF1 hit east of Oologah at 1:32 a.m. CDT (06:32 UTC), damaging several trees, barns and a home, downing multiple telephone poles.^[1]^[7]

A civil defence siren is a siren used to provide the emergency population warning of approaching danger, while also sometimes indicating when the danger has passed. Some are also used to call the volunteer fire department when they are needed. Initially designed to warn city dwellers of air raids in World War II, they were reused to warn of nuclear attack and of natural destructive weather patterns such as tornadoes. The generalized nature of the siren led to many of them being replaced with more specific warnings, such as the Emergency Alert System.

National Weather Service - Tulsa, Oklahoma (TSA) is a local weather forecast office responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 7 counties in Northwestern Arkansas, and 25 counties in Eastern Oklahoma. The current office in Tulsa maintains a WSR-88D (NEXRAD) radar system, and Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) that greatly improve forecasting in the region. Tulsa is in charge of weather forecasts, warnings and local statements as well as aviation weather and NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts in its service area. The office operates two Doppler radars, one in Tulsa (INX), and the other in Fort Smith, Arkansas (SRX). Steve Piltz is the Meteorologist-In-Charge (MIC) of this office.

A tornado warning is an alert issued by national weather forecasting agencies to warn the public that severe thunderstorms with tornadoes are imminent or occurring. It can be issued after a tornado, funnel cloud and rotation in the clouds has been spotted by the public, storm chasers, emergency management or law enforcement.

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References

1 2 NWS Damage Survey for 8/6/17 Tornado Event (Report). Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
↑ "Three Tornadoes Struck Green Country Early Sunday". KOTV-DT . Griffin Communications. August 7, 2017.
↑ "NWS confirms EF-2 tornado damage in midtown Tulsa". KTUL . Sinclair Broadcast Group. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
↑ Ken Miller (August 6, 2017). "Rare August tornado sends 30 to hospital in Tulsa; no deaths". KOKI-TV . Cox Media Group. Associated Press. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
↑ Paighten Harkins (August 7, 2017). "EF2 tornado that hurt 30, ripped through midtown, was rare in 2 ways". Tulsa World . BH Media.
↑ "Why was there no warning before devastating Tulsa tornado?". CBS News . CBS Interactive. August 7, 2017.
↑ Clayton Youngman (August 6, 2017). "NWS: 2 tornadoes touched down in Tulsa metro Sunday; 3rd tornado hit Rogers County". KTUL. Sinclair Broadcast Group. Retrieved August 7, 2017.

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[TSA_0806-1] 1 2 NWS Damage Survey for 8/6/17 Tornado Event (Report). Iowa Environmental Mesonet. National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.

[2] "Three Tornadoes Struck Green Country Early Sunday". KOTV-DT . Griffin Communications. August 7, 2017.

[3] "NWS confirms EF-2 tornado damage in midtown Tulsa". KTUL . Sinclair Broadcast Group. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.

[4] Ken Miller (August 6, 2017). "Rare August tornado sends 30 to hospital in Tulsa; no deaths". KOKI-TV . Cox Media Group. Associated Press. Retrieved August 7, 2017.

[5] Paighten Harkins (August 7, 2017). "EF2 tornado that hurt 30, ripped through midtown, was rare in 2 ways". Tulsa World . BH Media.

[6] "Why was there no warning before devastating Tulsa tornado?". CBS News . CBS Interactive. August 7, 2017.

[7] Clayton Youngman (August 6, 2017). "NWS: 2 tornadoes touched down in Tulsa metro Sunday; 3rd tornado hit Rogers County". KTUL. Sinclair Broadcast Group. Retrieved August 7, 2017.