Texas family rides out twister from under couch
Quick action with seconds to spare might have saved the lives of a family directly in the path of one of several tornadoes to touch down in the southern Plains Monday.
By
Thomas Leffler, AccuWeather staff writer
Published May 3, 2022 10:38 AM EDT
|
Updated May 3, 2022 2:43 PM EDT
A tornado touched down near Loyal, Oklahoma, on May 2, thankfully with no reports of damage.
A multi-day severe weather outbreak in the central United States began early in the week, as several damaging storms and tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Arkansas Monday evening.
The first tornado warnings were issued at 2:15 p.m. CDT Monday in counties south of Fort Worth, Texas, as severe weather began to pick up across the region. Not long after, storms began to erupt over Oklahoma.
At around 5:30 p.m. CDT Monday, a tornado was detected on radar moving to the northeast through Poteau, Oklahoma, located in the east-central part of the state near the border of Arkansas.
Just to the south, another tornado was reported via a radar confirmation moving through the Arkansas-Oklahoma border town of Monroe, Oklahoma, just a few moments later. A man sustained injuries and was reportedly taken to the hospital after the tornado caused damage to the roof and windows of his residence, according to a local news agency.
The scene was similar to one that had played out throughout the region a day earlier and left a family grateful to be alive after a brush with a twister. In Hermleigh, Texas, about 250 miles west of Dallas, a twister tore the roof off of a house where people inside scrambled for safety with seconds to spare.
“It was on us before we heard it coming,” said Harmleigh resident Bill Jones.
Jones said that when he and his wife realized what was going on, he quickly flipped over a couch in their living room and hid underneath it for protection.
"By the time we got under it, our roof was gone," Jones said.
The roof was blown off of a house in Harmleigh, Texas, on Monday, May 2, 2022, as a likely tornado moved through the area. (Twitter/@chrisfltornado)
Back in Oklahoma on Monday, another particularly strong thunderstorm tracked about 50 miles southeast of Oklahoma City near the towns of Brooksville and Seminole.
Forecasters quickly spotted tightening rotation on the radar as the storms shifted east of Brooksville and into Seminole around 7:44 p.m. CDT Monday, and a vortex was quickly confirmed. The town took the brunt of the tornado at approximately 7:53 p.m. CDT, leading to evident structural damage in the immediate aftermath.
Residents in Seminole also reported hailstones as large as grapefruits, measuring 4 inches in diameter.
The severe weather brought more than just tornadoes to Oklahoma, specifically in the college town of Norman, Oklahoma, where flooding broke out in the streets.
The University of Oklahoma was briefly under a tornado warning Monday afternoon, but no tornado touched down on campus.
Storms also hit the Oklahoma hub of Tulsa, leading to tornado sirens being sounded in the area. The Tulsa International Airport recorded 1.93 inches of rainfall Monday before the line of thunderstorms departed east of the city. For comparison, Tulsa measured 2.09 inches of rain in all of April.
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The potent line of severe thunderstorms continued to push across northern Texas, eastern Oklahoma and into northwestern Arkansas before midnight CDT Monday, which prompted additional tornado watches and warnings by multiple NWS offices.
Shortly after 6 p.m., a tornado dropped down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, about 25 miles north of Hartford.
In the areas where tornadoes did touch down, residents on the ground described storms as heavily rain-wrapped and extremely difficult to determine exactly where the center of rotation was. This heightened the risk for storm chasers and locals watching the storm who hesitated to take cover.
Screen capture of radar showing the severe thunderstorms 10:54 p.m. CDT Monday night.
In Riply, Oklahoma, the Stillwater emergency manager told a local news agency that two unoccupied mobile homes were destroyed Monday evening, and that two outbuildings were demolished at an area ranch. No injuries have been reported by authorities in the Stillwater region.
Residents of the southern Plains will get a short break in the stormy pattern Tuesday as severe weather shifts east over the Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valley. However, intense storms are predicted to return Wednesday, and they will bring the risk of more tornadoes.
For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
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News / Severe Weather
Texas family rides out twister from under couch
Quick action with seconds to spare might have saved the lives of a family directly in the path of one of several tornadoes to touch down in the southern Plains Monday.
By Thomas Leffler, AccuWeather staff writer
Published May 3, 2022 10:38 AM EDT | Updated May 3, 2022 2:43 PM EDT
A tornado touched down near Loyal, Oklahoma, on May 2, thankfully with no reports of damage.
A multi-day severe weather outbreak in the central United States began early in the week, as several damaging storms and tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Arkansas Monday evening.
The first tornado warnings were issued at 2:15 p.m. CDT Monday in counties south of Fort Worth, Texas, as severe weather began to pick up across the region. Not long after, storms began to erupt over Oklahoma.
At around 5:30 p.m. CDT Monday, a tornado was detected on radar moving to the northeast through Poteau, Oklahoma, located in the east-central part of the state near the border of Arkansas.
Just to the south, another tornado was reported via a radar confirmation moving through the Arkansas-Oklahoma border town of Monroe, Oklahoma, just a few moments later. A man sustained injuries and was reportedly taken to the hospital after the tornado caused damage to the roof and windows of his residence, according to a local news agency.
The scene was similar to one that had played out throughout the region a day earlier and left a family grateful to be alive after a brush with a twister. In Hermleigh, Texas, about 250 miles west of Dallas, a twister tore the roof off of a house where people inside scrambled for safety with seconds to spare.
“It was on us before we heard it coming,” said Harmleigh resident Bill Jones.
Jones said that when he and his wife realized what was going on, he quickly flipped over a couch in their living room and hid underneath it for protection.
"By the time we got under it, our roof was gone," Jones said.
The roof was blown off of a house in Harmleigh, Texas, on Monday, May 2, 2022, as a likely tornado moved through the area. (Twitter/@chrisfltornado)
Back in Oklahoma on Monday, another particularly strong thunderstorm tracked about 50 miles southeast of Oklahoma City near the towns of Brooksville and Seminole.
Forecasters quickly spotted tightening rotation on the radar as the storms shifted east of Brooksville and into Seminole around 7:44 p.m. CDT Monday, and a vortex was quickly confirmed. The town took the brunt of the tornado at approximately 7:53 p.m. CDT, leading to evident structural damage in the immediate aftermath.
Residents in Seminole also reported hailstones as large as grapefruits, measuring 4 inches in diameter.
The severe weather brought more than just tornadoes to Oklahoma, specifically in the college town of Norman, Oklahoma, where flooding broke out in the streets.
The University of Oklahoma was briefly under a tornado warning Monday afternoon, but no tornado touched down on campus.
Storms also hit the Oklahoma hub of Tulsa, leading to tornado sirens being sounded in the area. The Tulsa International Airport recorded 1.93 inches of rainfall Monday before the line of thunderstorms departed east of the city. For comparison, Tulsa measured 2.09 inches of rain in all of April.
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The potent line of severe thunderstorms continued to push across northern Texas, eastern Oklahoma and into northwestern Arkansas before midnight CDT Monday, which prompted additional tornado watches and warnings by multiple NWS offices.
Shortly after 6 p.m., a tornado dropped down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, about 25 miles north of Hartford.
In the areas where tornadoes did touch down, residents on the ground described storms as heavily rain-wrapped and extremely difficult to determine exactly where the center of rotation was. This heightened the risk for storm chasers and locals watching the storm who hesitated to take cover.
Screen capture of radar showing the severe thunderstorms 10:54 p.m. CDT Monday night.
In Riply, Oklahoma, the Stillwater emergency manager told a local news agency that two unoccupied mobile homes were destroyed Monday evening, and that two outbuildings were demolished at an area ranch. No injuries have been reported by authorities in the Stillwater region.
Residents of the southern Plains will get a short break in the stormy pattern Tuesday as severe weather shifts east over the Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valley. However, intense storms are predicted to return Wednesday, and they will bring the risk of more tornadoes.
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For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
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