Oklahoma Could Set New Record for November Tornados After Back-to-Back Storms
OKLAHOMA CITY—Eric Boyd cleaned storm debris from his yard on 82nd Street in Oklahoma City on Monday, Nov. 4. It was less than 48 hours after one of a possibly-record-setting number of tornadoes to hit his state blew his front door in at 1 a.m.
He's no stranger to Oklahoma's volatile weather but said the storm that his neighborhood experienced early Sunday morning was different.
"I've never been on this end of it. I've been in and around it, yes, but [this was] my first one being hit," he told The Epoch Times.
"(The storm hit) Sunday morning around one o'clock. I got in my storm shelter, then the sirens go off. We had zero notice, and it was an F3 tornado," he said.
The National Weather Service (NWS) was able to confirm that six tornadoes hit Oklahoma on Nov. 3 at the time of this 's publication.
Boyd's EF (Enhanced Fujita) scale 3 was one of two officially confirmed to have wreaked havoc, along with one EF 2, two EF 1s, and an EF 0.
Those six nocturnal tornados hit right at the time the clocks were wound back an hour to end daylight savings time, and devastated several communities around Oklahoma City, including a neighborhood in Choctaw and Harrah.
Numerous people were reported injured, with 11 needing hospitalization. Nearly 100,000 homes and businesses lost power, and dozens of structures were destroyed or damaged.
Boyd was among dozens of residents dealing with damage left by the tornado. He didn't know when electrical power would be restored or how long it would take to repair his home, but he said he knows it could have been worse.
"The further west you can go [from his house], the houses are more leveled than standing," Boyd said, motioning toward 84th Street.
A walk down Pinewood and Azurewood Drives just blocks from Boyd's yard reveals the devastation he talked about. The sound of generators, power tools, and people picking up what's left of their homes serves as the soundtrack to the scene.
One homeowner declined to talk about the damage to his house on 84th Street. He said he was too busy and had too much on his mind.
Across the road, at the corner of 84th and Pinewood Avenue, an electrical transmission tower leans against a demolished house. Its now-dead power lines lay draped over the road.
Just a few houses down the street, a woman dragged tree limbs to the curb in front of her home. Like the previous resident, she declined to be interviewed.
"We've done enough talking," she told an Epoch Times reporter with a weary smile. "We just want to get this cleaned up."
No tornado-related fatalities from either storm were reported as of this 's publication.
Sections of I-35 were shrunk to one open lane due to persistent flooding from the Nov. 3 storms. But all lanes reopened by 4 p.m. CT on Nov. 4.
The state's record for November tornados is 12 and has stood since 1958. Gary McManus, State Climatologist with the Oklahoma Mesonet, told The Epoch Times that he expects to come close to that number when personnel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—which includes the NWS—finish investigating all possible tornado touchdowns.
"We still have 26 days to go in the month, so even if we finish just below the record, future storms might put us past the mark," he said in an email. "These types of storms aren't unheard of in Oklahoma but they're certainly uncommon. We only average 1.6 tornadoes during November, but we had six just two years ago in 2022."
Rick Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the NWS's Norman, Oklahoma, office told The Epoch Times that the surveys have been delayed due a second storm passing through the state on Nov. 5.
That second storm reportedly dispensed several inches of rain, and triggered more than a dozen tornado warnings as of 2:14 p.m. Several others were observed appearing afterward.
Several warnings issued by the Norman office, and the Tulsa office, stated that a source had observed a tornado on the ground. However, Smith told The Epoch Times that every report will be investigated afterward before receiving an official confirmation.
It's just information shared with the warning, he said. It doesn't get automatically added to the numbers.
"We decide which tornadoes get documented on reports, evidence, pictures, videos, whatever."
Most of the eastern half of Oklahoma—including Tulsa, Muskogee, and Seminole—was expected to remain under a tornado watch area until 6 p.m. CT. That warning area stretched into North Texas and the western corners of Missouri and Arkansas.
This weather event comes on the eve of Election Day but Paul Ziriax, Secretary of the Oklahoma State Election Board, said that the state will be prepared to vote.
"Our hearts go out to those impacted by the recent storms," he said in a statement received by The Epoch Times via email. "At this time, we do not anticipate any changes to polling place locations due to storm damage, but county election boards are evaluating the situation.
"Should a change to a polling place become necessary, the county election boards will announce this through local news media and social media. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday."
