EchoVibe

At least two people died in Oklahoma after a series of tornado-producing storms ripped across part of the state, leaving a path of destruction and many homes without power.

In an update shortly before midnight on Wednesday, McClain County Emergency Management confirmed the fatalities and said emergency crews were responding to "injuries and persons entrapped within their shelters."

The deadly weather fronts mark a powerful start to Oklahoma's tornado season, which typically runs from April to June. It comes just weeks after tornadoes cut across the South and Midwest. In March, twisters in Texas and Louisiana caused widespread disruption and at least one fatality.

According to the National Weather Service's (NWS) office in Norman, Oklahoma, a "severe" thunderstorm developed over Apache and Chickasha, to the southwest of Oklahoma City, shortly after 5 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET), producing "baseball size hail" as it moved northeast an hour later.

The storm moved over Newcastle, south of the state capital, before passing Valley Brook. By 7:05 p.m. it had reportedly produced a tornado. At the same time, a second storm was moving along a similar path.

By 7:36 p.m. a storm between Blanchard and Norman had a confirmed tornado northeast of Dibble. Residents of Cole were told to seek shelter immediately. Six minutes later, the NWS described it as a "dangerous situation in Cole!"

Shortly after that, McClain County Emergency Management confirmed that the "large and extremely dangerous" tornado was over Cole, moving at a rate of 30 mph. Newcastle Emergency Management said baseball-sized hail had also been spotted near Blanchard.

Izzy Mai, a meteorology major at Oklahoma University, posted footage of the supercell tornado moving over the campus. Timelapsed video taken from a rooftop showed the large swirling clouds forming a vortex above nearby buildings.

Supercell thunderstorms are the least common type of storm, but are more likely to occur in Texas and Oklahoma. They have a high propensity to produce lightning, large hail and violent tornadoes, and can last for several hours.

By 7:58 p.m., the NWS said a "significant tornado" was continuing to move northeast of Cole, warning that its motion was "erratic" and "life threatening." Fifteen minutes later, meteorologists said the tornado had dissipated, but that large hail was still being produced.

This provided only a brief reprieve for the state, as by 9:44 p.m. ET another tornado was "on the ground" to the west of Etowah, a small town between Purcell and Shawnee. This had become "dangerous" as it moved north of Etowah shortly before 10 p.m. ET, before being "recycled and re-intensified" near Pink.

Zachary Hall, a professional storm chaser, published footage of the massive vortex appearing imposingly on a dark grey sky near Slaughterville, to the northeast of Purcell, with unrelenting lightning flashes. "This doesn't even seem real," he said.

Video of the massive supercell tornado touching down near Pink, illuminated only by the lightning of the thunderstorm that had produced it, was posted on Twitter by Elizabeth Spicer, an aspiring meteorologist at Oklahoma University.

"A well defined Tornado Debris Signature is observed with this storm," the NWS said as it passed between Dale and Shawnee. It added just before 11 p.m. ET that the storm was exhibiting the Fujiwhara effect, whereby multiple circulating patterns rotate around one another causing violent and erratic movement.

According to local news station KOCO 5, 33 residents of an assisted living center in Shawnee had to be evacuated after the tornado hit the elderly home, leaving them without shelter. No one was reported to have been severely injured.

By 10:24 p.m. CT, this tornado had "considerably weakened" around Meeker, but later re-intensified sparking a fresh tornado warning. Around half an hour before midnight, the NWS said the storms had moved on.

In the wake of the storms, the Red Cross in Oklahoma said it had established shelters in Noble, Shawnee and Washington.

McClain County Emergency Management said power lines had been knocked down and crews were working to restore the electricity supply to affected residents. According to PowerOutage, a data aggregator, as of 4 a.m. ET on Thursday, more than 19,000 residents were still without power in the state, with many such cases focused in the counties impacted by the storms.

A tornado also touched down in central eastern Kansas on Wednesday night as the weather front moved on from Oklahoma. Chase County Sheriff's Office told local channel KSNW that it had caused damage across the area, including downed power lines and an overturned semi-truck.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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