Tornado Déjà Vu For Towns In Oklahoma,Iowa
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Barnsdall,Oklahoma,was struck by its second tornado in just five weeks,a cruel déjà vu in the storm-weary Plains. It's a similar story for two towns in western Iowa.
Strong tornado Monday night: A supercell thunderstorm spawned what appeared to be a strong tornado in northeast Oklahoma Monday night. It plowed through Barnsdall,about 30 miles north-northwest of downtown Tulsa.
Video and photos Tuesday morning showed the extent of the devastation in the town,where 30 to 40 homes were damaged or destroyed and at least one person lost their life.
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Barnsdall déjà vu: Just five weeks ago,an EF1 tornado tore a 2-mile path through the southeast side of Barnsdall,damaging homes and outbuildings. That was one of five tornadoes spawned by a supercell thunderstorm on the evening of April 1,according to the National Weather Service in Tulsa.
Iowa towns also hit again: At the same time the tornado was tracking toward Barnsdall,radar confimed another tornado was in progress in western Iowa.
Specifically,it was near the towns of Minden and Shelby.
If you've been following our coverage the past few weeks,those towns may sound familiar. Just over two weeks ago,a tornado outbreak struck the Plains,including Nebraska and Iowa. An EF3 tornado tracked through parts of Minden,then west of Shelby on April 26. One house in Minden was detached from its foundation and slid 10 yards.
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Barnsdall was fairly lucky before this year:According to data compiled by the NWS-Norman,Oklahoma,office,108 tornadoes were documented in Osage County,Oklahoma,from 1950 through 2023,an average of one to two per year.
While a number of them have been strong - at least F/EF2 rating - previous tornadoes around Barnsdall appear to have been weak,rated either F/EF0 or 1.
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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at www.weathernow24.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He completed a Bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,then a Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter),Threads,Facebook and Bluesky.
