Type Tornado outbreak Max rating | Tornadoes confirmed 127 | |
 | ||
Duration May 5, 2015 (2015-05-05) – May 10, 2015 (2015-05-10) Duration of tornado outbreak 5 days, 9 hours, 37 minutes Casualties Injuries:
67 tornado-related
3 hail-related
Fatalities:
5 tornado-related
2 flood-related | ||
The tornado outbreak sequence of May 5–10, 2015 was a six-day outbreak of tornado activity that affected the Great Plains of the United States in early May 2015. On May 6, strong tornadoes impacted the Oklahoma City area, along with rural parts of Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The outbreak coincided with major flooding, with large amounts of rain falling in parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The National Weather Service forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma issued a "flash flood emergency" for Oklahoma City following record-breaking rainfall that occurred in the area that evening. The outbreak sequence resulted in five tornado-related deaths, along with two flood-related deaths. A total of 127 tornadoes were confirmed and rated as a result of this outbreak sequence.
Meteorological synopsis
On May 6, a series of severe thunderstorms produced flash flooding, hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes in Oklahoma and western north Texas. In Oklahoma, this event was brought on by a shortwave moving through the area. With over 30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h) of effective bulk shear present, moist air was being advected into the area from the southeast, and the CAPE was over 2000 J/kg. Kansas's first tornado of the day was an EF0 that developed in Lincoln County and caused minor damage at a cemetery within the town of Lincoln, Kansas. In Oklahoma, severe weather first appeared in southwestern parts of Oklahoma near Lawton, with the first Severe Thunderstorm Warning of the day being issued at 12:46 p.m. CDT and the first Tornado Warning being issued at 3:45 p.m. CDT. An EF3 tornado developed near Mount Hope, Kansas tracked through Harvey County, crossing Highway 50 west of Halstead and dissipating as it headed north, causing major tree damage and destroying a farmhouse. A long-tracked EF2 passed near Scandia, Kansas and into Nebraska, while another EF3 completely destroyed a house near Munden, Kansas. Other storms later developed in north-central parts of the Oklahoma and south of the Red River, and supercells dropped strong tornadoes in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area along with as much as 4–7 inches (100–180 mm) of rain. One of these tornadoes caused EF3 damage and several critical injuries in the southeastern part of Oklahoma City, and another EF3 struck Bridge Creek. As a result of heavy flooding, multiple Flash Flood Warnings were issued for the Oklahoma City metro, and in the hours following midnight, the storms merged into a complex and maintained eastward movement.
A few less intense tornadoes occurred on May 7 and May 8 across an area extending from Colorado to Texas. Another wave of significant tornado activity occurred on May 9 throughout an area extending from Nebraska to Texas. This included a large EF3 tornado that caused major damage and killed one person near Cisco, Texas.
Destructive tornado activity continued on May 10, as a high-end EF2 tornado struck the town of Delmont, South Dakota, where severe structural damage and multiple injuries occurred. Later that evening, an EF1 multiple-vortex tornado struck Lake City, Iowa, where homes were damaged, trees and power lines were downed, and the local high school had its roof torn off. Significant tornadoes continued to touch down after sunset later that night, and the town of Van, Texas was devastated by a strong EF3 tornado, where two people were killed and at least 47 others were injured. Two other fatalities occurred in Nashville, Arkansas when an EF2 tornado struck a mobile home park.