Honestly, nobody wakes up in January in the Sooner State expecting to hear the gut-wrenching wail of tornado sirens before their first cup of coffee. It feels wrong. It's the kind of thing that belongs in May, not when you’re still shaking the frost off your windshield. But that is exactly what happened yesterday.
Yesterday's tornado in Oklahoma wasn't just a freak occurrence; it was a multi-vortex reality check that skipped across several counties, leaving a trail of snapped power poles and mangled roofs in its wake.
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Most people think of winter as the "safe" season for weather around here. We worry about ice, maybe a stray snowstorm that shuts down I-35. We don’t usually worry about EF2 winds peeling back roofs like sardine cans. But as the National Weather Service (NWS) in Norman spent the day surveying the damage, the data started to tell a much more complex story than just a simple "winter storm."
What Really Happened with the Purcell Twister
The biggest story of the day was undoubtedly Purcell. The town, sitting about 20 miles south of the metro, took a direct hit from the strongest of the four confirmed tornadoes.
It wasn't a long-lived monster that stayed on the ground for an hour. Instead, this thing was fast. It touched down near 180th Street and Ladd Road around 7:24 a.m. and moved at a forward speed of roughly 56 mph. To put that in perspective, that is basically highway speed. If you were driving to work, you weren't outrunning it.
The Damage Scale
When the NWS first looked at the damage, they thought EF1. Then they saw the metal utility poles.
- Purcell: Upgraded to an EF2. It removed the entire roof of a home southwest of town.
- Interstate 35: The winds were strong enough to flip a semi-truck at mile marker 93.
- The Power Grid: 17 utility poles were snapped like toothpicks along Van Buren Street. Most of Purcell was in the dark for over 24 hours.
The sheer speed of the storm is why there were no spotters on the ground when it started. Emergency Management Director Andy Pipes noted that it was basically over before anyone could get into position. One minute it’s raining, the next, a house is missing its lid.
Not Just a One-Town Event
While Purcell got the brunt of the "strong" damage, the atmosphere was busy elsewhere. We saw a "hop-scotch" pattern across the central part of the state.
An EF0 started as a waterspout over Lake Thunderbird—sort of a rare sight for January—before moving ashore and chewing up some trees. Then you had the Shawnee Twin Lakes area. Two homes there saw significant roof damage from an EF1.
Further north, Shawnee proper dealt with another EF1 that crossed I-40. It actually hit a hotel and a local business near Harrison Street. It’s a miracle, frankly, that with all this debris flying around during a morning commute, we aren't talking about a high casualty count. In fact, despite the overturned semi and the destroyed homes, no major injuries were reported.
Why January Tornadoes Are Becoming the "New Normal"
State Climatologist Gary McManus has been pretty vocal about the fact that while 30 January tornadoes have hit Oklahoma since 1950, nearly half of them have happened in just the last few years.
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Basically, the "off-season" is disappearing.
The ingredients were all there yesterday: an unseasonably warm surge of air from the Gulf meeting a powerful jet stream. In the spring, you need massive heat to get these storms going. In the winter, the wind shear—the change in wind speed and direction with height—is so intense that even a "weak" looking storm can start spinning.
It’s a different kind of beast. These winter twisters tend to be smaller in width but much faster in forward motion. You don't get the classic "Wall Cloud" 20 minutes in advance. You get a line of rain that suddenly decides to rotate.
The Numbers Behind the Trend
If you feel like you've been under more warnings lately, you aren't imagining things.
- 2023: 13 tornadoes in February (shattering the old record of 6).
- 2024: The biggest November outbreak in state history.
- 2026: Already matching the second-highest count for January tornadoes in the first two weeks.
Practical Steps for the Next Winter Round
Yesterday's tornado in Oklahoma proved that your spring severe weather plan needs to be ready year-round. Don't assume that because it's 40 degrees outside, the sirens won't go off.
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Check your shelter's accessibility now. During the winter, we tend to stack Christmas boxes or old lawn furniture over our storm cellar lids. If that siren goes off at 7:00 a.m. like it did yesterday, you don't have ten minutes to move a heavy treadmill out of the way.
Invest in a NOAA weather radio. Since these winter storms move at 50-60 mph, cell towers can get overloaded or knocked out before the "push" notification hits your phone. A battery-backed radio is the only way to ensure you hear the warning the second it's issued.
Watch the "Dew Point," not just the Temp. Oklahomans are amateur meteorologists by birth, but we usually look for 70-degree days. In January, keep an eye on the dew point. If you see it creeping into the 50s or 60s while a cold front is approaching, that’s your signal that the atmosphere is "loaded."
Yesterday was a mess, but it was a survivable one. Between the quick thinking of Purcell school officials—who moved kids from buses to shelters in seconds—and a bit of luck on the highways, we avoided a tragedy. But let’s not count on luck for the next one. Take an hour this weekend to clear out your shelter and replace the batteries in your flashlights. Winter isn't a shield; it's just a different kind of season.