Tornado Alley 2008 - Newton County Tornado Damage

On the way down to Oklahoma we took hwy 71 south (the GPS chose the route). All of a sudden we found ourselves passing through a significant damage path. We did not know much about the tornado or the track at the time but later when we were able to look over the SPC data this tornado resulted in 13 fatalities, 3 of which occurred in the area we passed through. You will also notice that the tornado plots below are staggered in a NE orientation while the black line in the middle representing storm motion is running SE. The plots are staggered because the tornado was moving around the meso cyclone in a counter-clockwise motion while it occluded and then reformed. This happed at least 5 times according to the SPC reports and there are some markers which indicate that the tornado may have been sustained for prolonged periods.

The SPC notes that the tornado was 200 yards wide and much of the damage appears to be F2 and F3 however an official rating has not yet been given.

The NWS has rated the Newtown County Tornado (Neosho) as EF4 giving winds of 166 - 200 MPH or 267 - 321 km/h