Max Westheimer tornado is officially an EF-1

The National Weather Service has determined that the tornado that hit Max Westheimer Airport on Saturday night was an EF-1.

Meteorologist Doug Speheger of the National Weather Center, said the twister developed southwest of 24th Avenue NW and Robinson near the Homeland grocery store. It moved across Max Westheimer by way of Flood Avenue and hit a few residential areas before dissipating between 12th Avenue NE and Tecumseh Road.

The maximum speed was 90-95 miles per hour, and the base of the funnel maxed out around 200 yards. The path length spanned 3.5 miles.

“We had some damage to some of the hangars and trees. Our survey teams may not have been able to survey the whole area, but reports showed light damage to the hangar, but nothing too significant, but quite a bit of tree damage,” Speheger said.

Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila said he feels blessed that Norman got off the hook with only minor damage, particularly to the Homeland Fuel Station at the intersection of W. Robinson Street and 24th Avenue NW.

“I went out driving yesterday, and I was going out looking and didn’t find anything other than tree damage,” Heikkila said. “I don’t know that we lost any power anywhere, maybe in some of the outlying areas.”

Jacob Guthrie, communications director at the University of Oklahoma, said in addition to damage to a hangar at Max Westheimer, several of the aircraft were also damaged.

“We are continuing to assess minor damage to Max Westheimer Airport stemming from Saturday’s severe weather. There were several hangars and aircraft with slight damage,” he said in a statement to The Transcript.

Darrel Pyle, city manager, said the metal roof and ceiling in the Cart Barn at Westwood Golf Course were also affected.

“No injuries have been brought to my attention at this time,” Pyle said.

A second tornado just missed Cleveland County, which developed south of the Riverwind Casino. Speheger said the National Weather Service has determined that it was an EF-2.

It affected the Goldsby casino with wind maxing out between 120-125 miles per hour. The base of the tornado was 125 yards and traveled 5 miles, dissipating just east of Interstate 35, south of the Highway 9 interchange.

He said his team only identified the one tornado in Cleveland County.

The Goldsby tornado damaged roofs.

“It would have been similar to the roof damage south of Lindsey Street from the February 2023 tornado. It had affected one home, which had a large portion of the roof that was taken off,” Speheger said.

He said the county got off pretty easy relative to the devastation in other parts of the state.

“Overall, Norman was pretty fortunate,” Speheger said. “Oklahoma ended up with three EF-3 tornadoes with winds over 140 miles per hour in Marietta, Sulphur, and another near Holdenville. Those produced significant damage in those towns. We, in Norman, fared fairly well.”