Published: May 14, 2009 02:02 pm      

Tornado touches down in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — Severe thunderstorms spawned a tornado in northern Oklahoma Wednesday night, causing some damage but no injuries, authorities said.

A tornadic storm was spotted about 6 miles west of Tonkawa in Kay County, but emergency crews didn't find a damage path, said Charles Conaghan, emergency management director for Tonkawa.

"We do have damage in the Noble county area east of Red Rock. We had some trees uprooted," Conaghan said. "We took precautions here, but it was close. It developed right on top us and we didn't have much lead time."

Garfield County Emergency Management Director Mike Honigsberg says the sirens blew in the county as a precaution but there was no confirmed tornado, just half dollar-size hail.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for 39 counties in western, central and northern Oklahoma until late Wednesday.

The state has been pounded by severe weather the past few days.

Early Wednesday, severe storms that began in the Texas Panhandle tracked into southwest Oklahoma, where wind gusts in the 60-mph range were reported. Once the storms barreled eastward into central Oklahoma, they collapsed and kicked out winds that gusted over 70 mph in western Oklahoma City.

The winds blew down power lines and a tractor trailer rig overturned on Interstate 35 in north Oklahoma City shortly before 1:30 a.m. The roadway was shut down for more than two hours.

At the height of the wind storm, more than 8,000 Oklahoma Gas and Electric customers were with power, the utility company's Web site reported.