On August 6, 2017, a series of four damaging tornadoes occurred as a result of a bow echo that formed and moved through

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Major damage was inflicted on a shopping and office area in midtown Tulsa due to an EF2 tornado. There were no fatalities, although 30 people were injured.

Meteorological synopsis

The day of severe weather was first mentioned by the

Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency that is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), operating under the control of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is part of the National Oceani ...

on July 30 for the Day 7 outlook. At the time, it was given a "PREDICTABILITY TOO LOW" designation. It was downgraded to "POTENTIAL TOO LOW" for Day 5 on August 1, but was reupgraded to "PREDICTABILITY TOO LOW." The storms that formed in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

on the afternoon of August 5 moved southeastward into northeastern

and was expected to weaken during the overnight hours. However, the bow echo unexpectedly restrengthened as it entered the

Tulsa metropolitan area The Tulsa metropolitan area, officially defined as the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, metropolitan statistical area is a metropolis in northeastern Oklahoma centered around the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa and encompassing Tulsa County, O ...

and spawned four tornadoes with the first one being the EF2 tornado that struck the southeastern part of

Confirmed tornadoes

August 6 event

Tulsa, Oklahoma

The tornado formed at 1:19 A.M. CDT (Or Local Time) (06:19

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

) south of East 36th Street South and east of South Harvard Avenue and eventually shifted west before heading to

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Broken Arrow is a city in Tulsa and Wagoner counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa. According to the 2020 census, Broken Arrow has a population of 113,540 residents and is the 4th most populous city in the s ...

at around 1:25 A.M. The worst damage along its path was in midtown Tulsa (between South Sheridan Road and South Yale Avenue, near East 41st Street South), where several buildings had their roofs removed and outer walls collapsed. The 18-story Remington Tower office building (near Skelly Drive and 41st Street) underwent dramatic facade and window damage. Many offices in the building were further damaged by having equipment and furnishings inside sucked through the windows and falling to the ground below. The tornado also caused roof and structural damage to Promenade Mall and impacted infrastructure at the

BOK Financial Corporation BOK Financial Corporation — pronounced as letters, "B-O-K" — is a financial services holding company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Offering a full complement of retail and commercial banking products and services across the American Midw ...

operations center (near 41st and Sheridan), rendering its online, mobile and automated telephone systems inoperable. More than 7 people were rescued from

T.G.I. Friday's TGI Fridays Franchisor, LLC, doing business as TGI Fridays, is an American casual dining List of restaurant chains, restaurant chain focusing primarily on American cuisine. The restaurant's name stands for "Thank God It's Friday". TGI Fridays op ...

at 41st and Yale Avenue, after the roof collapsed into the building. This was the first tornado to hit the Tulsa area in the month of August since 1958 (and only the 3rd to strike the area since 1950), the tornado injured 26 people – with two seriously injured – in the east part of the city. Even with the tornado detectable on radar, the Tulsa County Emergency Management Agency did not begin civil defense sirens in the area because the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

did not issue a

tornado warning A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a public warning that is issued by weather forecasting agencies to an area in the direct path of a tornado, or a severe thunderstorm capable of producing one, and advises individuals in that area to take c ...

until 1:25 a.m., after which time an EF1 tornado had entered Broken Arrow, damaging multiple home roofs and several large tree branches. A second EF1 tornado hit east of Oologah at 1:32 a.m. CDT (06:32 UTC), damaging several trees, barns and a home, downing multiple telephone poles.

Notes

References