Meteorologists Take Look At Nuyaka Storm Damage

People in several parts of Green Country have a big clean-up job ahead of them after Wednesday night's storms. News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports National Weather Service Meteorologists got a first-hand look at the damage near Nuyaka in Okmulgee County.

The meteorologists are like the CSI of the National Weather Service. They survey damage to gather data about the storm.

"We're going all the way from Okmulgee County, across Broken Arrow, Southeast Tulsa area, up into Mayes County," said Ed Calianese of the National Weather Service.

Damage areas are put into a GPS computer program.  It's like connecting the dots to determine the storm's path.

"We're looking at different facts and pieces of information trying to make sense of it.  Does it fit a tornado?  Does it fit a downdraft, downburst kind of event?" said Calianese.  

By getting a first-hand look, the meteorologists can determine what kind of wind it would take to create this kind of damage, whether it was caused by a tornado, or simply from strong gusts."

While the meteorologists work, Okmulgee County crews cleared roads blocked by downed trees.

The storm was strong enough to level a number of trees in the Nuyaka area, rip roofs off outbuildings and flip a travel trailer.

It's all valuable information that will be analyzed and studied to help meteorologists better understand storms and predict what they're capable of on down the road.

Based on the amount of territory they have to cover, meteorologists say it will likely be late Friday before they can go over the data and determine if the damage was caused by a tornado or strong winds.