Last week's tornado near Rattan causes little visible damage

By Julie Bisbee

Published: March 17, 2008

RATTAN — A tornado that was reported last week caused very little noticeable damage, according to officials with the National Weather Service.

A spotter reported a tornado near Rattan in Pushmataha County at 10:40 p.m. Thursday evening. On Friday, crews from the National Weather Service in Tulsa traveled to far southeastern Oklahoma to survey the damage from the would-be twister.

But in the dense forest of southeastern Oklahoma, it was hard to tell whether a tornado had touched down, said Ed Calianese, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa.

"We couldn't find any damage," Calianese said. "It was a difficult location to get to by road, and basically we were on logging roads."

The area where the radar signal the night before was the strongest had recently been cleared by loggers and there were no homes or other buildings in the area.

However, Calianese said the tornado report will stand and likely be entered into official storm records, even though a team was unable to confirm it by looking at damage in the area.

"Just because we didn't find damage doesn't mean there wasn't a tornado," Calianese said. "It was a good report and the sequence of events they reported coincided well. It may have been just a brief touchdown."

The threat of severe weather is expected to continue this evening as a strong storm system moves across the state. Heavy rains could bring flash flooding or the possibility strong storms, Calianese said.

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