Thomas Grazulis documented six tornadoes that occurred on November 4, 1922. We look at one of those twisters in this summary: An estimated F4 that moved through parts of Creek and Pawnee Counties in Oklahoma. Information for this event came from the following resources:
- Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes
- Newspaper articles via newspapers.com
Here are the stats on this event from Thomas Grazulis:
Hit at 1730 local time. There were 40 injuries and 11 fatalities. The path length was 25 miles and the width 300 yards. Rating given: F4.
Details from Grazulis:
- Moved NE from just west of Shamrock to five miles North of Mannford.
- Frail homes and the pieces of over 130 oil rigs were scattered for miles.
- ~30 homes of oil workers were destroyed SE of Drumright.
- Nine of the fatalities were in the Shamrock-Drumright area.
Additional Details from newspapers:
An article from The Morning Tulsa Daily World on November 5, 1922 gave the following details about the damage:
- Greatest damage on several oil leases between Drumright and Shamrock.
- “300-foot path about 25 miles long” in the Cushing oil field district.
- Tornado affected the towns of Shamrock, Drumright, Olive, Mannford and Keystone. None had a direct hit.
Here is a clip describing “the most disastrous visitation”:
In an article I found from The Morning Tulsa World on November 18, 1922, only 14 days after the tornado, all of the oil wells were functional again.
Thomas Grazulis lists 11 fatalities from this event and stated 9 were in the Shamrock-Drumright area. I looked through several newspaper articles around the time of this event on newspapers.com and there were a varying amount of reports. The highest fatality count I could find was six. I may have to explore the Creek and Pawnee County Libraries to find out more information. But, here is a clip from the Norton Courier listing the names of the six fatalities:
Tornado Path
Estimated Coordinates:
Start: 35.909457/-96.590149 End: 36.203168/-96.353432
Note: Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.
Newspaper Clippings
Sources:
Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 782.
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