Published: July 21, 2009 11:06 pm         

Severe thunderstorms leave trail of damage

Tennis ball-sized hail and strong winds damaged structures in Alfalfa County late Monday as severe thunderstorms rolled through the area.

The area around Goltry seemed to get hit the hardest. Hail punched holes or caused dents in several structures around the town. Additionally, a metal building on a man’s property 11⁄2 miles west of Goltry was damaged extensively, according to the Alfalfa County Sheriff’s Office.

Vernon Sanders, Alfalfa County emergency management director, said he couldn’t determine tennis ball-sized hail actually fell, but it was large.

“I will confirm golf ball size,” he said.

Sanders said he received reports of broken windows between Goltry and Jet as a result of the storm, but he had not been able to confirm the full extent of the damage in the county.

“It came with a vengeance and left real quick,” Sanders said.

The National Weather Service, meanwhile, had several reports of large hail and damaging winds in the area. Hail 23⁄4 inches in diameter was reported four miles south-southeast of Jet in east Alfalfa County. A storm spotter in Meno in Major County reported hail 13⁄4 inches in diameter.

Meanwhile, a spotter six miles east of Pond Creek in Grant County reported wind gusts as high as 60 mph. According to the Mesonet weather-reporting site near Lahoma, a wind gust of 56 mph was recorded Monday night. The highest gust reported was 71 mph at Alva.

No hail was reported in Enid. Mike Honigsberg, director of Enid and Garfield County Emergency Management, said there were reports of golf ball-sized hail in the county, but he had heard no reports of damage.

Winds were gusting between 25 and 30 mph before and after the storms came through the city, according to the National Weather Service’s weather station at Vance Air Force Base. The base received approximately 1⁄4 inch of rainfall.

There were some power outages from the storms in northwest Oklahoma. OG&E Electric Services reported 82 customers without power in the Ames area Tuesday morning.

The Oklahoma City area also was affected by strong thunderstorms early Tuesday, with OG&E reporting more than 5,400 customers without power in the metro area Tuesday morning.