Cold front spawns tornadoes, snow in state

Staff and Wire Reports

A severe storm moved through Oklahoma City Sunday night dumping more than an inch of rain on the metro in less than an hour.

Earlier in the day the storm spawned two tornadoes in rural western Oklahoma. The two tornadoes were spotted in northwestern Oklahoma, in rural areas of Blaine County and Grant County. No fatalities were reported and early damage reports seemed minimal.

In Oklahoma City, high water covered some city streets after the storm dumped more than an inch of rain in an hour. EMSA officials said the weather was making it difficult to work traffic wrecks.

A tornado in northern Blaine County passed near the communities of Carleton and Southard Sunday afternoon. The tornado caused hay bales to roll through fields and damage to a barn.

It also downed "a couple of power lines on a county road" but didn't cause much more damage, Blaine County Sheriff's Deputy Adam Austin said.

"It's just more of a scare than anything else, really," he said.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported another tornado touchdown just south of Manchester in Grant County, near the Kansas state line. The OHP said numerous downed power lines are down in the area and that a barn has been destroyed.

State Highway 132 was closed Sunday night north of State Highway 11 because of the downed power lines.

Latasha Jennings, a dispatcher at the Grant County Sheriff's office, said the amount of damage still was being assessed Sunday night.

The cold front that ushered in the storm will bring sharply colder temperatures and winter precipitation to much of Oklahoma.

Snow and blowing snow advisories are in effect through Monday morning for the Panhandle and through Monday evening for parts of southeast, south and central Oklahoma.

Monday will be windy and colder, with rain changing to sleet and snow or freezing rain in central and eastern Oklahoma. Skies will be partly cloudy in western Oklahoma with a chance of rain or snow. Highs will be in the 30s, except for the far southeastern parts of the state, where they could rise into the mid 40s to mid 50s.

Overnight lows will be in the upper teens in the Panhandle to near 30 in extreme southeastern Oklahoma. Snow will be likely in the east and possible in central Oklahoma, with mainly cloudy skies elsewhere.