Alert archive / Oklahoma / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 144

April 18, 202517 counties in Oklahoma; 15 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 18, 2025, 9:15 PM CDT for 17 counties in Oklahoma; 15 counties in Texas. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 18, 2025, 9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Expired: Apr 19, 2025, 3:40 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 32 counties

Atoka County, OK, Carter County, OK, Coal County, OK, Comanche County, OK, Cotton County, OK, Garvin County, OK, Hughes County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Johnston County, OK, Love County, OK, Marshall County, OK, Murray County, OK, Pontotoc County, OK, Pottawatomie County, OK, Seminole County, OK, Stephens County, OK, Tillman County, OK, Archer County, TX, Baylor County, TX, Clay County, TX, Cooke County, TX, Haskell County, TX, Jack County, TX, Knox County, TX, Montague County, TX, Palo Pinto County, TX, Shackelford County, TX, Stephens County, TX, Throckmorton County, TX, Wichita County, TX, Wilbarger County, TX, Young County, TX

The radar

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 69 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:17 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 50%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

11 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 18, 9:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Seminole	49 min
Apr 18, 9:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Cooke, Montague	38 min
Apr 18, 10:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Hughes, Seminole	36 min
Apr 18, 10:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Carter, Jefferson, Love	37 min
Apr 18, 10:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Johnston, Love, Marshall, Murray	39 min
Apr 18, 11:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes, Pottawatomie, Seminole	29 min
Apr 19, 12:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes, Pontotoc, Seminole	26 min
Apr 19, 1:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Callahan, Coleman, Runnels, Shackelford, Taylor	64 min
Apr 19, 2:18 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Eastland, Palo Pinto, Stephens, Young	57 min
Apr 19, 2:25 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Callahan, Shackelford	24 min
Apr 19, 3:13 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Eastland, Erath, Hood, Palo Pinto, Parker, Stephens	47 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Norman, OK (KOUN), launched 00:00Z, 2.3 hours before the alert went out and 132 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 108 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -368 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 993 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 79 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 342 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 436 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 18, 8:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland and 47 more	86 min
Apr 18, 8:35 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore and 3 more	85 min
Apr 18, 8:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Haskell and 11 more	8 hr
Apr 18, 9:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, Greer, Harmon and 8 more	4 hr
Apr 18, 11:26 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Caddo, Carter, Cherokee, Cleveland, Coal and 31 more	94 min
Apr 19, 1:42 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Haskell, McIntosh, Muskogee and 1 more	2 hr
Apr 19, 6:29 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Choctaw, Coal, Johnston and 4 more	91 min
Apr 19, 6:47 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Choctaw, Cleveland, Coal and 16 more	5 hr
Apr 18, 11:45 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Comanche, Concho and 12 more	90 min
Apr 19, 12:01 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Comanche, Concho and 21 more	6 hr
Apr 19, 2:21 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Concho, Eastland and 12 more	114 min
Apr 19, 1:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman and 45 more	92 min
Apr 19, 2:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Brown, Callahan, Clay, Coke and 50 more	8 hr
Apr 19, 4:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Coke, Glasscock, Irion, Jones, Mitchell, Nolan and 5 more	54 min
Apr 19, 5:18 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Coke, Coleman, Concho, Irion, Runnels, Sterling and 1 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 2025 Tornado Watches in Texas, 2025 Every tornado watch in 2025

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.