Alert archive / Oklahoma / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 279

May 17, 202543 counties in Oklahoma; 8 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 17, 2025, 2:40 PM CDT for 43 counties in Oklahoma; 8 counties in Texas. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 17, 2025, 2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 2025, 10:00 PM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 51 counties

Atoka County, OK, Beckham County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Bryan County, OK, Caddo County, OK, Canadian County, OK, Carter County, OK, Choctaw County, OK, Cleveland County, OK, Coal County, OK, Comanche County, OK, Cotton County, OK, Custer County, OK, Dewey County, OK, Ellis County, OK, Garvin County, OK, Grady County, OK, Greer County, OK, Harmon County, OK, Hughes County, OK, Jackson County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Johnston County, OK, Kingfisher County, OK, Kiowa County, OK, Latimer County, OK, Lincoln County, OK, Logan County, OK, Love County, OK, Marshall County, OK, McClain County, OK, Murray County, OK, Okfuskee County, OK, Oklahoma County, OK, Pittsburg County, OK, Pontotoc County, OK, Pottawatomie County, OK, Pushmataha County, OK, Roger Mills County, OK, Seminole County, OK, Stephens County, OK, Tillman County, OK, Washita County, OK, Archer County, TX, Baylor County, TX, Clay County, TX, Foard County, TX, Hardeman County, TX, Knox County, TX, Wichita County, TX, Wilbarger County, TX

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:40 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: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 70%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 17, 3:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garvin, Grady, McClain	49 min
May 17, 4:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, McClain	38 min
May 17, 4:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garvin, Grady, McClain	50 min
May 17, 4:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garvin, Grady, McClain	46 min
May 17, 4:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Canadian, Cleveland, Oklahoma	39 min
May 17, 5:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garvin, McClain	29 min
May 17, 5:18 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garvin, Murray	27 min
May 17, 5:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garvin, McClain, Pontotoc	48 min
May 17, 5:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka	30 min
May 17, 5:51 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Atoka	18 min
May 17, 6:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garvin, Pontotoc	25 min
May 17, 6:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Carter, Jefferson, Love	45 min
May 17, 6:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Coal, Pontotoc, Seminole	35 min
May 17, 7:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Atoka, Coal, Hughes, Pontotoc	42 min
May 17, 7:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pittsburg	38 min
May 17, 7:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka, Bryan, Johnston, Marshall, Pontotoc	52 min
May 17, 7:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka, Bryan	40 min
May 17, 7:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Atoka, Coal	48 min
May 17, 7:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Coal, Johnston, Pontotoc	49 min
May 17, 7:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	TSA	Pittsburg, Pushmataha	49 min
May 17, 8:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka	33 min
May 17, 8:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Choctaw	29 min
May 17, 8:39 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	TSA	Pittsburg, Pushmataha	4 hr
May 17, 8:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pittsburg, Pushmataha	50 min
May 17, 8:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Seminole	39 min
May 17, 9:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pushmataha	16 min
May 17, 9:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pushmataha	37 min
May 17, 9:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Canadian, Oklahoma	31 min
May 17, 9:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	McIntosh, Okfuskee, Okmulgee	19 min
May 17, 9:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes, Seminole	13 min
May 17, 9:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	LeFlore, Pushmataha	19 min
May 17, 9:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Cleveland, Oklahoma	46 min
May 17, 9:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Lincoln, Logan, Oklahoma	28 min

Discussions around it

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

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 17, 2:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Choctaw, Coal, Cotton and 7 more	35 min
May 17, 4:35 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Beckham, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland and 18 more	85 min
May 17, 6:41 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	McCurtain	3 hr
May 16, 7:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bell, Bosque, Bowie, Burnet, Camp and 49 more	2 hr
May 17, 1:32 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bandera, Brown, Burnet, Concho, Edwards, Gillespie and 14 more	118 min
May 17, 2:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bosque, Collin, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Dallas and 32 more	7 hr
May 17, 2:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bandera, Brown, Burnet, Dimmit, Edwards, Gillespie and 14 more	9 hr
May 17, 5:29 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bosque, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hill and 7 more	61 min
May 17, 6:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bosque, Brown, Burnet, Comanche, Coryell, Gillespie and 9 more	92 min

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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.