Alert archive / Oklahoma / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 287

May 18, 202526 counties in Kansas; 32 counties in Oklahoma; Hemphill County, Lipscomb County, Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 18, 2025, 3:38 PM CDT for 26 counties in Kansas; 32 counties in Oklahoma; Hemphill County, Lipscomb County, Texas. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 18, 2025, 3:38 PM CDT (20:38 UTC)
Expired: May 19, 2025, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 60 counties

Barber County, KS, Barton County, KS, Clark County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Ellis County, KS, Finney County, KS, Ford County, KS, Gray County, KS, Harper County, KS, Haskell County, KS, Hodgeman County, KS, Kearny County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Lane County, KS, Meade County, KS, Ness County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Reno County, KS, Rush County, KS, Scott County, KS, Seward County, KS, Stafford County, KS, Trego County, KS, Alfalfa County, OK, Beaver County, OK, Beckham County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Caddo County, OK, Canadian County, OK, Cleveland County, OK, Comanche County, OK, Cotton County, OK, Custer County, OK, Dewey County, OK, Ellis County, OK, Garfield County, OK, Grady County, OK, Grant County, OK, Greer County, OK, Harmon County, OK, Harper County, OK, Jackson County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Kingfisher County, OK, Kiowa County, OK, Logan County, OK, Major County, OK, McClain County, OK, Oklahoma County, OK, Roger Mills County, OK, Stephens County, OK, Tillman County, OK, Washita County, OK, Woods County, OK, Woodward County, OK, Hemphill County, TX, Lipscomb County, TX

The radar

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:40 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: 70%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 60%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 80%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 80%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 18, 4:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AMA	Hemphill, Lipscomb	49 min
May 18, 4:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AMA	Beaver	40 min
May 18, 4:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Ellis, Harper	52 min
May 18, 4:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AMA	Hemphill, Lipscomb	49 min
May 18, 4:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Ellis, Roger Mills, Woodward	48 min
May 18, 5:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis	27 min
May 18, 5:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Ellis, Roger Mills	36 min
May 18, 5:12 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	AMA	Hemphill, Lipscomb	27 min
May 18, 5:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Scott	42 min
May 18, 5:32 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DDC	Scott	28 min
May 18, 5:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Harper	24 min
May 18, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Lane, Scott	35 min
May 18, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Clark	50 min
May 18, 5:40 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Ellis, Woodward	35 min
May 18, 5:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	DDC	Scott	45 min
May 18, 5:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	DDC	Clark	36 min
May 18, 5:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Edwards, Ford, Kiowa	48 min
May 18, 6:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Finney, Hodgeman, Lane, Ness	45 min
May 18, 6:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Ellis, Woodward	51 min
May 18, 6:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Edwards, Ford, Kiowa	49 min
May 18, 6:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	OUN	Ellis, Woodward	41 min
May 18, 6:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Ellis, Lane, Ness, Trego	48 min
May 18, 7:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Ellis, Harper, Woodward	44 min
May 18, 7:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Edwards, Pawnee	39 min
May 18, 7:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	OUN	Harper, Woods, Woodward	39 min
May 18, 7:18 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DDC	Edwards	27 min
May 18, 7:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Ness, Trego	47 min
May 18, 7:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Harper, Woods, Woodward	44 min
May 18, 7:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	DDC	Edwards, Pawnee	24 min
May 18, 7:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Woods, Woodward	47 min
May 18, 7:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	DDC	Pawnee	34 min
May 18, 8:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Woods, Woodward	52 min
May 18, 8:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Pawnee, Stafford	18 min
May 18, 8:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Barton	60 min
May 18, 8:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Barber, Comanche	28 min
May 18, 8:37 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ICT	Barton	23 min
May 18, 9:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Barton, Ellsworth, Russell	40 min
May 18, 9:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	DDC	Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ford, Kiowa, Pratt	49 min
May 18, 9:19 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DDC	Clark, Comanche, Kiowa	26 min
May 18, 9:32 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	DDC	Edwards, Kiowa	43 min
May 18, 9:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning EmergencyTornado observedCatastrophic damage threat	DDC	Kiowa	42 min
May 18, 10:10 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	DDC	Kiowa, Pratt	28 min
May 18, 10:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	DDC	Edwards, Kiowa, Pratt	40 min
May 18, 10:52 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DDC	Pratt, Stafford	38 min
May 18, 11:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	ICT	Reno	39 min
May 18, 11:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	DDC	Pratt, Stafford	20 min
May 18, 11:50 PM CDT	Tornado Warning EmergencyTornado observedCatastrophic damage threat	ICT	Reno	25 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

Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 12:00Z, 8.6 hours before the alert went out and 111 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: 723 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -377 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1181 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 206 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 225 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
May 18, 2:12 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Greeley, Logan and 7 more	3 hr
May 18, 2:57 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton and 6 more	6 hr
May 18, 3:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford and 13 more	114 min
May 18, 5:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton and 4 more	2 hr
May 18, 5:39 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Cloud, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Geary, Jewell and 14 more	3 hr
May 18, 6:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Butler, Chase, Clay, Cloud, Coffey, Dickinson and 26 more	6 hr
May 17, 7:40 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian and 33 more	2 hr
May 17, 7:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	McCurtain	6 hr
May 17, 9:53 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Choctaw, Latimer, LeFlore, McCurtain, Pushmataha	2 hr
May 17, 9:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cherokee, Cleveland and 31 more	8 hr
May 17, 11:30 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Creek, Garvin and 16 more	2 hr
May 18, 3:15 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore, McIntosh and 7 more	60 min
May 18, 4:23 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore, Sequoyah	67 min
May 18, 11:40 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Mayes, Muskogee, Sequoyah and 1 more	2 hr
May 18, 5:11 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ellis, Harper, Woodward	94 min
May 18, 1:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Concho and 18 more	3 hr
May 18, 4:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Brown, Callahan, Clay, Coleman and 32 more	6 hr
May 18, 6:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Callahan, Eastland, Shackelford, Stephens, Young	54 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 2025 Tornado Watches in Kansas, 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.