Alert archive / Oklahoma / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 137

April 23, 202619 counties in Oklahoma

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 23, 2026, 5:11 PM CDT for 19 counties in Oklahoma. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 23, 2026, 5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)
Expired: Apr 24, 2026, 1:00 AM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

Counties Alfalfa County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Caddo County, OK, Canadian County, OK, Cleveland County, OK, Comanche County, OK, Garfield County, OK, Grady County, OK, Grant County, OK, Kay County, OK, Kingfisher County, OK, Logan County, OK, Major County, OK, McClain County, OK, Noble County, OK, Oklahoma County, OK, Osage County, OK, Pawnee County, OK, Payne County, OK

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 81 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:14 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: 60%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 40%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 10%
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: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 23, 5:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Grant, Kay	48 min
Apr 23, 6:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Grant, Kay	42 min
Apr 23, 6:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Grant, Kay	41 min
Apr 23, 7:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	OUN	Kay	52 min
Apr 23, 7:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Grant	46 min
Apr 23, 7:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Grant, Kay	41 min
Apr 23, 7:39 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Kay	51 min
Apr 23, 7:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garfield	50 min
Apr 23, 7:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Emergency	OUN	Garfield	46 min
Apr 23, 8:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Grant, Kay	41 min
Apr 23, 8:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Comanche, Stephens, Tillman	51 min
Apr 23, 8:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	TSA	Osage	58 min
Apr 23, 8:18 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Kay	42 min
Apr 23, 8:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Grant, Kay	50 min
Apr 23, 8:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threat	OUN	Garfield	17 min
Apr 23, 8:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TSA	Osage	47 min
Apr 23, 8:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Garfield, Kingfisher, Logan, Noble	40 min
Apr 23, 9:12 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TSA	Osage	20 min
Apr 23, 9:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Kay	35 min
Apr 23, 9:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	TSA	Osage	46 min
Apr 23, 9:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Garfield	44 min
Apr 23, 9:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Osage	40 min
Apr 23, 9:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garfield, Logan, Noble, Payne	57 min
Apr 23, 9:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Nowata, Osage, Washington	26 min
Apr 23, 9:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Osage	46 min
Apr 23, 10:05 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	OUN	Garfield, Noble	5 hr
Apr 23, 10:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garfield	40 min
Apr 23, 10:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Garfield, Logan, Noble, Payne	59 min
Apr 23, 10:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Osage, Pawnee	50 min
Apr 23, 10:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Garfield, Noble	48 min
Apr 23, 10:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Noble, Payne	42 min
Apr 23, 11:03 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	OUN	Garfield, Noble	3 hr
Apr 23, 11:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Osage, Pawnee	31 min
Apr 23, 11:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Garfield, Logan, Noble, Payne	44 min
Apr 23, 11:39 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	OUN	Noble, Payne	3 hr
Apr 23, 11:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Osage, Pawnee	48 min
Apr 23, 11:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Logan, Noble, Payne	50 min
Apr 24, 12:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Kingfisher, Logan	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 12:00Z, 10.2 hours before the alert went out and 94 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: 1680 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -149 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 520 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 318 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 330 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 3.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 23, 1:00 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Grant, Kay, Osage	2 hr
Apr 23, 3:02 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland, Comanche and 17 more	2 hr
Apr 23, 5:26 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Caddo, Comanche, Grady, Kiowa, Stephens, Tillman	3 hr
Apr 23, 6:50 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Garfield, Grant, Kay	2 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 2026 Every tornado watch in 2026

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.