Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1958

F1 tornado, Nowata and Craig counties, Oklahoma, July 11, 1958

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Nowata and Craig counties on July 11, 1958, touching down at 11:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
July 11, 1958
Touchdown
11:00 PM GMT-5 (04:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
Counties
Nowata and Craig counties
Touchdown point
36.850, -95.550
Record number
373

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Fort Smith Muni, AR (KFSM), 00:00Z

4.0 hours before the tornado, 203 km from the path. July 12, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 00:00Z on 1958-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3300 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 1131 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 00:00Z on 1958-07-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 133 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
3300 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4322 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1131 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
133 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
430 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
6.4
Supercell composite
29.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Smith Muni, AR (KFSM), 12:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 203 km from the path. July 12, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 12:00Z on 1958-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -408, lifted condensation level 935 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 12:00Z on 1958-07-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-408 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
935 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-185 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1958 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 11, 1958

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 111:45 AM GMT-5F2Shawnee, KS0.110
July 112:00 AM GMT-5F1Saline, NE0.110$50,000 to $500,000
July 112:03 AM GMT-5F2Shawnee, KS0.110
July 112:20 AM GMT-5F1Jefferson, KS0.110
July 113:00 AM GMT-5F1Johnson, KS1.210
July 113:35 AM GMT-5F0Woodson, KS0.110
July 111:45 PM GMT-5F2Wayne, IL32.9501$5,000 to $50,000
July 113:30 PM GMT-4F1York, ME1.017$500 to $5,000
July 114:00 PM GMT-4F1Highland, OH1.010
July 114:30 PM GMT-4F2Franklin, MA1.0100$500 to $5,000
July 115:00 PM GMT-4F1Worcester, MA0.4133$50 to $500
July 115:00 PM GMT-4F1Worcester, MA0.150$500 to $5,000
July 116:00 PM GMT-4F2Middlesex, MA1.517$50,000 to $500,000
July 116:07 PM GMT-5F2Hamilton, OH to KY0.1108$50,000 to $500,000
July 118:55 PM GMT-5F3Coles, IL4.7303$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.