Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1959

F0 tornado, Craig County, Oklahoma, May 9, 1959

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Craig County on May 9, 1959, touching down at 10:45 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
May 9, 1959
Touchdown
10:45 PM GMT-5 (03:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Craig County
Touchdown point
36.730, -95.170
Record number
199

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

3.8 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. May 10, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 00:00Z on 1959-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1857 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 1398 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 1959-05-10The 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 106 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
1857 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2416 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1398 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
8.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.2 hours after it, 174 km from the path. May 10, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 12:00Z on 1959-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 809 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 736 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 12:00Z on 1959-05-10The 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 57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
809 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1959 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 9, 1959

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 94:35 PM GMT-5F1Osage, OK7.710
May 93:00 PM GMT-7F0Santa Fe, NM0.110
May 93:00 PM GMT-7F0Santa Fe, NM0.110
May 95:00 PM GMT-5F1Osage, OK4.910
May 95:25 PM GMT-5F0Ozark, MO0.217
May 96:00 PM GMT-5F1Montgomery, KS7.8200
May 96:25 PM GMT-5F3Mayes, OK23.28803$50,000 to $500,000
May 96:28 PM GMT-5F1Mayes, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 96:40 PM GMT-5F2Rogers, OK19.1300$5,000 to $50,000
May 97:00 PM GMT-5F1Jefferson, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 97:00 PM GMT-5F3Rogers, OK23.450$50,000 to $500,000
May 97:00 PM GMT-5F1Pittsburg, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 97:00 PM GMT-5F2Delaware, OK0.8880$5,000 to $50,000
May 97:00 PM GMT-5F2Hughes, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 97:15 PM GMT-5F1Poweshiek, IA4.9200$500 to $5,000
May 97:15 PM GMT-5F3Keokuk, IA6.6200$50,000 to $500,000
May 97:40 PM GMT-5F4Pontotoc, OK6.2900712$50,000 to $500,000
May 97:45 PM GMT-5F2McDonald, MO0.550$50,000 to $500,000
May 98:00 PM GMT-5F3Van Buren, IA17.82501$50,000 to $500,000
May 98:10 PM GMT-5F2Tama, IA0.167$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.