Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1961

F0 tornado, Cleveland County, Oklahoma, May 6, 1961

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cleveland County on May 6, 1961, touching down at 12:50 AM 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, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
May 6, 1961
Touchdown
12:50 AM GMT-5 (05:50 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cleveland County
Touchdown point
35.300, -97.500
Record number
267

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.

Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK (KOKC), 00:00Z

5.8 hours before the tornado, 14 km from the path. May 7, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 00:00Z on 1961-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6327, lifted condensation level 2282 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 00:00Z on 1961-05-07The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6327 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1074 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2282 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK (KOKC), 12:00Z

6.2 hours after it, 14 km from the path. May 7, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 12:00Z on 1961-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3082 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 916 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, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 12:00Z on 1961-05-07The 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 271 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
3082 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3909 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
916 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
271 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
326 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.4
Supercell composite
21.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Oklahoma City (OKC), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:00 UTC7164140° 8 kt1010.8
05:00 UTC7367140° 8 kt1010.2
06:00 UTC7167140° 7 kt1008.5-TSRA
07:00 UTC7060200° 11 kt1007.8

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 6, 1961

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 61:15 AM GMT-5F1Pulaski, AR1.02003$50,000 to $500,000
May 64:00 PM GMT-5F1Adair, OK0.810$500 to $5,000
May 65:15 PM GMT-5F1Jefferson, MO5.750$5,000 to $50,000
May 67:30 PM GMT-5F0Elkhart, IN0.110
May 69:00 PM GMT-5F0Cherokee, KS0.110
May 69:02 PM GMT-5F3LaGrange, IN to OH33.48005$500,000 to $5 million
May 610:30 PM GMT-5F0LeFlore, OK0.110
May 69:30 PM GMT-7F1Kit Carson, CO0.110$500 to $5,000
May 612:30 AM GMT-5F2Independence, AR1.530026$50,000 to $500,000
May 612:56 AM GMT-5F2Independence, AR5.6200$50,000 to $500,000

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.