Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1968

F2 tornado, LeFlore County, Oklahoma, April 19, 1968

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across LeFlore County on April 19, 1968, touching down at 2:30 PM GMT-6 and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
April 19, 1968
Touchdown
2:30 PM GMT-6 (20:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
LeFlore County
Touchdown point
34.970, -94.650
Record number
91

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.

Tinker AFB, OK (KTIK), 12:00Z

8.5 hours before the tornado, 246 km from the path. April 19, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tinker AFB, OK at 12:00Z on 1968-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 117 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 516 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, Tinker AFB, OK at 12:00Z on 1968-04-19The 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 181 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 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
117 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
516 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tinker AFB, OK (KTIK), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 246 km from the path. April 20, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tinker AFB, OK at 00:00Z on 1968-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 40 joules per kilogram, CIN -47, lifted condensation level 1202 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, Tinker AFB, OK at 00:00Z on 1968-04-20The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-47 J/kg
Surface CAPE
437 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1202 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC686525° 16 kt1005.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1968 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 19, 1968

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 1911:00 AM GMT-6F2Cooke, TX1.523$5,000 to $50,000
April 1912:15 PM GMT-6F1Atoka, OK5.41503$5,000 to $50,000
April 193:12 PM GMT-6F4Sebastian, AR2.030014270$500,000 to $5 million
April 193:45 PM GMT-6F1Grady, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
April 193:45 PM GMT-6F3Seminole, OK6.6150$5,000 to $50,000
April 194:00 PM GMT-6F1Logan, AR4.7833$500 to $5,000
April 194:00 PM GMT-6F1Kay, OK0.550$500 to $5,000
April 194:58 PM GMT-6F2Pontotoc, OK3.3272$5,000 to $50,000
April 196:00 PM GMT-6F2Faulkner, AR13.5600$50,000 to $500,000
April 196:45 PM GMT-6F1Elk, KS9.910
April 199:00 PM GMT-6F1Newton, MO1.0100$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.