Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1973

F2 tornado, LeFlore County, Oklahoma, May 26, 1973

This F2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across LeFlore County on May 26, 1973, touching down at 10:00 PM CDT and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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
May 26, 1973
Touchdown
10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
LeFlore County
Touchdown point
34.950, -94.700
Record number
440

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.

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 00:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 231 km from the path. May 27, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1973-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1976 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 802 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1973-05-27The 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 166 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
1976 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1875 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
802 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
6.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KUMN), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 231 km from the path. May 27, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1973-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 14 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 610 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1973-05-27The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 53 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:00 UTC7965.84190° 10 kt989.8
02:00 UTC7967180° 10 kt989.2
03:00 UTC7968180° 13 kt987.5TSRA SQ
03:01 UTC250° 26 kt39991.2TSRA
03:26 UTC240° 17 kt990.9TSRA
04:00 UTC65.8463290° 12 kt992.2

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 1973

31 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 263:04 AM CDTF2Liberty, TX14.7104$50,000 to $500,000
May 263:45 AM CDTF2Jefferson, TX6.21673$50,000 to $500,000
May 2610:23 AM CDTF2Pearl River, MS0.1104$5,000 to $50,000
May 261:00 PM CDTF2Escambia, FL105.42014$5,000 to $50,000
May 263:00 PM CDTF0Polk, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 263:20 PM CDTF1Escambia, FL0.5207$50,000 to $500,000
May 263:25 PM CDTF1Sedgwick, KS3.81003
May 264:00 PM CDTF1Chautauqua, KS1.0200$500 to $5,000
May 264:00 PM CDTF3Washington, OK0.31003$500 to $5,000
May 264:00 PM CDTF2Tulsa, OK2.033$500 to $5,000
May 264:15 PM CDTF0York, NE0.110
May 264:15 PM CDTF3Sedgwick, KS4.34001$50,000 to $500,000
May 264:30 PM CDTF1Mayes, OK10.560$5,000 to $50,000
May 265:00 PM CDTF4Muskogee, OK3.6500525$50,000 to $500,000
May 265:30 PM CDTF0Platte, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 265:30 PM CDTF1Adair, MO5.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 265:40 PM CDTF3Sequoyah, OK18.72506$50,000 to $500,000
May 266:00 PM CDTF2Benton, AR5.6100$50,000 to $500,000
May 266:55 PM CDTF0Benton, AR0.5100$50 to $500
May 267:00 PM CDTF1Wright, MO2.050$500 to $5,000
May 267:50 PM CDTF2Boone, MO3.0501$50,000 to $500,000
May 269:00 PM CDTF2McIntosh, OK5.7200$50,000 to $500,000
May 269:05 PM CDTF1Iron, MO1.050
May 269:10 PM CDTF1Pittsburg, OK15.580$5,000 to $50,000
May 2610:25 PM CDTF2Carroll, AR2.02002$50,000 to $500,000
May 2610:30 PM CDTF1Crawford, AR1.010023$50,000 to $500,000
May 2610:30 PM CDTF2Saint Louis, MO1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 2611:30 PM CDTF4Woodruff, AR54.83003289$5,000 to $50,000
May 2611:30 PM CDTF0Randolph, MO0.110
May 2611:30 PM CDTF1Iron, MO3.0210
May 2612:00 AM CDTF2Madison, MO3.0200

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.