Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1981

F1 tornado, Garfield County, Oklahoma, May 17, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Garfield County on May 17, 1981, touching down at 4:30 PM CDT and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 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
Date
May 17, 1981
Touchdown
4:30 PM CDT (21:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Garfield County
Touchdown point
36.430, -97.530
Record number
227

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), 12:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 115 km from the path. May 17, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 12:00Z on 1981-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 836 joules per kilogram, CIN -171, lifted condensation level 731 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 1981-05-17The 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 363 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
836 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-171 J/kg
Surface CAPE
423 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
731 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
363 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
392 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.5 hours after it, 115 km from the path. May 18, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ok Cty/Will Rgrs, OK at 00:00Z on 1981-05-18Temperature 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 0, lifted condensation level NaN 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 1981-05-18The 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 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2180 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
NaN m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 17, 1981

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 173:25 PM CDTF0Kay, OK18.733
May 174:05 PM CDTF2Cowley, KS0.5100$500,000 to $5 million
May 174:15 PM CDTF1Harper, KS7.2100$50,000 to $500,000
May 174:56 PM CDTF0Thomas, KS0.217$500 to $5,000
May 175:30 PM CDTF1Noble, OK0.510under $50
May 175:46 PM CDTF1Cleveland, OK4.2100
May 176:00 PM CDTF2Oklahoma, OK1.950$50,000 to $500,000
May 176:24 PM CDTF1Cleveland, OK1.0100under $50
May 176:42 PM CDTF1Cowley, KS0.250$500 to $5,000
May 177:45 PM EDTF1Polk, FL1.030$5,000 to $50,000
May 176:53 PM CDTF2Denton, TX4.9123$500 to $5,000
May 177:10 PM CDTF3Pottawatomie, OK10.25876$50,000 to $500,000
May 177:15 PM CDTF1Osage, OK2.067$5,000 to $50,000
May 177:45 PM CDTF2Seminole, OK2.7200$50,000 to $500,000
May 178:00 PM CDTF4Seminole, OK33.66002$500,000 to $5 million
May 178:00 PM CDTF0Osage, OK0.110
May 178:20 PM CDTF2Osage, OK0.110
May 179:10 PM CDTF3Seminole, OK15.4350$5,000 to $50,000
May 1711:00 PM CDTF2Muskogee, OK0.110

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.