Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1990

F3 tornado, Payne County, Oklahoma, May 15, 1990

This F3 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Payne County on May 15, 1990, touching down at 7:41 PM CDT and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 12, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 15, 1990
Touchdown
7:41 PM CDT (00:41 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
440 yards (402 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
12
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Payne County
Touchdown point
36.120, -97.150
Lift-off point
36.170, -97.050
Record number
341

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:31 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:31 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningOUN
01:11 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
01:57 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningOUN

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:29 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. May 16, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 1990-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2163 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 1065 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 1990-05-16The 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 158 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
2163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2446 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1065 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
196 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
8.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 106 km from the path. May 16, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 1990-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2019 joules per kilogram, CIN -215, lifted condensation level 880 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 1990-05-16The 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 404 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
2019 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-215 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1463 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
880 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
404 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
407 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 15, 1990

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 151:39 PM CDTF0Callaway, MO0.250
May 155:30 PM EDTF0Collier, FL0.210
May 155:50 PM CDTF1Blaine, OK0.120
May 156:05 PM CDTF1Canadian, OK5.050
May 155:40 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO0.750
May 156:20 PM MDTF0Logan, CO0.223
May 158:30 PM CDTF0Chase, KS1.010
May 158:30 PM CDTF0Chase, KS1.010
May 158:30 PM CDTF0Chase, KS5.027$5,000 to $50,000
May 158:43 PM CDTF0Douglas, IL0.130
May 159:00 PM CDTF0Harvey, KS2.027
May 159:35 PM CDTF1Harvey, KS20.050$500 to $5,000
May 159:45 PM CDTF1Creek, OK1.073$50,000 to $500,000
May 1510:10 PM CDTF0Tulsa, OK0.120
May 1511:30 PM CDTF2Rogers, OK4.0738$50,000 to $500,000
May 1511:40 PM CDTF2Mayes, OK8.0123$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.