Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1995

F0 tornado, Fox to S Healdton, Oklahoma, April 19, 1995

From Fox to S Healdton, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Carter County on April 19, 1995, touching down at 8:32 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
Date
April 19, 1995
Touchdown
8:32 PM CDT (01:32 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Carter County
Touchdown point
34.200, -97.480
Record number
162

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:10 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:10 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningOUN
01:19 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
01:33 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningOUN
01:56 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Fort Sill, OK (KFSI), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 98 km from the path. April 20, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 1995-04-20Temperature 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 -1902, lifted condensation level 1424 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 1995-04-20The 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 -5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 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
-1902 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1424 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:31 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 19, 1995

36 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 192:51 PM CDTF0Lubbock, TX0.340$500 to $5,000
April 193:03 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
April 193:10 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
April 193:20 PM CDTF0Dallas, TX0.110
April 193:31 PM CDTF0Kaufman, TX0.110
April 193:40 PM CDTF1Kaufman, TX2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 193:55 PM CDTF0King, TX0.120
April 194:12 PM CDTF1Kaufman, TX1.0100
April 194:15 PM CDTF0Rains, TX0.110
April 195:15 PM CDTF0Hopkins, TX0.230
April 195:30 PM CDTF0Van Zandt, TX0.110
April 195:35 PM CDTF0Lamar, TX0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 195:35 PM CDTF0Franklin, TX0.110
April 195:46 PM CDTF0Titus, TX0.110
April 197:07 PM CDTF0Wichita, TX0.120
April 197:15 PM CDTF0Wichita, TX0.120
April 197:40 PM CDTF0Jefferson, OK0.120
April 197:42 PM CDTF0Palo Pinto, TX0.110
April 197:43 PM CDTF0Clay, TX0.120
April 197:48 PM CDTF0Parker, TX0.110
April 197:58 PM CDTF0Howard, AR0.110
April 198:15 PM CDTF0Moore, TX0.220
April 198:20 PM CDTF0Poinsett, AR0.110$500 to $5,000
April 198:27 PM CDTF0Carter, OK0.120
April 198:40 PM CDTF2Tarrant, TX5.050$500,000 to $5 million
April 198:47 PM CDTF0Hempstead, AR0.110
April 198:53 PM CDTF0Coryell, TX0.110
April 199:02 PM CDTF1Dallas, TX6.01008$500,000 to $5 million
April 199:54 PM CDTF0Kaufman, TX0.110
April 1910:05 PM CDTF0Poinsett, AR0.510$500 to $5,000
April 1910:15 PM CDTF0Rockwall, TX0.110
April 1910:30 PM CDTF0Craighead, AR0.520$500 to $5,000
April 1910:45 PM CDTF0Lake, TN0.110$500 to $5,000
April 1910:50 PM CDTF0Mississippi, AR0.210$500 to $5,000
April 1911:08 PM CDTF0Pemiscot, MO5.050$500 to $5,000
April 1911:15 PM CDTF0Blanco, TX2.5200

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.