Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2000
F0 tornado, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, October 22, 2000
This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Oklahoma County on October 22, 2000, touching down at 7:14 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- October 22, 2000
- Touchdown
- 7:14 PM CDT (00:14 UTC)
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Oklahoma County
- Touchdown point
- 35.430, -97.500
- Lift-off point
- 35.480, -97.520
- Record number
- 936
What the Weather Service recorded
Significant flash flooding and 6 tornadoes, mostly small, weak and short-lived, developed on the 22nd, across a 35 mile wide band from near Frederick in southwest Oklahoma northeastward to near Chandler in central Oklahoma. Rainfall amounts in this band averaged 4 to 8 inches. Anadarko in Caddo County, received 10 inches, which classifies as a 250-year rain event. Record-like flooding developed in some areas, particularly across southern Caddo and Grady Counties, from near Apache and Anadarko to near Chickasha.
This tornado, rated F1, formed across southern portions of Oklahoma City near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Interstate 240, then moved northward for 1.5 miles before dissipating. Minor structural damage, consisting of 2 broken windows and an air conditioning unit blown off the roof, occurred to the Montgomery Ward Auto Express Store at Crossroads Mall. In addition, roof damage was sustained to several offices and businesses, and numerous homes in the town of Valley Brook.
This tornado formed across southern Oklahoma City near the intersection of Eastern and SE 22nd. Minor damage to buildings, trees, and power lines, consistent with an F0 rating, occurred over a narrow, 3 mile path.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:03 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:03 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:26 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 01:00 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 01:45 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OUN |
| 04:45 UTC | 07:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OUN |
| 07:44 UTC | 09:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OUN |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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
0.2 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. October 23, 2000.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1389 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 923 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 493 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 158 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 209 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.2
- Supercell composite
- 6.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
11.8 hours after it, 28 km from the path. October 23, 2000.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 20 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -103 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 689 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 104 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 171 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
The surface observations
Oklahoma City (OKC), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:53 UTC | 68 | 66 | 100° 12 kt | 1019.3 | BR | |
| 23:06 UTC | 66.2 | 66.2 | 100° 10 kt | 1019.6 | TS BR | |
| 23:53 UTC | 68 | 65 | 100° 10 kt | 17 | 1020.7 | -TSRA BR |
| 00:27 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 170° 22 kt | 26 | 1021.7 | +TSRA BR |
| 00:36 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 160° 12 kt | 1021.3 | +TSRA BR | |
| 00:45 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 140° 8 kt | 1021.3 | +TSRA BR | |
| 00:53 UTC | 62 | 61 | 160° 6 kt | 1021.3 | TSRA BR | |
| 01:26 UTC | 62.6 | 62.6 | 160° 5 kt | 1021.7 | -TSRA BR | |
| 01:53 UTC | 62 | 62 | 120° 7 kt | 1021.7 | -TSRA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norman radar (KTLX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:13 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 2000 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of October 22, 2000
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 22 | 12:01 PM CDT | F0 | Victoria, TX | 0.3 | 0 | |||
| October 22 | 12:40 PM CDT | F0 | Eastland, TX | 2.5 | 20 | $30,000 | ||
| October 22 | 4:14 PM CDT | F0 | Caddo, OK | 4.0 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| October 22 | 4:35 PM CDT | F0 | Caldwell, TX | 0.2 | 30 | $3,000 | ||
| October 22 | 5:36 PM CDT | F0 | Canadian, OK | 0.2 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| October 22 | 6:26 PM CDT | F0 | Pontotoc, OK | 2.5 | 20 | |||
| October 22 | 7:00 PM CDT | F0 | Pontotoc, OK | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| October 22 | 7:02 PM CDT | F1 | Oklahoma, OK | 1.5 | 40 | $120,000 |
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.