F2 tornado, Dustin to Hanna, Oklahoma, May 20, 2001

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.

Rating

F2

Date

May 20, 2001

Touchdown

4:20 PM CDT (21:20 UTC)

Path length

11.0 miles (17.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$230,000

Counties

Hughes and McIntosh counties

Touchdown point

35.200, -96.120

Lift-off point

35.270, -95.880

Record number

820

Severe thunderstorms affected most of central and eastern Oklahoma on the 20th. More than a dozen tornadoes were confirmed, with four occurring in the Norman Forecast Area. See Tulsa storm data for information on eastern Oklahoma tornadoes. Little damage from straight-line winds was reported, however there was a large amount of large hail.

A damage survey conducted by National Severe Storms Laboratory meteorologists confirmed F2 damage approximately 6 miles southwest of Dustin, when 80 percent of a house roof was blown off. As the tornado moved east-northeast sporadic roof damage was sustained to other homes; an antenna was wrapped around a telephone pole; trees were damaged; farm buildings were destroyed; power poles were bent, and two feeders were bent up. The tornado then tracked into McIntosh County. See storm data from the National Weather Service Office in Tulsa for more information on the McIntosh County segment of this tornado. Eye witnesses described the tornado as multiple-vortex.

This tornado started in Hughes County and entered McIntosh county 7 miles northwest of Hanna. The tornado lifted 5 miles north of Hanna. As the tornado crossed the Indian Nation Turnpike near Highway 9 it did damage to a McDonalds restaurant and three Transportation Depmartment storage sheds. A large truck was also overturned.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:07 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:13 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 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.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:22 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

32 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.