Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2002
F0 tornado, Lamont to Billings, Oklahoma, April 11, 2002
From Lamont to Billings, this F0 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Grant, Noble and Garfield counties on April 11, 2002, touching down at 10:52 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.
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
- April 11, 2002
- Touchdown
- 10:52 PM CDT (03:52 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.1 miles (3.4 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Grant, Noble and Garfield counties
- Touchdown point
- 36.620, -97.480
- Lift-off point
- 36.570, -97.420
- Record number
- 513
What the Weather Service recorded
This tornado developed on the county line and was seen by several storm chasers. No damage was observed or reported in Grant County.
This tornado moved through northeast Garfield County for one mile before moving into Noble County. No damage was observed or reported in Garfield County.
After exiting Garfield County, this tornado moved approximately one mile before dissipating. No damage was observed or reported in Noble County.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
8 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:44 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:07 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 03:28 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 03:39 UTC | 06:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OUN |
| 03:44 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Tornado 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 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.
Lamont, OK (KLMN), 12:00Z
8.1 hours after it, 4 km from the path. April 12, 2002.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -207 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 953 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 50 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -2 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -11 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The surface observations
Ponca City Municipal (PNC), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:53 UTC | 67 | 60 | 110° 6 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 02:53 UTC | 72 | 54 | 170° 10 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 03:53 UTC | 69 | 54 | 220° 7 kt | 1015.2 | ||
| 04:04 UTC | 66.2 | 55.4 | 220° 5 kt | 1015.9 | VCTS | |
| 04:19 UTC | 68 | 53.6 | 260° 6 kt | 1016.3 | ||
| 04:28 UTC | 66.2 | 55.4 | 230° 7 kt | 1016.3 | TS | |
| 04:53 UTC | 62 | 56 | 340° 4 kt | 1016.9 | TS | |
| 05:13 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1016.9 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 11, 2002
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.