Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2002

F0 tornado, Jumbo, Oklahoma, April 16, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pushmataha County on April 16, 2002, touching down at 9:15 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.

  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 16, 2002
Touchdown
9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pushmataha County
Touchdown point
34.450, -95.730
Lift-off point
34.450, -95.730
Record number
34

What the Weather Service recorded

The public reported a brief touchdown of a F0 tornado just north of Jumbo. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

32 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:43 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:43 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningTSA
02:31 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningTSA
02:40 UTC04:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningTSA

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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

2.3 hours before the tornado, 175 km from the path. April 17, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2002-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1660 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 1179 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2002-04-17The 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 253 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1660 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2382 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1179 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
253 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
336 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
7.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

9.7 hours after it, 175 km from the path. April 17, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2002-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1330 joules per kilogram, CIN -241, lifted condensation level 881 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2002-04-17The 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 265 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1330 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-241 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1426 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
881 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
265 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
284 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:14 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 2002 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 16, 2002

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 165:42 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX1.6100$10,000
April 165:49 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.650$2,000
April 165:52 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.870$10,000
April 165:59 PM CDTF3Tarrant, TX2.180$250,000
April 166:56 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.170
April 167:07 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX0.540
April 167:11 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.0100
April 167:14 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.040
April 167:31 PM CDTF1Ellis, TX2.3200$10,000
April 167:50 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.475$3,000
April 168:01 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.270$10,000
April 168:18 PM CDTF1Atoka, OK3.0100$30,000
April 168:25 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.460

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.