F2 tornado, Valliant to De Kalb, Oklahoma, May 14, 2003

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 14, 2003

Touchdown

8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)

Path length

78.3 miles (126.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

Counties

McCurtain, Bowie and Cass counties

Touchdown point

33.980, -95.080

Lift-off point

33.150, -94.070

Record number

145

A violent thunderstorm moved rapidly southeast across McCurtain County, OK into Bowie County, TX and Cass County, TX. This thunderstorm also produced a strong Microburst in McCurtain County southeast of Idabel, OK and again southeast of Maud, TX. Numerous trees and limbs were snapped or pushed over while several large corporate and private corn fields were ripped up. The only structure in the path of this tornado was located next to the Highway 259 bridge which crosses the Red River into Bowie County, TX.. This tornado moved into Bowie and Cass Counties, TX.

A violent thunderstorm moved rapidly southeast across McCurtain County, OK into Bowie County, TX and Cass County, TX. This thunderstorm also produced a strong microburst in McCurtain County southwest of Idabel, OK and again southeast of Maud, TX, located in Bowie County. Numerous trees and limbs were snapped or pushed over along the entire track. Several homes, mobile homes, barns, garages, and outbuildings were either damaged or destroyed. The primary damage from this event occurred southeast of Maud, TX and was also associated with a microburst with wind speeds approaching 100 mph. The microburst occurred along the east side of the tornado track.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:21 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 142 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:10 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 2003 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.