Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2003

F1 tornado, Ottawa County, Oklahoma, May 4, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Ottawa County on May 4, 2003, touching down at 5:55 PM CDT and reaching 880 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 4, 2003
Touchdown
5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
880 yards (805 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
Ottawa County
Touchdown point
36.770, -94.930
Lift-off point
36.770, -94.820
Record number
1024

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:38 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:38 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningTSA
23:03 UTC23:45 UTCTornado 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 High Risk, with a 0.25 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:19 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. May 4, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2003-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 50 joules per kilogram, CIN -362, lifted condensation level 735 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2003-05-04The 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 282 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
50 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-362 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
735 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
282 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
474 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.7
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 97 km from the path. May 5, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2003-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2099 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 756 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2003-05-05The 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 321 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 74 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
2099 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2412 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
756 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
74 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
321 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
341 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.6
Supercell composite
15.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:56 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 2003 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 2003

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 42:15 AM CDTF0Howard, NE1.035$70,000
May 42:59 PM CDTF0Scott, KS0.130
May 43:28 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE1.0150
May 43:35 PM CDTF1Saunders, NE1.3250$20,000
May 43:54 PM CDTF1Leavenworth, KS to MO3.050$1.9 million
May 43:55 PM CDTF2Leavenworth, KS6.02502$4.0 million
May 44:18 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 44:18 PM CDTF4Wyandotte, KS to MO21.0500230$48 million
May 44:28 PM CDTF0Cass, NE0.3100
May 44:30 PM CDTF0Todd, SD1.010
May 44:30 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 44:35 PM CDTF4Crawford, KS to MO33.0880430$20 million
May 44:37 PM CDTF0Neosho, KS4.0110$10,000
May 44:45 PM CDTF4Clay, MO5.020013$31 million
May 44:59 PM CDTF2Clay, MO8.5300$60 million
May 45:06 PM CDTF1Miami, KS to MO9.0150
May 45:24 PM CDTF0Craig, OK3.0200
May 45:25 PM CDTF1Labette, KS12.02201$2.5 million
May 45:31 PM CDTF3Barton, MO86.0880547$53 million
May 45:40 PM CDTF0Labette, KS0.555
May 45:45 PM CDTF3Cherokee, KS to MO25.0880534$24 million
May 46:04 PM CDTF2Cass, MO22.0100$200,000
May 46:10 PM CDTF0Vernon, MO0.220
May 46:30 PM CDTF0Jasper, MO0.220
May 46:50 PM CDTF3Newton, MO49.0880748$48 million
May 46:52 PM CDTF0Van Buren, AR3.125
May 46:55 PM CDTF1Dade, MO0.225$10,000
May 46:58 PM CDTF0LeFlore, OK to AR18.830
May 46:58 PM CDTF1Johnson, MO10.075$30,000
May 47:15 PM CDTF1Mississippi, AR4.0250$10,000
May 47:34 PM CDTF2Faulkner, AR14.51001
May 47:35 PM CDTF0Pettis, MO0.550$10,000
May 47:36 PM CDTF3Camden, MO14.0400427$5.0 million
May 47:39 PM CDTF2Mississippi, AR15.0300$400,000
May 47:50 PM CDTF1Faulkner, AR1.875
May 47:50 PM CDTF0Dunklin, MO3.0200$10,000
May 47:50 PM CDTF0Pemiscot, MO6.0440$1,000
May 47:52 PM CDTF3Faulkner, AR34.95005
May 48:20 PM CDTF0Webster, MO0.220
May 48:30 PM CDTF0Miller, MO0.220
May 48:35 PM CDTF0Cedar, MO0.220
May 48:45 PM CDTF0Dyer, TN1.0100$10,000
May 48:53 PM CDTF2Scott, MO11.5130$70,000
May 48:55 PM CDTF0Polk, MO0.220
May 48:55 PM CDTF3Woodruff, AR43.03004$1.0 million
May 49:05 PM CDTF0Maries, MO0.220
May 49:10 PM CDTF1Jackson, AR1.830
May 49:13 PM CDTF0Dallas, MO0.220
May 49:20 PM CDTF1Dyer, TN2.0200$30,000
May 49:25 PM CDTF1Gibson, TN8.0100$100,000
May 49:30 PM CDTF0Camden, MO0.220
May 49:30 PM CDTF1Dyer, TN4.0150$200,000
May 49:35 PM CDTF2Weakley, TN4.0250$750,000
May 49:43 PM CDTF1Ballard, KY to IL3.9100
May 49:55 PM CDTF0Pulaski, MO0.220
May 410:00 PM CDTF1Mississippi, AR8.0200$30,000
May 410:09 PM CDTF1Pope, IL to KY2.250
May 410:10 PM CDTF1Livingston, IL to KY9.860$10,000
May 410:30 PM CDTF2Calloway, KY1.860$350,000
May 410:30 PM CDTF0Phelps, MO0.230

All 81 of them

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.