F3 tornado, Fairfax, Oklahoma, May 8, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

May 8, 2003

Touchdown

6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)

Path length

45.0 miles (72.4 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Osage County

Touchdown point

36.580, -96.720

Lift-off point

36.880, -96.130

Record number

268

A F3 tornado touched down northwest of Fairfax and traveled northeast across rural areas of Osage county before dissipating just west of Bowring. The one community it did effect was Little Chief.Oil tanks southwest of Little Chief were taken off their foundation and rolled a quarter of a mile. In Little Chief a RV was destroyed and there was considerable tree damage. In a field not far from Little Chief seven cattle were killed. Along Highway 60 to the northeast of Little Chief a house and garage were completely swept from their foundation. At the same location a barn was destroyed and three horses were killed. Further to the northeast as the tornado entered the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, it produced additional significant tree damage. Throughout the path of the tornado up to 30 power poles were blown down causing power outages across a significant part of Osage county. The F3 damage was classified at two locations: the first was near where the cattle were killed--this was the only location that showed the scouring of grasses along the path; the second location was in the western sections of the Tall Grass Prairie Reserve where an Oak Forest was heavily damaged. Although the one house was swept off its foundation, it was clear that this house's anchoring failed prematurely. On this property there were several examples, especially with vegetation, that hinted that this stretch of the tornado track was probably less than F3 intensity.

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

40 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:06 UTC, 40 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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 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 20:14 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.

Bartlesville/Philli (BVO), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:46 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

46 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.