Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2004

F0 tornado, Kendrick to Avery, Oklahoma, November 10, 2004

From Kendrick to Avery, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lincoln County on November 10, 2004, touching down at 6:15 PM CST and reaching 20 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
November 10, 2004
Touchdown
6:15 PM CST (00:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lincoln County
Touchdown point
35.920, -96.770
Lift-off point
35.920, -96.770
Record number
1746

What the Weather Service recorded

A media storm chaser observed this brief tornado north of Kendrick. No damage was reported.

Cushing emergency management reported this weak tornado. No known damage.

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

The warnings

33 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:42 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:54 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningOUN
23:42 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOUN

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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

0.3 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. November 11, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2004-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 121 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 1291 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 2004-11-11The 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 153 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
121 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
317 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1291 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 96 km from the path. November 11, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2004-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 489 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2004-11-11The 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 -37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
489 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chandler Municipal Airport (CQB), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:31 UTC62.659160° 8 kt1011.5
22:51 UTC62.659160° 7 kt1011.5
23:11 UTC62.659160° 8 kt1011.5
23:31 UTC62.659150° 7 kt1011.5
23:51 UTC62.659160° 14 kt171011.5-RA
00:11 UTC60.855.4180° 13 kt181011.5-TSRA
00:31 UTC5955.4150° 9 kt151011.2TS
00:51 UTC5957.2210° 4 kt1011.9
01:11 UTC5957.2180° 4 kt1011.9VCTS
01:31 UTC57.255.4300° 5 kt1012.2
01:51 UTC5957.2270° 3 kt1012.5
02:11 UTC5957.2260° 4 kt1012.9

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

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:13 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 2004 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 10, 2004

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 104:36 PM CSTF0Oklahoma, OK1.275$50,000
November 104:43 PM CSTF1Oklahoma, OK3.0400$1.0 million
November 105:00 PM CSTF0Oklahoma, OK1.220
November 105:40 PM CSTF1Lincoln, OK3.0600$200,000
November 106:05 PM CSTF0Lincoln, OK0.120

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.