F1 tornado, Randlett to Thornberry, Oklahoma, April 24, 2006

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.

Rating

F1

Date

April 24, 2006

Touchdown

8:23 PM CDT (01:23 UTC)

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Counties

Cotton and Clay counties

Touchdown point

34.120, -98.500

Lift-off point

34.120, -98.380

Record number

414

A tornado that was observed by several storm chasers and spotters touched down near Randlett on the evening on April 24,2006. Video showed that the tornado began as a dust whirl on the ground with no condensation funnel for the first few minutes. A condensation funnel eventually developed from cloud base to the ground and was described as a fat stove-pipe at times. This tornado crossed the Red River into Clay County Texas at 1938 CST (see west north Texas tornado entry) before dissipating. The tornado caused some damage in Oklahoma. A meteorologist at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas did a survey of the damage. Numerous hardwood, mainly elm, trees were snapped or uprooted, with large limbs also downed. One large elm tree, about 2.5 foot in diameter, was snapped about 4 feet above the ground. One large tree was partially debarked. Power poles were also snapped. A few calves were also missing.

This tornado initially touched down in Cotton County, 4.8 miles south-southwest of Randlett, Oklahoma (see Oklahoma tornado entry beginning at 1923 CST). The tornado crossed the Red River into Clay County 3.8 miles north of Thornberry. The tornado dissipated about a mile east of the river. This tornado caused some damage in Oklahoma but no damage was reported in Texas.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:36 UTC and running to 01:43 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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 Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:23 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.