Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2006

F0 tornado, Slapout, Oklahoma, June 18, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Beaver County on June 18, 2006, touching down at 8:30 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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
June 18, 2006
Touchdown
8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Beaver County
Touchdown point
36.550, -100.030
Lift-off point
36.550, -100.030
Record number
649

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms across the eastern Oklahoma panhandle produced high winds and hail along with a brief tornado in southeastern Beaver county. The tornado caused damage to power poles and snapped four to six inch diameter tree limbs. Metal roofing was entangled on a fence and wrapped around frame from outbuilding. Trees were sheared off with one tree blown over. No injuries were reported.

Official storm damage survey indicates brief tornado touchdown along East to West 0330 Road in extreme southeastern Beaver county.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:27 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
00:33 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

1.5 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. June 19, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2006-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 156 joules per kilogram, CIN -48, lifted condensation level 3427 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, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 2006-06-19The 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 29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.193958Sfc1 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
156 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-48 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1027 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3427 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
9.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 136 km from the path. June 19, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2006-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 107 joules per kilogram, CIN -664, lifted condensation level 2632 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2006-06-19The 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 196 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.193958Sfc1 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
107 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-664 J/kg
Surface CAPE
219 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2632 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
196 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
393 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Gage/Shattuck (GAG), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC9454160° 17 kt221013.9
00:53 UTC9155160° 14 kt211013.9
01:53 UTC8755110° 10 kt1014.2
02:03 UTC87.855.480° 9 kt1014.6VCTS
02:17 UTC84.255.470° 10 kt1014.9TS
02:45 UTC73.462.6270° 25 kt501017.6+TSRA SQ
02:49 UTC75.262.6120° 7 kt341017.9+TSRA
02:53 UTC7563140° 15 kt301016.9VCTS +RA
02:57 UTC73.464.4150° 22 kt341014.9VCTS RA
03:04 UTC73.462.6140° 25 kt341014.2VCTS -RA
03:28 UTC75.264.4140° 20 kt271014.6

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:31 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:14 UTCTSTM WND GST 60SlapoutBeaver, OK
01:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 607 Se SlapoutBeaver, OKSEVERE SIDING DAMAGE TO HOME
01:20 UTCHAIL 17 Se SlapoutBeaver, OK
01:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Se SlapoutBeaver, OKPOWER POLES BLOWN DOWN
01:30 UTCHAIL 0.755 Se SlapoutBeaver, OK6 INCH DEEP HAIL DRIFTS CONTAINING PENNY SIZE HAIL OVER SIX HOURS AFTER STORM MOVED THROUGH
01:30 UTCTORNADO6 Se SlapoutBeaver, OKDEBRIS PATTERN INDICATES BRIEF TOUCHDOWN ALONG EW30 RD IN EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN BEAVER COUNTY...SURVEY SUMMARY WILL BE FORTHCOMING
01:30 UTCTORNADO6 Se SlapoutBeaver, OKDEBRIS PATTERN INDICATES BRIEF TOUCHDOWN ALONG EW30 RD IN EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN BEAVER COUNTY...SURVEY SUMMARY WILL BE FORTHCOMING
01:37 UTCTSTM WND GST 605 S SlapoutBeaver, OK
01:37 UTCHAIL 0.885 S SlapoutBeaver, OK
01:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 603 N CatesbyEllis, OK
01:53 UTCHAIL 12 Nw CatesbyEllis, OK
01:55 UTCHAIL 18 E FollettLipscomb, TXTIME APPROXIMATED...QUARTER SIZE HAIL ON LIPSCOMB/ELLIS COUNTY LINE
01:55 UTCHAIL 0.881 E CatesbyEllis, OK
02:10 UTCHAIL 312 Nnw ShattuckEllis, OK2.5 TO 3.0 INCH HAIL REPORTED WEST OF HW 283 ON HW 15.
02:39 UTCTSTM WND GST 58GageEllis, OK
02:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 60WoodwardWoodward, OK

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 18, 2006

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 182:22 PM CDTF0Dane, WI0.120
June 182:26 PM CDTF1Washington, WI5.84001$4.0 million

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.