Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2006
F0 tornado, Miller to Antlers, Oklahoma, September 21, 2006
From Miller to Antlers, this F0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Pushmataha County on September 21, 2006, touching down at 8:25 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- September 21, 2006
- Touchdown
- 8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Pushmataha County
- Touchdown point
- 34.280, -95.770
- Lift-off point
- 34.280, -95.770
- Record number
- 897
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado produced minor damage to several homes and snapped trees.
A tornado destroyed a storage building and snapped trees.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
31 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:54 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:53 UTC and running to 02:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:53 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Watch | TSA |
| 00:54 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | TSA |
| 01:57 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | TSA |
| 02:30 UTC | 07:43 UTC | Tornado Watch | TSA |
| 17:06 UTC | 01:58 UTC | Tornado Watch | TSA |
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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:48 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
1.4 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. September 22, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1270 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -34 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2461 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1512 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 135 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 254 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 6.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.6 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
10.6 hours after it, 182 km from the path. September 22, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -90191 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 3176 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 188 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 257 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.3 K/km
The radar
The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 171 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:24 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:50 UTC | HAIL 1 | Tushka | Atoka, OK | |
| 01:05 UTC | HAIL 1 | Lane | Atoka, OK | |
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Lane | Atoka, OK | BRANCHES AND TREES DOWNED. POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Lane | Atoka, OK | |
| 01:15 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Lane | Atoka, OK | |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 W Antlers | Pushmataha, OK | REPORTS OF A BARN GONE AND DAMAGE TO A HOUSE. ALSO REPORTS OF NUMEROUS TREES DOWN BLOCKING ROADS BETWEEN ANTLERS AND THE ATOKA PUSHMATAHA COUNTY LINE. |
| 01:25 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Wnw Antlers | Pushmataha, OK | STORM SURVEY FOUND A .4 MILE LONG...50 YARD WIDE TORNADO TRACK. SEVERAL HOMES RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE AND TREES WERE SNAPPED. FUJITA DAMAGE SCALE RATING F0. |
| 01:28 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 1 S Moyers | Pushmataha, OK | |
| 01:28 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nw Antlers | Pushmataha, OK | STORM SURVEY FOUND A ONE MILE LONG...100 YARD WIDE TORNADO TRACK. A SHED WAS DESTROYED AND TREES WERE SNAPPED. FUJITA DAMAGE SCALE RATING F0. |
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 September 21, 2006
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 21 | 1:53 PM CDT | F1 | Russell, KS | 6.0 | 75 | $100,000 | ||
| September 21 | 2:30 PM CDT | F0 | Vermilion Parish, LA | 1.0 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| September 21 | 3:13 PM CDT | F0 | Lincoln, KS | 17.0 | 300 | $30,000 | ||
| September 21 | 3:36 PM CDT | F0 | Mitchell, KS | 6.0 | 100 | |||
| September 21 | 4:03 PM CDT | F0 | Mitchell, KS | 6.0 | 50 | |||
| September 21 | 4:16 PM CDT | F0 | Lincoln, KS | 0.3 | 35 | |||
| September 21 | 4:30 PM CDT | F0 | Ottawa, KS | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| September 21 | 4:55 PM CDT | F0 | Ottawa, KS | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| September 21 | 6:20 PM CDT | F0 | Vermilion Parish, LA | 1.0 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| September 21 | 6:48 PM CDT | F1 | Vermilion Parish, LA | 2.0 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| September 21 | 6:55 PM CDT | F0 | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 1.0 | 20 | |||
| September 21 | 8:10 PM CDT | F1 | Atoka, OK | 11.0 | 100 | $70,000 | ||
| September 21 | 8:14 PM CDT | F1 | Polk, AR | 2.2 | 40 | |||
| September 21 | 8:28 PM CDT | F0 | Pushmataha, OK | 1.0 | 100 | $20,000 |
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.