EF3 tornado, Erick, Oklahoma, May 5, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 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. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF3

Date

May 5, 2007

Touchdown

8:04 PM CDT (01:04 UTC)

Lifted

8:12 PM CDT (01:12 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$5.0 million

County

Beckham County

Touchdown point

35.394, -99.870

Lift-off point

35.430, -99.870

Record number

0705051904-01

An upper level storm system moved slowly into south central Colorado during the afternoon. A dry line had become established and was located along the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle border. Also, favorable upper level winds were rotating around the upper level storm system, crossing the dryline over western Oklahoma. As the afternoon progressed, convergence along the dryline became maximized over this area. Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours and they quickly became supercells. Two of the supercells produced several tornadoes. The northern tornadic storm produced five tornadoes from southwest of Roll to just east of Arnett. The southern tornadic storm also produced five tornadoes in Oklahoma from near Sweetwater to near Sharon. Large hail was also observed. The supercells moved northeast out of Oklahoma during the late evening hours. Monetary values for the tornado damage were estimated.

This is the first tornado that occurred in Oklahoma with the southern tornadic supercell. The tornado appears to have developed 1/2 mile north of E1130 road and along Highway 30 in northern Beckham County, about 2 1/2 miles south of Sweetwater. The first evidence of a tornado was damage to an outbuilding at a gas facility on the west side of the highway along with some tree damage. The tornado moved north along and parallel to Highway 30, damaging trees, homes and some outbuildings. Damage in this area was mainly in the EF0 range. ||The most significant damage occurred when the tornado struck the Sweetwater school. At this location, the tornado is estimated to have been 100-150 yards wide. The most significant damage was to a metal building that was the school`s multi-purpose building, which was almost completely destroyed. The anchoring that connected the building to the foundation appeared to have failed, allowing all but the most northern section of the building to collapse. A small building that connected this building with the school`s gymnasium suffered only slight damage. The gymnasium, at the northwest corner of the school, suffered substantial roof damage, which appeared to have caused the west masonry wall of the school to collapse outward. ||Other damage on the school property consisted of a small storage building of similar construction as the multi-purpose building being completely destroyed, a bus barn/garage structure suffering damage when the large garage doors blew inward, and damage to trees, power lines and fences. ||A pick up truck, which had been parked in the school`s parking lot, was rolled/tossed approximately 100 yards to the north. A horse trailer that had been near the storage building at the southwest edge of the school property was found more than one quarter mile away in a field. ||A man suffered minor injuries near this location.||Just north of the school, a home was damaged and an oil storage facility was also hit. An oil tank from this location was found approximately 500 yards away. ||Several animals were killed when a garage was destroyed. A RV was also destroyed. Numerous cars and school buses were damaged/destroyed. ||The damage to the multi-purpose building at the Sweetwater school is consistent with damage at the low end of the EF-3 scale. The remainder of the damage was primarily in the EF0-EF1 category.||The tornado continued and crossed into Roger Mills County. Monetary damages were estimated. ||

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:00 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:20 UTC and running to 02:58 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 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 00:59 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.

Clinton-Sherman (CSM), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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 2007 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

96 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 97 of them

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.