EF1 tornado, Minco, Oklahoma, May 8, 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 mphthis tornado

   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 mph

   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

EF1

Date

May 8, 2007

Touchdown

10:54 PM CDT (03:54 UTC)

Lifted

10:58 PM CDT (03:58 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

County

Grady County

Touchdown point

35.292, -97.964

Lift-off point

35.320, -97.976

Record number

0705082154-01

An upper level storm system moved slowly east northeast through southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. A couple of disturbances rotated around the storm system and moved over the southern plains during the morning and afternoon hours. One disturbance moved over Oklahoma during the morning hours, with the other moving over Oklahoma during the evening hours. A stationary front remained located south of the Red River, with another front establishing itself over the southeast third of Oklahoma. Showers and thunderstorms developed and moved over the main body of Oklahoma during the morning hours. Widespread flash flooding was reported over central Oklahoma, with rivers rising out of their banks. After a lull in precipitation for a few hours the other disturbance moved over Oklahoma during the late afternoon and evening hours. Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed over southwest Oklahoma and continued to develop into central and southern Oklahoma. Large hail and severe wind gusts were reported, with flash flooding and river flooding continuing to be a concern due to the heavy rainfall earlier in the day. Supercell thunderstorms formed in southwest Oklahoma producing one tornado near Lake Ellsworth. As the showers and storms continued to develop and move northeast, a mesoscale convective vorticity maximum (MCV) developed. In the vicinity of this MCV, transient circulations on many scales were observed in the storm-relative radar velocity fields and in the storm motions themselves. Some of the circulations briefly tightened to tornado scale causing damage west of Minco, west of Union City, and in El Reno. Monetary damages were estimated.

Damage was first observed to dairy facility 2.7 miles southwest of Minco where the western portion of the south wall was pushed in which in turn pushed the roof and the northern wall of the building to the north. To the northwest, a farm sustained roof damage to the house, and damage to three metal storage buildings and two barns. Fences and trees were also damaged along the path. Monetary damages were estimated.

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.

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:35 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 Norman radar (KTLX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:54 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 2007 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.