Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma

2008 tornadoes in Oklahoma

78 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma in 2008, 32 percent above the average of the record for the state. They killed 21 people and injured 359. 1 were rated F4 or EF4 and above.

2007 2009 The whole country in 2008

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Oklahoma in 2008

January 7 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
January 7	8:08 PM CST	EF0	Adair	0.1	50
January 7	10:28 PM CST	EF0	Cherokee	1.8	500	$25,000
January 7	11:38 PM CST	EF0	Wagoner	0.5	75
January 7	11:54 PM CST	EF0	Wagoner	2.7	100

March 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 2	4:46 PM CST	EF0	Blaine	1.0	50

March 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 13	10:36 PM CDT	EF0	Pushmataha	0.1	50

March 27 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 27	6:32 PM CDT	EF0	Muskogee	0.1	100			$125,000
March 27	6:32 PM CDT	EF0	McIntosh	0.9	100			$5,000

March 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 30	9:44 PM CDT	EF0	Caddo	0.5	20			$10,000
March 30	10:22 PM CDT	EF0	Caddo	0.1	20

March 31 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
March 31	1:23 AM CDT	EF0	Oklahoma	0.2	20
March 31	1:39 AM CDT	EF1	Oklahoma	3.5	100	$450,000
March 31	5:46 AM CDT	EF1	Osage	5.5	250	$50,000
March 31	7:25 AM CDT	EF0	Washington	0.2	100
March 31	9:20 AM CDT	EF0	Noble	0.1	20	$5,000
March 31	1:44 PM CDT	EF1	Ottawa to MO	5.4	200	$125,000
March 31	7:10 PM CDT	EF0	Choctaw	0.1	75
March 31	7:31 PM CDT	EF1	McCurtain	4.9	450	$10,000

April 9 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 9	7:10 PM CDT	EF0	Choctaw	0.1	75
April 9	8:26 PM CDT	EF0	McCurtain	1.0	100
April 9	8:42 PM CDT	EF0	McCurtain	1.0	150
April 9	9:03 PM CDT	EF0	Haskell	0.1	75	$1,000
April 9	10:07 PM CDT	EF0	LeFlore	0.1	75

April 10 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 10	4:56 AM CDT	EF0	Sequoyah	2.0	150
April 10	5:15 AM CDT	EF2	Adair	2.8	300	$100,000
April 10	5:26 AM CDT	EF2	Adair to AR	9.0	400	$125,000

April 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 23	5:25 PM CDT	EF0	Osage	0.1	50

May 1 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 1	7:29 PM CDT	EF0	Oklahoma	0.1	20	$15,000
May 1	7:42 PM CDT	EF0	Payne	0.3	75
May 1	8:18 PM CDT	EF0	Pawnee	0.1	75
May 1	8:25 PM CDT	EF1	Pawnee	3.0	300	$20,000
May 1	8:37 PM CDT	EF1	Osage	17.0	450	$75,000
May 1	9:06 PM CDT	EF0	Osage	5.0	100	$5,000

May 2 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 2	1:45 AM CDT	EF0	Creek	7.0	250		$20,000
May 2	3:03 AM CDT	EF1	Rogers	9.0	500	2	$55,000
May 2	3:03 AM CDT	EF1	Mayes	0.5	100		$20,000

May 7 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 7	4:56 PM CDT	EF1	Garvin	0.5	30	1	$50,000
May 7	4:57 PM CDT	EF1	Canadian	7.5	120		$150,000
May 7	5:21 PM CDT	EF0	Cleveland	4.6	25		$25,000
May 7	5:22 PM CDT	EF0	Oklahoma	2.8	20		$50,000
May 7	6:40 PM CDT	EF0	Okmulgee	4.0	200		$35,000
May 7	7:28 PM CDT	EF0	Tulsa	0.3	50		$75,000

May 10 13 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	5:03 PM CDT	EF2	Pittsburg	8.2	200			$500,000
May 10	5:19 PM CDT	EF0	McIntosh	0.1	50
May 10	5:20 PM CDT	EF4	Craig to MO	75.5	1,760	21	350	$61 million
May 10	5:21 PM CDT	EF0	Pittsburg	0.1	50
May 10	5:25 PM CDT	EF0	Pittsburg	0.5	75
May 10	5:25 PM CDT	EF0	Mayes	0.1	50
May 10	5:34 PM CDT	EF0	Latimer	5.5	100
May 10	5:42 PM CDT	EF2	Pittsburg	19.0	580		4	$1.2 million
May 10	5:48 PM CDT	EF1	Ottawa	2.3	200
May 10	6:05 PM CDT	EF2	Pushmataha	3.5	100			$75,000
May 10	6:30 PM CDT	EF1	Pushmataha	1.5	200
May 10	6:35 PM CDT	EF1	Pushmataha	0.5	100
May 10	7:05 PM CDT	EF0	McCurtain	0.4	50

May 23 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 23	8:03 PM CDT	EF3	Harper	5.0	1,100
May 23	8:58 PM CDT	EF0	Harper to KS	9.1	125	$10,000
May 23	8:59 PM CDT	EF3	Comanche to KS	11.0	980	$20,000

May 24 10 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 24	2:27 PM CDT	EF1	Kingfisher	2.0	150
May 24	2:45 PM CDT	EF2	Kingfisher	3.0	220
May 24	3:07 PM CDT	EF0	Garfield	2.0	15	$5,000
May 24	3:45 PM CDT	EF0	Garfield	0.1	20	$10,000
May 24	4:10 PM CDT	EF0	Garfield	1.0	100	$20,000
May 24	4:21 PM CDT	EF2	Garfield	10.0	1,600
May 24	5:17 PM CDT	EF1	Garfield	1.0	80
May 24	5:53 PM CDT	EF0	Garfield	1.3	1,100
May 24	6:02 PM CDT	EF0	Logan	1.0	100
May 24	6:03 PM CDT	EF0	Logan	1.0	50

May 31 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 31	7:07 PM CDT	EF0	Osage	0.1	50

June 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	11:35 PM CDT	EF0	Okmulgee	4.4	100			$15,000

June 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 6	3:47 PM CDT	EF0	Cherokee	0.1	75

June 15 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 15	6:37 PM CDT	EF0	Beaver	3.2	50

June 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 18	9:00 PM CDT	EF2	Beaver	12.0	200			$200,000

June 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 19	6:30 PM CDT	EF0	Cimarron	0.3	25

September 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 11	8:35 PM CDT	EF0	Custer	0.5	40

September 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 12	3:05 AM CDT	EF0	Kay	0.3	25

November 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 5	8:12 PM CST	EF0	Osage	0.5	75		2	$50,000

December 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
December 8	11:36 PM CST	EF1	Wagoner	0.6	50			$45,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Oklahoma since 1950 Warnings in force in Oklahoma The live radar over Oklahoma

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.