Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2008

EF0 tornado, Barnsdall, Oklahoma, April 23, 2008

Name: EF0 tornado, Barnsdall, Oklahoma, April 23, 2008
Start: 2008-04-23T22:25:00.000Z
End: 2008-04-23T22:26:00.000Z
Location: Barnsdall, Oklahoma

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Osage County on April 23, 2008, touching down at 5:25 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado
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.

The record

Rating: EF0
Date: April 23, 2008
Touchdown: 5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)
Lifted: 5:26 PM CDT (22:26 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Osage County
Touchdown point: 36.652, -96.068
Lift-off point: 36.652, -96.068
Record number: 0804231625-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms occurred across eastern Oklahoma during the afternoon and evening hours on the 23rd.

Multiple storm spotters reported a tornado over open country.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 23, 2:49 PM CDT, 2 hours 36 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 23, 2:49 PM CDT, 2 hours 36 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
249 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

.DISCUSSION...
SEVERE WEATHER AND HEAVY RAINFALL CONCERNS HIGHLIGHT THE FORECAST
OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A VERY MUDDLED SURFACE PATTERN EXISTS OVER THE SRN PLAINS...WITH A
WEAK STATIONARY FRONT NOTED NEAR THE RED RIVER AND A CONVECTIVELY
INDUCED BOUNDARY STRETCHED ACROSS SRN KS INTO SRN MO. THE BULK OF
THE CONVECTION HAS REMAINED TO OUR W AND N THROUGH
MID-AFTERNOON...BUT WE/RE BEGINNING TO SEE SCATTERED DEVELOPMENT
OVER ERN OK AND WRN AR WHERE THE ATMOSPHERE HAS BECOME QUITE UNSTABLE
AND UNCAPPED. AS SYNOPTIC-SCALE LIFT INCREASES AHEAD OF THE
APPROACHING MID-LEVEL SHORTWAVE (CURRENTLY MOVING INTO THE TX
PANHANDLE)...CONVECTION IS EXPECTED TO EXPAND IN COVERAGE ACROSS ERN
OK THIS EVENING. THIS ACTIVITY SHOULD BE MAINTAINED BY A
STRENGTHENING 40-50KT SLY/SWLY LOW-LEVEL JET...WITH CONVECTION
EVENTUALLY DEVELOPING INTO NW AR LATE THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT.

FORECAST CONVECTIVE PARAMETERS SUGGEST THAT THESE STORMS WILL HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE LARGE HAIL LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO THE
EVENING...ALTHOUGH FOCUS MAY SHIFT TO MORE OF A HEAVY RAINFALL
SCENARIO OVERNIGHT. BOTH THE GFS AND NAM ARE SUFFERING FROM
CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK...WITH THE GFS CONSISTENT IN BLOWING UP A QPF
BULLSEYE OVER SE OK WHILE THE NAM IS FARTHER N ACROSS NE OK. THESE
FEEDBACK SIGNALS...HOWEVER...ARE OFTEN INDICATIVE OF THE POTENTIAL
FOR HEAVY RAINFALL...ESPECIALLY IF SEEN IN SUBSEQUENT RUNS. GIVEN
THE STRONG LOW-LEVEL JET AND GRADUALLY INCREASING PRECIPITABLE WATER
VALUES...WON/T BE SURPRISED TO SEE THE ACTIVITY DEVELOP INTO ONE OR
MORE MCS/S AND THEY TRACK ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA. HIGHEST FLASH
FLOOD POTENTIAL WILL BE ACROSS FAR NE OK AND NW AR WHERE FLASH FLOOD
GUIDANCE VALUES ARE THE LOWEST (AND HPC QPF GUIDANCE THE
HIGHEST)...BUT WENT AHEAD WITH A FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR THE ENTIRE
AREA TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING GIVEN THE UNCERTAINTY WHERE
THE HEAVY RAINFALL WILL EVENTUALLY MATERIALIZE.

THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD BE EXITING NW AR BY MID-LATE MORNING ON
THURSDAY. DROPPED POPS DOWN TO SLIGHT CHANCE BY THE AFTERNOON...AS
THE ATMOSPHERE WILL LIKELY REMAIN CAPPED.

MODELS CONSISTENT WITH TIMING OF NEXT COLD FRONT...WHICH SHOULD
APPROACH THE REGION FRIDAY MORNING AND QUICKLY MOVE THROUGH BY
FRIDAY AFTERNOON. WOULD EXPECT CONVECTION TO DEVELOP NEAR THE
FRONTAL BOUNDARY...AND SEVERE WEATHER APPEARS POSSIBLE...ESPECIALLY
OVER SE OK/WRN AR WHERE BETTER MOISTURE WILL RESIDE.

EXTENDED...SATURDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY
ECMWF/GFS IN GOOD AGREEMENT THAT BROAD CYCLONIC FLOW WILL DEVELOP
OVER MUCH THE PLAINS INTO THE OH/TN/MS RIVER VALLEYS OVER THE
WEEKEND. THIS WILL DRIVE A COLD FRONT ACROSS THE AREA SATURDAY NIGHT
INTO SUNDAY...WITH COOLER AND DRIER WEATHER EXPECTED FOR
SUNDAY/MONDAY. A WARMING TREND WILL ENSUE THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT
WEEK AS MID-LEVEL HEIGHTS RISE AND SLY FLOW RETURNS.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
TUL   65  82  66  75 /  80  30  20  30
FSM   64  81  63  74 /  80  60  10  50
MLC   66  82  66  75 /  90  20  10  40
BVO   63  81  63  73 /  80  30  20  30
FYV   61  77  61  71 /  90  70  10  50
BYV   61  75  62  70 /  90  80  10  50
MKO   63  80  65  74 /  90  50  10  40
MIO   62  80  64  71 /  80  50  20  40
F10   65  81  65  74 /  80  30  10  40
HHW   65  82  65  77 /  90  30  10  40

&&

.TSA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...FLASH FLOOD WATCH FROM 7 PM WEDNESDAY TO NOON THURSDAY FOR
     OKZ049-OKZ053-OKZ054-OKZ055-OKZ056-OKZ057-OKZ058-OKZ059-
     OKZ060-OKZ061-OKZ062-OKZ063-OKZ064-OKZ065-OKZ066-OKZ067-
     OKZ068-OKZ069-OKZ070-OKZ071-OKZ072-OKZ073-OKZ074-OKZ075-
     OKZ076.

AR...FLASH FLOOD WATCH FROM 7 PM WEDNESDAY TO NOON THURSDAY FOR
     ARZ001-ARZ002-ARZ010-ARZ011-ARZ019-ARZ020-ARZ029.

&&

SHORT TERM...03
LONG TERM....18

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 23, 4:51 PM CDT, 34 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
451 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

ARZ019-029-232245-
CRAWFORD AR-SEBASTIAN AR-
451 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TULSA HAS ISSUED A
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT EFFECTIVE UNTIL 545 PM CDT
FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...

IN WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS
     SEBASTIAN

IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS
     SOUTHWESTERN CRAWFORD

AT 451 PM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A STRONG THUNDERSTORM 3 MILES
EAST OF HARTFORD...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL
BE AFFECTED BY THIS STORM INCLUDE...CONCORD...CROSSROADS...MILL
CREEK...FORT SMITH...HARTFORD...HACKETT...GREENWOOD...BARLING...
LAVACA...ARKOLA...HUNTINGTON...MIDLAND...DAYTON...WITCHERVILLE...
BURNVILLE...JENSON...EXCELSIOR...MANSFIELD...BONANZA...JENNY LIND...
RYE HILL...BLOOMER...CENTRAL CITY...VAN BUREN...KIBLER AND SHIBLEY.

THIS STORM WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO
40 MPH. RESIDENTS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD REMAIN ALERT IN CASE THE
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT IS UPGRADED TO A WARNING.

LAT...LON 3548 9409 3507 9420 3507 9423 3504 9421
      3501 9422 3499 9444 3533 9445 3548 9443
TIME...MOT...LOC 2151Z 182DEG 19KT 3505 9433

Special weather statement, Apr 23, 4:52 PM CDT, 33 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
452 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

OKZ054>056-060-061-232245-
NOWATA OK-OSAGE OK-ROGERS OK-TULSA OK-WASHINGTON OK-
452 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TULSA HAS ISSUED A
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT EFFECTIVE UNTIL 545 PM CDT
FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...

IN NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA
     NORTHWESTERN ROGERS...WESTERN NOWATA...WASHINGTON...NORTHEASTERN
     OSAGE AND NORTHERN TULSA

AT 452 PM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A STRONG THUNDERSTORM 2 MILES
SOUTH OF VERA...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL BE
AFFECTED BY THIS STORM INCLUDE...WANN...AVANT...WOLCO...HULAH...
SKIATOOK...COLLINSVILLE...BARTLESVILLE...VERA...RAMONA...OCHELATA...
DEWEY AND COPAN.

THIS STORM WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO
50 MPH. RESIDENTS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD REMAIN ALERT IN CASE THE
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT IS UPGRADED TO A WARNING.

LAT...LON 3696 9613 3697 9564 3636 9577 3636 9605
TIME...MOT...LOC 2152Z 190DEG 17KT 3644 9588

Local storm report, Apr 23, 5:04 PM CDT, 21 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
504 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0503 PM     HAIL             2 N ALBION              34.69N 95.10W
04/23/2008  E0.75 INCH       LATIMER            OK   PUBLIC

&&

GEW

Local storm report, Apr 23, 5:05 PM CDT, 20 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
505 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0503 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 N ALBION              34.69N 95.10W
04/23/2008                   LATIMER            OK   PUBLIC

            ESTIMATED 60 MPH WINDS...TREE LIMBS DOWN.

&&

GEW

Local storm report, Apr 23, 5:13 PM CDT, 12 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
513 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0510 PM     HAIL             1 W TALIHINA            34.75N 95.07W
04/23/2008  E0.75 INCH       LATIMER            OK   LAW ENFORCEMENT

0510 PM     HAIL             1 W TALIHINA            34.75N 95.07W
04/23/2008  E0.75 INCH       LATIMER            OK   LAW ENFORCEMENT

&&

GEW

Local storm report, Apr 23, 5:24 PM CDT, 1 minute before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
524 PM CDT WED APR 23 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0505 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 SSW TALIHINA          34.74N 95.05W
04/23/2008                   LE FLORE           OK   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            BARN DESTROYED. TREES DOWNED. POWERLINES DOWNED.

&&

GEW

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.

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 12:00Z

10.4 hours before the tornado, 126 km from the path. April 23, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 1813 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -97 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 765 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 3.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 126 km from the path. April 24, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1327 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -18 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 436 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 739 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bartlesville/Philli (BVO), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:23 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2008 tornado in Oklahoma Every tornado in Oklahoma since 1950 Warnings in force in Oklahoma now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 23, 2008

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 23	2:34 PM CDT	EF0	Scurry, TX	5.1	50	$10,000
April 23	2:50 PM CDT	EF1	Scurry, TX	1.7	100	$20,000
April 23	2:54 PM CDT	EF0	Fisher, TX	0.1	50
April 23	3:40 PM CDT	EF0	Fisher, TX	0.1	50
April 23	3:45 PM CDT	EF0	Dawson, TX	0.4	50
April 23	3:56 PM CDT	EF0	Dawson, TX	1.1	150
April 23	3:56 PM CDT	EF0	Gaines, TX	2.6	200
April 23	4:08 PM CDT	EF0	Dawson, TX	0.1	50
April 23	4:17 PM CDT	EF0	Jones, TX	0.1	50
April 23	4:29 PM CDT	EF0	Jones, TX	0.1	50
April 23	4:35 PM CDT	EF0	Jones, TX	6.1	300	$12,000
April 23	5:29 PM CDT	EF0	Dawson, TX	0.4	25
April 23	5:30 PM CDT	EF0	Shackelford, TX	0.1	50
April 23	5:32 PM MDT	EF1	Morrill, NE	1.5	350	$300,000
April 23	6:55 PM CDT	EF0	Howard, TX	0.4	25
April 23	6:56 PM CDT	EF0	Erath, TX	2.2	50	$20,000
April 23	6:58 PM CDT	EF0	Erath, TX	7.2	125	$50,000
April 23	7:40 PM CDT	EF0	Hood, TX	1.4	40	$60,000
April 23	9:35 PM CDT	EF2	Tarrant, TX	0.3	100	$1.0 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.