EF2 tornado, Bryans Corner, Oklahoma, June 18, 2008

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 18, 2008

Touchdown

9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)

Lifted

9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Beaver County

Touchdown point

36.681, -100.897

Lift-off point

36.519, -100.820

Record number

0806182000-01

Severe thunderstorms producing damaging winds and large hail moved across the central and eastern Oklahoma Panhandle during the evening hours. Severe thunderstorms also produced a tornado in the eastern Oklahoma Panhandle which caused extensive damage. No injuries were reported however.

The tornado start and end times were estimated. The tornado touched down at approximately 2000 CST about six miles northwest of Bryans Corner and traveled south southeast across U.S. Highway 412 and Oklahoma State Highway 3. The Emergency Manager reported significant damage on the west side of U.S. Highway 83 and the north and south side of Oklahoma State Highway 3. The tornado knocked down thirty-five power poles and caused extensive damage to a large framed metal barn. The tornado also lifted a twenty-four foot aluminum stock trailer airborne and moved it one hundred yards. The trailer weighed approximately four thousand pounds. A residence also lost the back side and and the east half of their roof and another residence lost an outbuilding. No injuries were reported. The tornado finally dissipated at approximately 2015 CST seven miles south of Bryans Corner.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:57 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:43 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:10 UTC and running to 05:28 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:39 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.

Perryton/Ochiltree County Apt (PYX), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 151 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:00 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 2008 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.