Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2008

EF0 tornado, Rattan, Oklahoma, March 13, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pushmataha County on March 13, 2008, touching down at 10:36 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
March 13, 2008
Touchdown
10:36 PM CDT (03:36 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pushmataha County
Touchdown point
34.261, -95.346
Lift-off point
34.261, -95.346
Record number
0803132136-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms occurred during the evening hours across eastern Oklahoma.

Storm chasers for an Oklahoma City television station reported a brief tornado over open country. No damage could be found from the tornado based on an NWS storm survey.

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

The warnings

39 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:57 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:15 UTC06:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTSA
01:53 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
02:03 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WarningTSA
02:57 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningTSA
03:02 UTC03:36 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
03:51 UTC04:30 UTCTornado WarningTSA

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 forecast that day

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 01:01 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 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.

Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z

3.6 hours before the tornado, 216 km from the path. March 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2008-03-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 110 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 1918 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2008-03-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
110 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
710 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1918 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

8.4 hours after it, 216 km from the path. March 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2008-03-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -74441, lifted condensation level 2051 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2008-03-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74441 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2051 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Idabel (4O4), 59 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:50 UTC62.653.6180° 10 kt1004.7
02:10 UTC62.653.6180° 10 kt1004.4
02:30 UTC62.653.6170° 9 kt1004.4
02:50 UTC62.655.4170° 8 kt1004.7
03:10 UTC62.655.4180° 8 kt1004.4
03:30 UTC62.655.4170° 7 kt1004.1
03:50 UTC62.655.4170° 10 kt1003.4VCTS
04:10 UTC62.657.2200° 18 kt231004.1TS
04:30 UTC60.857.2190° 14 kt1004.1TS
04:50 UTC60.857.2190° 12 kt1004.1VCTS
05:10 UTC60.857.2200° 10 kt1004.1VCTS
05:30 UTC60.857.2240° 8 kt1004.4

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

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:36 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:30 UTCHAIL 1.75MoyersPushmataha, OK
03:38 UTCTORNADO6 Ne RattanPushmataha, OKSPOTTERS ON HWY 3 REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN 6NE OF RATTAN
03:55 UTCHAIL 1.758 Ne RattanPushmataha, OK
03:55 UTCHAIL 1.75Ne RattanPushmataha, OK
04:30 UTCHAIL 1.258 E RingoldMccurtain, OKQUARTER TO HALF-DOLLAR SIZED HAIL FELL AT A RESIDENCE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

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.