EF0 tornado, Smithville, Oklahoma, May 10, 2008

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 10, 2008

Touchdown

7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)

Lifted

7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McCurtain County

Touchdown point

34.443, -94.707

Lift-off point

34.441, -94.701

Record number

0805101805-01

A very unstable and moist airmass was in place across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas and northern Louisiana the afternoon of May 10th. A strong upper level trough was present across the central plains and the southern extent of this trough was located across southern Oklahoma and southern Arkansas. A dry line moved eastward across north central Texas and southern Oklahoma during the afternoon but stalled just east of the interstate 35 corridor|of central and north Texas. A strong cold front eventually caught up with the dry line from the northwest and severe thunderstorms erupted at the dry line, cold front merger across southeastern Oklahoma. Storms migrated eastward through the night of the 10th with large hail...damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes noted across portions of the region.

An EF0 tornado with winds of 70 to 80 mph occurred in the uninhabited area west of Smithville, Oklahoma. The tornado clipped several trees on a ridge top 3.5 miles southwest of Smithville, Oklahoma. Several small trees were also snapped.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:46 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:55 UTC and running to 03:09 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:04 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

36 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.