Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2008

EF0 tornado, Bristow, Oklahoma, May 2, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Creek County on May 2, 2008, touching down at 1:45 AM CDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

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
May 2, 2008
Touchdown
1:45 AM CDT (06:45 UTC)
Lifted
1:51 AM CDT (06:51 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Creek County
Touchdown point
35.816, -96.380
Lift-off point
35.867, -96.269
Record number
0805020045-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A dry line over western Oklahoma shifted to central Oklahoma during the afternoon. Warm...moist...and very unstable air was in place over eastern Oklahoma ahead of the boundary. Thunderstorms formed on the dry line during the evening and moved northeast across northeastern Oklahoma. Favorable wind shear resulted in supercell thunderstorm development with several damaging tornadoes and large hail occurring over Pawnee and Osage Counties. A line of severe thunderstorms formed on a cold front approaching the area from the northwest and those storms moved through late in the evening and during the early morning hours. Several tornadoes and damaging wind occurred from those storms.

A tornado destroyed a barn, damaged trees, and blew down power lines.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:10 UTC and running to 08:09 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:15 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WatchTSA
01:45 UTC02:16 UTCTornado WarningTSA
06:10 UTC08:09 UTCTornado WatchTSA
06:13 UTC07:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
07:13 UTC07:52 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 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

6.8 hours before the tornado, 119 km from the path. May 2, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2008-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3804 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 1259 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 2008-05-02The 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 165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
3804 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5513 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1259 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
278 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.8
Supercell composite
30.5
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

5.2 hours after it, 119 km from the path. May 2, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2008-05-02Temperature 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 -88001, lifted condensation level 1454 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 2008-05-02The 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 -339 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
-88001 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1454 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-339 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-355 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:43 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
05:56 UTCHAIL 0.751 E CushingPayne, OK
06:46 UTCTSTM WND DMGBristowCreek, OKMAJOR TREE DAMAGE THROUGHOUT TOWN WITH TELEPHONE POLES ALSO DOWNED.
06:48 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 E BristowCreek, OKTWO ROOFS REMOVED FROM BUILDINGS AND SCATTERED ACROSS ROADWAY. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR DATA.
06:53 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ene BristowCreek, OKDAMAGE TO MOBILE HOME AND TREES...POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. LOCATION 211TH STREET AND 257 WEST AVE.
07:12 UTCHAIL 0.75Sand SpringsTulsa, OKDIME TO PENNY SIZE HAIL
07:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 60SlickCreek, OKMANY POWER OUTAGES NOTED AS WELL.
07:22 UTCTSTM WND DMGOwassoTulsa, OKHOTEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION COLLAPSED DUE TO WIND GUSTS.
07:22 UTCTSTM WND DMGTulsaTulsa, OKLARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN -55TH AND YALE
07:22 UTCTSTM WND GST 60TulsaTulsa, OK55TH AND YALE AVENUE.
07:23 UTCHAIL 1CromwellSeminole, OKWEST SIDE OF TOWN
08:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 685 Sse HaskellMuskogee, OK
08:02 UTCHAIL 1JamesvilleMuskogee, OK
08:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 615 Sse HaskellMuskogee, OK

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

The other tornadoes of May 2, 2008

39 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 21:04 AM CDTEF2Douglas, KS2.2100$260,000
May 21:56 AM CDTEF3Clay, MO0.975$4.0 million
May 22:03 AM CDTEF2Clay, MO1.475$10 million
May 23:03 AM CDTEF1Rogers, OK9.05002$55,000
May 23:03 AM CDTEF1Mayes, OK0.5100$20,000
May 25:52 AM CDTEF0Douglas, MO7.4250
May 26:02 AM CDTEF0Douglas, MO0.3100$100,000
May 28:15 AM CDTEF3Conway, AR45.31,600524$47 million
May 28:28 AM CDTEF1Van Buren, AR1.1100
May 28:30 AM CDTEF1Van Zandt, TX1.3758$300,000
May 29:03 AM CDTEF1Howard, AR4.150$100,000
May 210:23 AM CDTEF1Pike, AR8.2200$100,000
May 211:15 AM CDTEF2Grant, AR40.730013$9.0 million
May 211:21 AM CDTEF1Rusk, TX6.4100$50,000
May 211:23 AM CDTEF2Dallas, AR22.9200$3.5 million
May 211:55 AM CDTEF1Panola, TX3.8200$400,000
May 212:56 PM CDTEF1Lonoke, AR2.5200$1.0 million
May 21:01 PM CDTEF0Woodruff, AR2.150$3,000
May 21:02 PM CDTEF1Prairie, AR1.7250
May 21:05 PM CDTEF1Prairie, AR2.6100$1,000
May 21:39 PM CDTEF0Dunklin, MO0.325$20,000
May 21:40 PM CDTEF0Monroe, AR0.350$3,000
May 22:54 PM CDTEF2Mississippi, AR3.41501$500,000
May 23:18 PM CDTEF3Crittenden, AR20.24004$2.0 million
May 23:51 PM CDTEF0Livingston Parish, LA0.120
May 24:25 PM CDTEF2Dyer, TN1.440$40,000
May 25:48 PM CDTEF2Union, MS3.1440$250,000
May 26:00 PM CDTEF2Union, MS0.5100$75,000
May 26:12 PM CDTEF1Union, MS3.575$50,000
May 26:41 PM CDTEF1Prentiss, MS13.8150$100,000
May 26:52 PM CDTEF2Chicot, AR10.5400$1.5 million
May 27:32 PM CDTEF0Washington, MS3.050
May 28:01 PM CDTEF0Morehouse Parish, LA3.350
May 28:07 PM CDTEF1Bolivar, MS9.7200$20,000
May 211:57 PM CDTEF1Montgomery, TN0.750$5,000
May 212:00 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, TN0.230$20,000
May 212:05 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, TN0.5503$20,000
May 212:10 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, TN0.350$100,000
May 212:49 AM CDTEF1Leflore, MS1.3300$40,000

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.