Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2008

EF0 tornado, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, May 7, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Tulsa County on May 7, 2008, touching down at 7:28 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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 7, 2008
Touchdown
7:28 PM CDT (00:28 UTC)
Lifted
7:29 PM CDT (00:29 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Tulsa County
Touchdown point
36.059, -95.813
Lift-off point
36.062, -95.810
Record number
0805071828-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms occurred primarily during the afternoon and evening hours of the 7th.

A tornado destroyed a storage building on the west side of Rhema Bible College, damaged the roofs of a business and several homes, and blew down trees and power lines.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:01 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:29 UTC and running to 01:29 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:49 UTC13:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
13:18 UTC14:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryTSA
16:19 UTC17:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryTSA
17:48 UTC19:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryTSA
22:29 UTC01:29 UTCTornado WatchTSA
23:57 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
00:01 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningTSA
00:12 UTC03:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryTSA
00:25 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningTSA
08:34 UTC13:03 UTCFlood WarningTSA
09:15 UTC13:27 UTCFlood WarningTSA
16:02 UTC00:37 UTCFlood 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 20:14 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.

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 12:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 162 km from the path. May 8, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lamont, OK at 12:00Z on 2008-05-08Temperature 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 -61423, lifted condensation level 652 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, Lamont, OK at 12:00Z on 2008-05-08The 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 -61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
-61423 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
652 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:27 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
23:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 754 E BeggsOkmulgee, OKLOCATION NEAR HIGHWAY 75 AND HIGHWAY 16
00:01 UTCTSTM WND DMGMoundsCreek, OKBROKEN LARGE TREE LIMBS. VERY WINDY.
00:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 60BixbyTulsa, OKWALL CLOUD ALSO REPORTED OVER HIGH SCHOOL.
00:17 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N BixbyTulsa, OKTREE DAMAGE NEAR 101ST AND MEMORIAL
00:22 UTCTSTM WND GST 602 Sw Broken ArrowTulsa, OKWIND GUSTS AND TREE DAMAGE BEING REPORTED NEAR 111TH AND GARNETT
00:29 UTCTSTM WND DMGBroken ArrowTulsa, OKPOWER POLES BROKEN AND TREE DAMAGE NEAR RHEMA BIBLE COLLEGE.
00:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Sse WagonerWagoner, OKROOF BLOWN OFF BARN AND CARRIED 200 FEET. LANDED ON TRAIN TRACK. 3 SOUTH AND 1.8 EAST OF WAGONER.
01:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGLocust GroveMayes, OKTREES AND POWER POLES DOWNED.

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 7, 2008

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 711:50 AM CDTEF0Hockley, TX1.220
May 73:12 PM MDTEF0Natrona, WY0.130
May 74:56 PM CDTEF1Garvin, OK0.5301$50,000
May 74:57 PM CDTEF1Canadian, OK7.5120$150,000
May 75:21 PM CDTEF0Cleveland, OK4.625$25,000
May 75:22 PM CDTEF0Oklahoma, OK2.820$50,000
May 76:40 PM CDTEF0Okmulgee, OK4.0200$35,000
May 78:10 PM CDTEF0Robertson, TX1.050$10,000
May 78:15 PM CDTEF1Robertson, TX2.6250
May 78:39 PM CDTEF0Robertson, TX2.150

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.