EF2 tornado, North Enid to Kremlin, Oklahoma, April 25, 2009

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

April 25, 2009

Touchdown

10:42 PM CDT (03:42 UTC)

Lifted

10:46 PM CDT (03:46 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Garfield County

Touchdown point

36.516, -97.788

Lift-off point

36.534, -97.785

Record number

0904252142-01

Thunderstorms developed ahead of a dry line, and then ahead of a cold front by late afternoon. Very large hail up to baseball size was reported at several locations. Later in the evening, the low-level jet developed, increasing wind shear and making the environment more conducive for tornadoes. Low-level rotation became more common with the thunderstorms, with a couple of storms over north central Oklahoma producing tornadoes. Damage was reported in the northern Enid and Hillsdale areas, but no significant injuries were reported. The storms moved northeast into Kansas after midnight.

The tornado touched down near the expo center in the northwest side of Enid. The southwest corner of the roof of the expo center was removed, and numerous trailers, trees and signs were damaged. The tornado moved north-northeast from the expo center into a neighborhood causing destroying or causing significant damage to a number of trailers, and significant damage to a metal building and trees along with some roof damage to other homes. The tornado then moved into a neighborhood on the west side of the city of North Enid damaging home roofs. The last observed damage was as the tornado crossed Phillips Avenue just east of Highway 81.

This tornado occurred mainly over open farmland, except for one house about 2.5 miles southeast of Kremlin that suffered significant damage, including the removal of the roof.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:13 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:39 UTC and running to 07:39 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 01:02 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 Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:42 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 2009 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.