EF0 tornado, Moorewood to Butler, Oklahoma, March 8, 2010

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

March 8, 2010

Touchdown

6:16 PM CST (00:16 UTC)

Lifted

6:18 PM CST (00:18 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

35.741, -99.190

Lift-off point

35.741, -99.190

Record number

1003081816-01

A strong upper level storm system moved east through New Mexico and into the Texas panhandle during the day on the 8th. Thunderstorms developed over northern Texas and crossed into southern Oklahoma during the morning and early afternoon hours. This area of thunderstorms weakened as they crossed the Red River, leaving widespread cloud cover over the region. However, later in the afternoon, the skies cleared over western Oklahoma, and this allowed for heating to commence in advance of the dry line that was sharpening up over the Texas panhandle. Thunderstorms moved into western Oklahoma and became severe over Roger Mills county. Initially, marginally severe hail up to quarter size was reported, but the storm eventually spawned two tornadoes, one of them significant. The first tornado occurred southwest of Hammon, with EF2 damage reported on the southeast side of Hammon. The second tornado occurred farther east, but did not produce any damage.

After exiting Hammon and moving out of Roger Mills County, the tornado dissipated 3 miles northeast of Hammon in Custer County. No significant damage occurred in Custer County.

Video evidence suggested this tornado occurred after the tornado near Hammon dissipated. No damage occurred with this tornado.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:59 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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 2010 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.