EF3 tornado, Wakita to Braman, Oklahoma, May 10, 2010

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 10, 2010

Touchdown

3:38 PM CDT (20:38 UTC)

Lifted

4:34 PM CDT (21:34 UTC)

On the ground

56 minutes

Path length

40.7 miles (65.4 km)

Path width

1,500 yards (1372 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$125,000

Counties

Grant, Sumner and Kay counties

Touchdown point

36.808, -98.031

Lift-off point

37.006, -97.332

Record number

1005101438-02

A significant outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes affected a large part of northern, central, and southern Oklahoma. Tornadoes were most numerous across central and southern Oklahoma, with significant damage occurring over many areas. |Severe thunderstorms erupted by mid afternoon across northern and western Oklahoma. Given the potent combination of ingredients in place, storms began to produce tornadoes quickly after initiation. Storm motions of 50 to 60 mph were common.||During the mid afternoon hours, severe weather was confined to northern Oklahoma. It was there a long track supercell storm produced tornadoes near the Kansas border - including one rated EF3 - from near Wakita to north of Braman.||The capping inversion that had delayed thunderstorm development into central Oklahoma weakened, allowing for explosive supercell development along the dry line along and west of the Interstate 35 corridor. Rapid development and intensification was common with the late afternoon storms, with storms becoming tornadic within a very short time after initiation. This round of storms would directly impact a large part of the Oklahoma City metro area at rush hour, and posed a significant threat to the area. The first tornado in this area occurred in Canadian County.||During the next several hours, tornadoes were clustered around the metro area, and at times there were multiple significant damaging tornadoes occurring simultaneously. Several of the tornadoes had long tracks. Damage from the tornadoes was substantial, with numerous structures, vehicles, trees and power poles/lines significantly damaged or destroyed. One of the more intense tornadoes moved across Lake Thunderbird east of Norman destroying numerous boats.||More storms developed across southwest and south central Oklahoma, and also quickly became tornadic. ||By 9 pm, 35 tornadoes had been reported. While the loss of three lives was tragic, the casualties could have been much higher given the storm's fast motions, their intensity, the time of day and the areas impacted. ||While exact monetary damage figures were not available, it is estimated that losses were in excess of $595 million. At least 450 sustained injuries, most of them minor. Unfortunately three people lost their lives. ||Note: The large number of injuries and tornadoes made it difficult to associate injuries with specific tornadoes. Injury numbers were included when we had confidence in the numbers. ||Note: The complex nature of storm evolutions and interactions made the job of classifying tornadoes difficult. This represents our best scientific assessment based on ground and aerial surveys, data from multiple radars, photographic and video evidence and anecdotal information.

This is the Grant County portion of tornado #A2. This tornado developed as a multiple-vortex tornado along State Highway 11 southwest of Wakita. The tornado initially moved east and southeast continuing to affect State Highway 11 before beginning an east-northeast movement across Grant County. The tornado was a large and occasionally multiple-vortex tornado as it moved northwest and north of Medford and was embedded within a larger scale circulation that was strong enough to produce damage along a wide area around the tornado path. The tornado caused significant structural damage about 5 miles northwest of Medford and 5 miles east of Renfrow, and many areas of tree and power pole damage. This tornado moved into Kay County.

This is the Kay County portion of tornado #A2. The tornado crossed into Kay County from Grant County and continued to produce significant damage. One home was destroyed and another significantly damaged between the Grant County line and U.S. Highway 177. After the tornado crossed US-177, an anchored mobile home was destroyed and blown to the east, and a tri-level home was destroyed with the top floor blown about 50 yards northeast into some trees, and the ground floor pivoted and was displaced to the northwest exposing the basement where one minor injury occurred. The tornado continued to produce significant tree damage as it moved east-northeast, and blew semi trucks over along Interstate 35 at the Kansas state line. This tornado crossed into Sumner County Kansas. See documentation from the NWS Wichita KS for additional information.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:13 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:25 UTC and running to 01:17 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 19:59 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.

Blackwell (BKN), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:37 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

70 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 71 of them

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.