EF0 tornado, Burbank to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, May 10, 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

May 10, 2010

Touchdown

5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Osage County

Touchdown point

36.700, -96.612

Lift-off point

36.700, -96.612

Record number

1005101633-01

Severe thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a dry line over central Oklahoma during the afternoon hours. Very unstable air along with very strong low level wind shear resulted in a number of supercell thunderstorms. These storms produced numerous tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging wind gusts as they moved eastward across eastern Oklahoma during the evening hours.

A tornado briefly developed over open country.

An off-duty NWS employee reported a tornado over open country.

Several storm chasers reported a tornado over open country.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:18 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:27 UTC and running to 02:19 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 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.

NWS Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 10, 4:46 PM CDT, 47 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
446 PM CDT MON MAY 10 2010

...MESOSCALE UPDATE...

.DISCUSSION...
THE MESOCYCLONE OF THE NOBLE COUNTY SUPERCELL EXTRAPOLATES TO
THE OSAGE AND PAWNEE COUNTY LINES AT 455 PM.  THE SURFACE-
BASED CAPE IS AROUND 1700 J/KG NEAR THE CELL...DROPPING TO
1200 J/KG AT THE OSAGE AND PAWNEE COUNTY LINES AND THEN TO
AROUND 750 J/KG DEEPER INTO OSAGE COUNTY.  THE CELL
SHOULD WEAKEN AND OR BECOME INCREASINGLY ELEVATED AS IT
MOVES DEEPER INTO OSAGE COUNTY.

STORM-RELATIVE HELICITIES OF 900 M2/S2...45 KT OF 0 TO 1 KM SHEAR
AND AN EXCELLENT HODOGRAPH SUGGEST THE CELL WILL HAVE
TORNADO POTENTIAL UNTIL IT CAN GET SEVERAL MILES INTO OSAGE
COUNTY.

&&

.TSA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...NONE.
AR...NONE.
&&

SHORT TERM...08
LONG TERM....99

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
505 PM CDT MON MAY 10 2010

ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-111000-
ADAIR OK-BENTON AR-CARROLL AR-CHEROKEE OK-CHOCTAW OK-CRAIG OK-
CRAWFORD AR-CREEK OK-DELAWARE OK-FRANKLIN AR-HASKELL OK-LATIMER OK-
LE FLORE OK-MADISON AR-MAYES OK-MCINTOSH OK-MUSKOGEE OK-NOWATA OK-
OKFUSKEE OK-OKMULGEE OK-OSAGE OK-OTTAWA OK-PAWNEE OK-PITTSBURG OK-
PUSHMATAHA OK-ROGERS OK-SEBASTIAN AR-SEQUOYAH OK-TULSA OK-WAGONER OK-
WASHINGTON OK-WASHINGTON AR-
505 PM CDT MON MAY 10 2010

...VIOLENT TORNADOES POSSIBLE THIS EVENING...

THIS OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AS WELL AS
MUCH OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA.

.DAY ONE...LATE AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT.
TORNADO.
	RISK...SIGNIFICANT.
	AREA...EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
	ONSET...ONGOING.

	AREA AT GREATEST RISK...NORTH OF INTERSTATE 40
        ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM.
	RISK...CRITICAL.
	AREA...EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
	ONSET...ONGOING.

	AREA AT GREATEST RISK...NORTHWEST OF A MCALESTER TO
        FORT SMITH LINE.

SIGNIFICANT WINDS.
        RISK...LIMITED.
        AREA...NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA.
        ONSET...ONGOING.

DISCUSSION...
DISCRETE SUPERCELLS CONTINUE TO DEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON FROM
NORTH CENTRAL TO CENTRAL OKLAHOMA...IN THE WARM SECTOR BOUNDED BY A
DRYLINE TO THE WEST AND WARM FRONT TO THE EAST. THESE STORMS WILL
CONTINUE TO MOVE RAPIDLY TO THE NORTHEAST AND INTO PORTIONS OF
NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL OKLAHOMA EARLY THIS EVENING. RAPID
DESTABILIZATION WILL OCCUR ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA AS THE WARM FRONT
LIFTS NORTH...WITH STORMS MAINTAINING SEVERE STRENGTH WELL INTO THE
EVENING HOURS. OBSERVED WIND PROFILES AND STORM HISTORY STRONGLY
SUGGEST THAT SEVERAL OF THESE STORMS WILL BE TORNADIC...PRIMARILY
IMPACTING NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA BETWEEN 6 AND 10 PM.

ADDITIONAL WIDELY SCATTERED SUPERCELLS WILL BE POSSIBLE FARTHER
SOUTH ALONG THE DRYLINE...WHICH MAY EVENTUALLY MOVE INTO SOUTHEAST
OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN ARKANSAS BY MID TO LATE EVENING.

ALONG WITH THE RISK OF TORNADOES...BASEBALL SIZE HAIL AND DAMAGING
STRAIGHT LINES MAY OCCUR.

SPOTTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTION STATEMENT...
REGIONAL SPOTTER NETWORK HAS BEEN ACTIVATED.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.
TUESDAY...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL...HIGH WIND POTENTIAL.
WEDNESDAY...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL...HIGH WIND POTENTIAL.
THURSDAY...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL.
FRIDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL.
SATURDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL.
SUNDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL.

EXTENDED DISCUSSION...
A SLOW MOVING FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL FOCUS REPEATED ROUNDS
OF THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK.  FORECAST
CONDITIONS DO SUPPORT SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL ESPECIALLY FOR
THE FIRST HALF OF THE UPCOMING WEEK...WITH A TRANSITION TO A
HEAVY RAIN THREAT LIKELY BY LATE WEEK.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING STATEMENT...
EXPECT ONE OR MORE DAYS WITH SEVERE WEATHER WATCHES AND WARNINGS
DURING THE UPCOMING WEEK.

WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/TULSA CONTAINS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

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.

Ponca City Municipal (PNC), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:33 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.