Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2010
EF0 tornado, Eva, Oklahoma, May 31, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Texas County on May 31, 2010, touching down at 8:51 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 31, 2010
- Touchdown
- 8:51 PM CDT (01:51 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:53 PM CDT (01:53 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.7 miles (2.7 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Texas County
- Touchdown point
- 36.820, -101.970
- Lift-off point
- 36.836, -101.947
- Record number
- 1005311951-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms across the western and central Oklahoma Panhandle during the evening hours produced large hail and two tornadoes. There were no reports of damage or injuries.
The tornado touched down at 1951 CST and lifted at 1953 CST about four miles west northwest of Eva Oklahoma. The tornado became rain wrapped at 1951 CST. The tornado path length and path width were estimated. The tornado remained over open country and no damage or injuries were reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
28 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:23 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:28 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:07 UTC | 23:28 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | AMA |
| 23:28 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | AMA |
| 00:05 UTC | 00:38 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 01:08 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 01:23 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | AMA |
| 01:55 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | AMA |
| 01:59 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 03:22 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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.
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z
1.9 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. June 1, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1279 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2327 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2207 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 78 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 239 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.4 K/km
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z
10.1 hours after it, 179 km from the path. June 1, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 727 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -380 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 66 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1794 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 81 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 216 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
The radar
The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 179 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:49 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:58 UTC | TORNADO | 11 Nw Keyes | Cimarron, OK | |
| 00:59 UTC | TORNADO | 11 Nw Keyes | Cimarron, OK | |
| 01:51 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Wnw Eva | Texas, OK | BECAME RAIN WRAPPED AT 851 PM |
| 02:00 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 6 W Eva | Texas, OK | |
| 02:03 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 S Guymon | Texas, OK | ALONG HIGHWAY 136 |
| 02:08 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 S Guymon | Texas, OK | |
| 02:12 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 Sw Eva | Texas, OK | 3 SE DOOLIN |
| 02:20 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Guymon | Texas, OK | |
| 02:24 UTC | HAIL 1 | Guymon | Texas, OK |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 31, 2010
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.