EF0 tornado, Bengal to Laura, Oklahoma, April 14, 2011

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

April 14, 2011

Touchdown

9:08 PM CDT (02:08 UTC)

Lifted

9:22 PM CDT (02:22 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Latimer County

Touchdown point

34.685, -95.378

Lift-off point

34.743, -95.302

Record number

1104142008-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• large trees snapped and uprooted
• likely beginning point of tornado
• likely ending point of tornado
• tornado uprooted small trees and snapped large limbs

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Low pressure was centered over southern Kansas during the early afternoon of the 14th with a sharp dryline extending from the low pressure system through central Oklahoma. A moist and very unstable air mass was in place across eastern Oklahoma ahead of the dryline. Severe thunderstorms developed along the dryline during the afternoon and moved into eastern Oklahoma during the early evening hours. Large hail up to grapefruit size, damaging wind gusts, and numerous tornadoes occurred as the storms moved through the region.

This is the first of two segments of this tornado. In Latimer County, this tornado damaged a home, severely damaged a barn, and snapped or uprooted a number of large trees. Maximum estimated wind in the tornado based on this damage was about 110 mph. The tornado continued into Le Flore County, Oklahoma.

A tornado that apparently developed over Sardis Lake uprooted a few trees and snapped numerous large tree limbs. Maximum estimated wind in the tornado based on this damage was about 85 mph.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 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 00:59 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.

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:08 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 2011 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

47 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.