Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2011
EF0 tornado, Shattuck, Oklahoma, June 11, 2011
This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Ellis County on June 11, 2011, touching down at 8:30 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 of property damage.
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
- June 11, 2011
- Touchdown
- 8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Ellis County
- Touchdown point
- 36.357, -99.880
- Lift-off point
- 36.357, -99.880
- Record number
- 1106111930-01
What the Weather Service recorded
The front that had waffled over Oklahoma for three four days began slowly lifting north as a warm front. Several areas of showers and thunderstorms developed near and just north of the front. A couple of the storms were able to maintain themselves, developing supercell characteristics, with very large hail and damaging winds. Some damage was reported with the storms, with the most severe damage occurring over parts of Ellis and Woodward counties.
A tornado was observed crossing Highway 15, about 6.5 miles north of Shattuck. Tree limbs and power lines were downed at this location, and a residence and several outbuildings were damaged a mile and a half west.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
33 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:57 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:39 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:39 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | OUN |
| 00:57 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 01:42 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 02:36 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 03:13 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 17:00 UTC | 09:54 UTC | Fire Weather Watch | OUN |
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 00:59 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 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.
Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z
1.5 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. June 12, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 889 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -62 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1388 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1800 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -2 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 187 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.1 K/km
Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z
10.5 hours after it, 157 km from the path. June 12, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 594 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -355 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 105 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 893 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 48 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 439 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 944 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.9 K/km
The radar
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:30 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:54 UTC | HAIL 4.5 | 6 Nne Darrouzett | Beaver, OK | |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 N Shattuck | Ellis, OK | TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES WERE DOWNED NEAR HIGHWAY 15... 6.5 MILES NORTH OF SHATTUCK. OUTBUILDING DAMAGE WAS ALSO REPORTED A MILE AND A HALF WEST OF THIS LOCATION. |
| 01:30 UTC | TORNADO | 6 N Shattuck | Ellis, OK | A TORNADO WAS OBSERVED CROSSING HIGHWAY 15, 6.5 MILES NORTH OF SHATTUCK. TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES WERE DOWNED AT THIS LOCATION, AND A RESIDENCE AND SEVERAL OUTBUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED A MILE AND A HALF TO THE WEST. |
| 02:40 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 3 S Tangier | Woodward, OK | |
| 02:50 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 7 Nnw Shattuck | Ellis, OK | |
| 03:10 UTC | HAIL 1 | 12 Se Woodward | Woodward, OK | THE HAIL WAS REPORTED AT THE JUNCTION OF HIGHWAYS 270 AND 50. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 11, 2011
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 11 | 1:22 PM MDT | EF0 | Otero, CO | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| June 11 | 3:07 PM MDT | EF0 | Las Animas, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 11 | 3:50 PM MDT | EF0 | Goshen, WY | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| June 11 | 6:49 PM CDT | EF0 | Lipscomb, TX | 0.5 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| June 11 | 7:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Texas, OK | 2.1 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| June 11 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Lipscomb, TX | 0.2 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| June 11 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Beaver, OK | 0.1 | 25 |
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.