EF1 tornado, Cherokee to Amorita, Oklahoma, April 14, 2012

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 14, 2012

Touchdown

7:47 PM CDT (00:47 UTC)

Lifted

8:04 PM CDT (01:04 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Alfalfa County

Touchdown point

36.695, -98.517

Lift-off point

36.801, -98.414

Record number

1204141847-01

A severe weather outbreak occurred on the afternoon and evening of Saturday April 14th, 2012 across Kansas and northwest Oklahoma. Multiple tornadoes, including a few that were strong, very large hail and damaging winds accompanied the supercells that formed through the afternoon and evening. Over a dozen tornadoes occurred in northwest Oklahoma in addition to the numerous tornadoes in Kansas.||Much of Oklahoma remained under clear skies for the afternoon, which coupled with plentiful moisture allowed very strong instability to develop. A dryline stretched from western Kansas into northwest and western Oklahoma through the afternoon hours. Thunderstorms ignited off the dryline in the early afternoon, with the first severe weather reports around 230pm. The first tornado was not reported until nearly 4pm as low level wind shear increased gradually. The tornado reports continued through nearly 1am with the tornado that impacted Woodward, OK the last tornado of the evening.||With the first supercells firing around 2 PM, many dropped large hail, some as large as 3 inches in diameter. Many brief tornado touchdowns were reported as well, with the initial reports north of Woodward, OK. Additional supercells developed through the afternoon with a prominent tornadic supercell developing near Waynoka, Oklahoma. This supercell produced multiple tornadoes near Cherokee and continued moving to the northeast. One tornado with this supercell produced damage to a cemetery west of Byron. Fortunately, many of the tornadoes from this thunderstorm remained over mainly rural areas in Waynoka, Woods and Alfalfa counties.||Another tornadic supercell developed southwest of Woodward before midnight and tracked toward Woodward. The Woodward tornado began around 1150 PM roughly 3 miles northeast of Arnett and moved northeast into Woodward county. The southwest city limits of Woodward were impacted near 1218 AM on Sunday April 15th, 2012 and the tornado finally exited the north-northwest side of Woodward around 1223 AM. The tornado dissipated shortly afterward, 4 miles north of Woodward. Sadly, 6 fatalities were reported with the tornado that impacted Woodward.

Soon after the tornado in eastern Woods County dissipated, the storm produced another tornado in western Alfalfa County that moved from west-southwest to northwest of Cherokee. Farm equipment was damaged west-southwest of Cherokee, outbuildings were damaged west of Cherokee, and 2 large steel barns were damaged northwest of Cherokee.

This tornado developed and was occurring simultaneously with the previous tornado northwest of Cherokee for about 7 minutes. This tornado is estimated to have moved from about 3 miles northwest of Cherokee to about 1 mile northwest of Amorita. Damage occurred to numerous outbuildings and trees along the path, including at the Byron-Amorita cemetery.

A large and violently rotating tornado moved northeast over open land, crossing into the far northwest corner of Grant county before entering Kansas. The tornado produced tree damage, but no known structure damage.

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

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk, with a 0.45 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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 Norman, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 14, 6:44 PM CDT, 1 hour 3 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
644 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

.AVIATION...
THE CURRENT SEVERE CONVECTION IS UNLIKELY TO AFFECT ANY OF OUR TAF
SITES OTHER THAN KVNX THIS EVENING...AS WE EXPECT THE CAP TO
REMAIN TOO STRONG FOR STORMS TO FORM MUCH FARTHER S THAN THE
CURRENT STORMS. A NEW CONVECTIVE LINE IS FORECAST TO FORM AROUND
15/0500Z AS A COLD FRONT OVERTAKES THE DRYLINE AND PRESSES E
ACROSS OK AND N TX. THIS LINE IS LIKELY TO AFFECT ALL OUR SITES
BY THE TIME IT EXITS TO THE E OF KOKC/KOUN AROUND 15/1000Z. SOME
BLDU MAY REACH FAR NW OK THIS EVENING...REDUCING VSBYS TO 3 TO 6
SM AT TIMES.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 252 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012/

DISCUSSION...
SIG SEVERE WEATHER EVENT BEGINNING TO UNFOLD ACROSS NORTHWEST
OKLAHOMA AND HIGH-RES MODELS INDICATE THAT WE WORST CONDITIONS
THROUGH THE AFTERNOON WILL BE OVER NORTHWEST/WEST-CENTRAL INTO
NORTH-CENTRAL OKLAHOMA WITH INTENSE SUPERCELLS AND POSSIBLY LONG-
TRACK TORNADOES. MODELS DECREASE THE THREAT THE FARTHER SOUTH YOU
GO...AT LEAST INITIALLY WITH SUPERCELLS. LATE THIS EVENING AND
OVERNIGHT THERE IS STILL A FAIRLY SUBSTANTIAL SIGNAL THAT SEVERE
SQUALL-LINE WILL FORM AND SWEEP OVER MUCH OF THE REGION.
RELATIVELY HIGH POPS WERE RETAINED FOR THIS. THIS LINE IS PROGD TO
SURGE THROUGH CENTRAL OKLAHOMA NEAR/JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT AND EXIT
FAR SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA TOWARD SUNRISE SUNDAY. DAMAGING WINDS AND
EVEN EMBEDDED SHORT-LIVED TORNADOES POSSIBLE WITH THE LINE SO WE
SHOULD NOT LET OUR GUARD DOWN AFTER INITIAL DISCRETE SUPERCELL
MODE IS OVER.

NO CHANGES MADE TO REMAINING PERIODS WITH TRANQUIL WEATHER
EXPECTED UNTIL LATE NEXT WEEK.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
OKLAHOMA CITY OK  57  75  48  72 /  60  30  10   0
HOBART OK         51  75  44  72 /  70  20  10   0
WICHITA FALLS TX  58  77  47  75 /  70  40  10   0
GAGE OK           45  70  40  72 /  40  10  10   0
PONCA CITY OK     58  73  44  73 /  70  30  10   0
DURANT OK         65  75  51  73 /  40  70  20  10

&&

.OUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 1 AM CDT SUNDAY FOR OKZ004>047-050-051.

TX...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 1 AM CDT SUNDAY FOR TXZ083-085-086-090.

&&

84/17/23

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PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
614 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0613 PM     HAIL             VICI                    36.15N 99.30W
04/14/2012  E1.75 INCH       DEWEY              OK   BROADCAST MEDIA

&&

FM

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
656 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0650 PM     TORNADO          5 S QUINLAN             36.38N 99.05W
04/14/2012                   WOODWARD           OK   TRAINED SPOTTER

            RELAYED BY WOODWARD COUNTY EM

&&

FM

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
714 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0708 PM     TORNADO          11 S WAYNOKA            36.43N 98.88W
04/14/2012                   MAJOR              OK   BROADCAST MEDIA

&&

FM

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
716 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0712 PM     TORNADO          7 SSE WAYNOKA           36.49N 98.83W
04/14/2012                   WOODS              OK   STORM CHASER

            RELAYED BY WFO AMA

&&

FM

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
745 PM CDT SAT APR 14 2012

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0739 PM     TORNADO          5 S HOPETON             36.61N 98.67W
04/14/2012                   WOODS              OK   STORM CHASER

&&

FM

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.

Alva Regional Airport (AVK), 18 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), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:46 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

83 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 84 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.