EF1 tornado, Medford to Pond Creek, Oklahoma, April 30, 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 30, 2012

Touchdown

9:06 PM CDT (02:06 UTC)

Lifted

9:10 PM CDT (02:10 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Grant County

Touchdown point

36.795, -97.749

Lift-off point

36.795, -97.730

Record number

1204302006-01

Two distinct areas of severe thunderstorms developed late on the afternoon of April 30. The first was a cluster of supercells that initiated near a warm front across southwest Kansas and northwest Oklahoma. Several reports of golfball size hail were received between 7:00pm and 9:00pm CDT in Woods and Alfalfa County. More significantly, several tornadoes occurred in the area from near Great Salt Plains Lake to Medford with the easternmost supercell in this cluster. Some minor damage was reported, and the Oklahoma Mesonet site 1 SW Medford recorded a gust to 84 mph near a tornado.||The second area of severe weather initially developed across the Texas Panhandle, but spread eastward into parts of western and central Oklahoma overnight. One supercell affected Harmon County between 9:00-10:30pm CDT, with reports of golfball size hail and a wind gust of 76 mph near Gould. A large complex moved across much of central Oklahoma between 10:00pm-1:00am. While a couple of 1.00 hail reports were received in Oklahoma City, the main impact was severe winds, with numerous reports received from Caddo, Canadian, Grady, and Oklahoma County.

This tornado developed just southwest of the town of Medford and remained south of town. The mesonet site southwest of Medford measured a wind gust 84 mph. A large barn was destroyed southwest of Medford, with debris scattered across the property. Many roadways leading in and out of Medford were closed due to fallen trees and power poles/lines.

Soon after one tornado dissipated just south of Medford, another tornado developed just southeast of Medford. This tornado moved north-northeast damaging hundreds of power poles east of Medford toward Deer Creek and heavily damaging the Hohmann substation west of Deer Creek. When the tornado reached a point to the northwest of Deer Creek, the tornado began to curve to the east-southeast passing just north of Deer Creek and dissipating 2 or 3 miles east of Deer Creek. Near Deer Creek, the tornado damaged the valve of a 30000 gallon anhydrous ammonia tank causing a leak that could not be stopped for a few hours. Much of the path of this tornado is estimated since it moved primarily through farmland.

Several large trees were uprooted near Pond Creek. No other damage was reported with the tornado.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:39 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:31 UTC and running to 05:49 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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 Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:06 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 2012 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

22 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.