EF1 tornado, La Barge, Oklahoma, July 23, 2013

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

July 23, 2013

Touchdown

12:06 AM CDT (05:06 UTC)

Lifted

12:12 AM CDT (05:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

850 yards (777 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$180,000

County

Wagoner County

Touchdown point

35.960, -95.425

Lift-off point

35.934, -95.370

Record number

1307232306-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• Storage buildings were not connected to foundation, thus lower bound wind speeds more likely responsible for partial destruction of structure
• nearby hardwood also blown over to the southeast
• Travel trailer was picked up and blown 30 yards to the north-northeast
• The roof of Charlie's Chicken was damaged.

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

Severe thunderstorms developed over central Kansas during the late afternoon of the 23rd. These storms moved southeast during the evening and into eastern Oklahoma during the late evening and overnight hours. High amounts of instability and considerable deep layer shear over eastern Oklahoma resulted in the development of a highly organized line of storms. Widespread damaging wind, a tornado, and some large hail resulted across eastern Oklahoma as the line of thunderstorms moved through the region. At least 300,000 people were reportedly without power due to the storms in the area surrounding Tulsa. Some of these outages lasted for nearly a week. In addition, lightning from these storms resulted in a number of structural fires.

This tornado damaged a metal building, destroyed barns and outbuildings, destroyed portions of two storage units, damaged the roofs and siding of dozens of homes and businesses, uprooted trees, and blew down power poles. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 06:00 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. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Muskogee/Davis Field (MKO), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:57 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 2013 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.