EF2 tornado, Ottawa to Wyandotte, Oklahoma, May 20, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 20, 2013

Touchdown

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Ottawa County

Touchdown point

36.813, -94.846

Lift-off point

36.830, -94.671

Record number

1305201725-01

34 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 118 mph.

• Several trees uprooted in this area
• Trees were snapped or uprooted along Highway 10 within this swath
• Numerous trees snapped or uprooted within this swath across the 645 Road
• Trees uprooted to the east; barn roof blown off

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

Severe thunderstorms developed along a nearly stationary frontal boundary over central Oklahoma during the early afternoon hours of the 20th. Very unstable air combined with strong low-level and deep-layer shear resulted in long-lived supercells forming over central Oklahoma and moving eastward into eastern Oklahoma. Several tornadoes occurred from these storms across Osage, Washington, and Nowata Counties. The storms organized into bow echos and line segments over eastern Oklahoma, from which several other tornadoes developed during the early evening hours across Ottawa, Adair, and Le Flore Counties. Damaging wind and large hail was also widespread across the region from these storms.

This tornado snapped or uprooted numerous trees and damaged numerous homes. It moved east-northeast for several miles but turned more easterly after crossing the Neosho River. The most significant damage occurred as the tornado crossed Highway 137, where a metal building and several homes were severely damaged. Many hardwood trees were also snapped above the ground in that area. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 115 to 125 mph.

This is the first segment of a two segment tornado. In Ottawa County, Oklahoma, this tornado damaged several houses, damaged barns and outbuildings, and snapped or uprooted a number of trees. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 100 to 110 mph. The tornado moved in an easterly direction for much of its life cycle but turned more to the northeast as it approached the state line. It continued into Newton County, Missouri, and dissipated on the south side of the town of Seneca.

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 tornado watch, issued at 18:10 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 Tulsa radar (KINX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:23 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

35 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.