Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2014

EF1 tornado, LeFlore County, Oklahoma, April 27, 2014

This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across LeFlore County on April 27, 2014, touching down at 5:31 PM CDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
April 27, 2014
Touchdown
5:31 PM CDT (22:31 UTC)
Lifted
5:34 PM CDT (22:34 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
LeFlore County
Touchdown point
34.548, -94.711
Lift-off point
34.557, -94.689
Record number
1404271631-01

The damage survey

7 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 104 mph.

  • several uprooted and snapped trees
  • several snapped or uprooted trees

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:11 UTC17:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTSA
18:46 UTC20:36 UTCTornado WatchTSA
20:36 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WatchTSA
21:43 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
21:55 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
22:57 UTC23:19 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
02:02 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
02:22 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
03:02 UTC03:49 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
03:16 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA

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 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 20:00 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 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.

Shreveport, LA (KBAD), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 247 km from the path. April 27, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2014-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2045 joules per kilogram, CIN -117, lifted condensation level 645 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2014-04-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 225 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2045 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-117 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2106 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
645 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
395 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KBAD), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 247 km from the path. April 28, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1893 joules per kilogram, CIN -96, lifted condensation level 1351 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-04-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 169 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1893 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2201 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1351 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:32 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:06 UTCHAIL 0.88HonobiaPushmataha, OK
22:28 UTCHAIL 0.753 E HonobiaLe Flore, OK
22:32 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N OctaviaLe Flore, OKMANY TREES BLOWN DOWN. POWER POLES DOWN.
22:33 UTCTORNADO2 Nne OctaviaLe Flore, OK1.9 MILES NNE OF OCTAVIA...RATED EF1
22:50 UTCHAIL 0.754 E Big CedarLe Flore, OK
23:08 UTCHAIL 0.75HodgenLe Flore, OK
23:32 UTCHAIL 0.75HodgenLe Flore, OK

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 27, 2014

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2712:51 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, MO2.450
April 272:26 PM CDTEF0Franklin, NE0.135
April 273:20 PM CDTEF1Wapello, IA45.71,6002$25,000
April 274:40 PM CDTEF0York, NE0.145
April 274:40 PM CDTEF0Linn, IA0.550
April 275:17 PM CDTEF0Polk, NE0.445
April 275:29 PM CDTEF2Ottawa, OK to KS11.4325137$13 million
April 275:40 PM CDTEF2Bourbon, KS16.1400$500,000
April 276:15 PM CDTEF0Vernon, MO0.3100
April 277:06 PM CDTEF4Mayflower–Vilonia tornado, AR41.11,32016193$223 million
April 275:30 PM PDTEF0Pierce, WA0.225$5,000
April 278:16 PM CDTEF2White, AR7.38801$1.4 million
April 278:38 PM CDTEF0White, AR1.6250$100,000
April 278:43 PM CDTEF1White, AR5.3100$110,000
April 278:52 PM CDTEF1Independence, AR0.850$20,000
April 2711:45 PM CDTEF0Douglas, MO0.9100$10,000

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.