EF3 tornado, Amber to Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, May 6, 2015

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 6, 2015

Touchdown

4:33 PM CDT (21:33 UTC)

Lifted

5:26 PM CDT (22:26 UTC)

On the ground

53 minutes

Path length

10.3 miles (16.6 km)

Path width

1,500 yards (1372 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Grady County

Touchdown point

35.158, -97.803

Lift-off point

35.266, -97.698

Record number

1505061533-01

312 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 149 mph.

• 100 yard length of livestock fence pulled to the north, 1 pole snapped.
• Two signs, tree and fence block (hollow) bent to the southwest. vortex south of here probable based on damage direction.
• 4 signs blown down to the north.
• Wood power pole snapped, leaning north.

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

A potent Spring storm system took shape across the Southern and Central Plains. Strong surface cyclogenesis took shape during the day, allowing ample moisture to return northward with strong southerly flow. At the same time, a strong upper level shortwave trough allowed strong mid level westerlies to overspread much of the Plains region. With large instability and wind shear, the stage was set for widespread severe storm development. Storms initiated within the open warm sector ahead of the dryline. The first storm developed near Lawton and moved northeast along I-44 into parts of central Oklahoma, resulting in several tornadoes and large hail. Additional supercells spawned tornadoes across northern Oklahoma, and the slow moving nature of storms lead to several occurrences of flash flooding. Storms continued well into the night.

A large tornado developed east of Amber and moved slowly northeast near or along Interstate 44, then turned north impacting the community of Bridge Creek. The most intense damage occurred just east of the Interstate 44 and H.E. Bailey Turnpike Spur near Bridge Creek where EF3 damage was observed to a home (DI 2, DOD 7) and a mobile home (DI 4, DOD 12). A pickup truck was also thrown for several hundred yards in this area. Numerous homes and other buildings were damaged along the tornado path.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:12 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:25 UTC and running to 01:51 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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.

Chickasha Municipal Airport (CHK), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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 2015 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

47 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.