Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2015
EF0 tornado, Thackerville to Marietta, Oklahoma, May 9, 2015
From Thackerville to Marietta, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Love County on May 9, 2015, touching down at 5:50 PM CDT and reaching 30 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- May 9, 2015
- Touchdown
- 5:50 PM CDT (22:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Love County
- Touchdown point
- 33.868, -97.034
- Lift-off point
- 33.868, -97.034
- Record number
- 1505091650-01
What the Weather Service recorded
As the upper low continued to slowly track east across the Great Plains, storms once again formed in north Texas and the Texas panhandle and made their way eastward across Oklahoma through the day and evening of the 9th.
A tornado produced some minor tree damage near Thackerville.
A tornado was reported to have touched down briefly near Loves Valley Road near Tucks Ferry. No damage was reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
22 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:28 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:21 UTC and running to 01:40 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:32 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
| 16:58 UTC | 06:58 UTC | Flood Warning | OUN |
| 18:21 UTC | 01:40 UTC | Tornado Watch | OUN |
| 21:56 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 22:28 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 23:00 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Flood Warning | OUN |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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.
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z
10.8 hours before the tornado, 118 km from the path. May 9, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1096 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -160 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2066 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 782 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 130 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 168 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 4.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z
1.2 hours after it, 118 km from the path. May 10, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2343 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3471 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1015 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 316 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 396 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 5.1
- Supercell composite
- 26.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
The surface observations
Gainesville (GLE), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:53 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 130° 12 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 21:13 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 130° 11 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 21:33 UTC | 78.8 | 71.6 | 130° 11 kt | 16 | 1008.1 | |
| 21:53 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 100° 10 kt | 22 | 1007.5 | -RA |
| 22:33 UTC | 77 | 71.6 | 150° 12 kt | 16 | 1007.8 | |
| 22:53 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 140° 9 kt | 1008.1 | ||
| 23:13 UTC | 77 | 71.6 | 150° 14 kt | 18 | 1008.5 | |
| 23:33 UTC | 77 | 71.6 | 150° 9 kt | 17 | 1008.5 | |
| 23:53 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 150° 13 kt | 17 | 1008.5 | |
| 00:13 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 140° 9 kt | 15 | 1008.5 | |
| 00:33 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 140° 10 kt | 1008.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Thackerville | Love, OK | 2 LARGE TREES DOWN |
| 22:30 UTC | TORNADO | 1 E Thackerville | Love, OK | MINOR TREE DAMAGE... A FEW TREES BLOWN DOWN... |
| 22:50 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Se Marietta | Love, OK | SPOTTERS REPORTED A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN. |
| 23:24 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Willis | Marshall, OK | UPDATED. THE TORNADO /OR PERHAPS A SERIES OF TWO TORNADOES/ MOVED FROM ABOUT 2 MILES NORTH OF WILLIS AT 624 PM TO ABOUT 5 MILES NORTH OF WILLIS AT ABOUT 630 PM. THE TORNADO WAS REPORTED TO BE MULTIPLE VORTEX. |
| 23:24 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Willis | Marshall, OK | |
| 23:40 UTC | TORNADO | Kingston | Marshall, OK | PUBLIC REPORTED TORNADO IN KINGSTON... PHOTO ON FACEBOOK... TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 00:25 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ssw Silo | Bryan, OK | UPDATED. SPOTTERS AND CHASERS INDICATE THIS TORNADO DEVELOPED ABOUT 1 MILE SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF SILO AROUND 725 PM AND MOVED AT LEAST TO 5 MILES NORTH-NORTHWEST OF DURANT AROUND 735 PM. DAMAGE REPORTED 5 MILES WEST-NORTHWE |
| 00:35 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Wnw Durant | Bryan, OK | WALL DAMAGE TO MOBILE HOME... SEVERAL TREES DOWN... ONE UP ROOTED... ROOF DECKING REMOVED FROM HOUSE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 9, 2015
28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF3 | Eastland, TX | 3.8 | 1,400 | 1 | 2 | $300,000 |
| May 9 | 3:40 PM MDT | EF0 | Lincoln, CO | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 3:41 PM MDT | EF0 | El Paso, CO | 3.3 | 100 | |||
| May 9 | 4:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Cooke, TX | 0.7 | 40 | |||
| May 9 | 5:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Eastland, TX | 0.1 | 20 | $90,000 | ||
| May 9 | 4:27 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 1.1 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 4:30 PM MDT | EF0 | Elbert, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 5:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Love, OK | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| May 9 | 4:40 PM MDT | EF0 | Elbert, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 4:50 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 11.1 | 150 | $3,000 | ||
| May 9 | 5:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Wichita, TX | 3.3 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 6:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Cotton, OK | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| May 9 | 5:20 PM MDT | EF0 | Cheyenne, CO | 2.1 | 10 | |||
| May 9 | 6:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Marshall, OK | 3.0 | 200 | |||
| May 9 | 5:35 PM MDT | EF0 | Cheyenne, CO | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| May 9 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Erath, TX | 0.3 | 80 | |||
| May 9 | 7:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Bryan, OK | 5.3 | 200 | |||
| May 9 | 7:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Trego, KS | 4.0 | 100 | |||
| May 9 | 7:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Graham, KS | 2.8 | 50 | |||
| May 9 | 8:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Gove, KS | 5.7 | 100 | |||
| May 9 | 8:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Roger Mills, OK | 2.0 | 100 | |||
| May 9 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Harlan, NE | 0.3 | 15 | |||
| May 9 | 8:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Harlan, NE | 0.0 | 15 | |||
| May 9 | 8:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Gove, KS | 6.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 9 | 9:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Sheridan, KS | 13.9 | 150 | |||
| May 9 | 9:50 PM CDT | EF2 | Sheridan, KS | 18.8 | 150 | $75,000 | ||
| May 9 | 10:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Decatur, KS | 11.7 | 50 | $6,000 | ||
| May 9 | 11:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Red Willow, NE | 4.2 | 25 |
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.