Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2015

EF1 tornado, Haworth to Bokhoma, Oklahoma, November 5, 2015

From Haworth to Bokhoma, this EF1 tornado ran 4.3 miles across McCurtain County on November 5, 2015, touching down at 9:18 PM CST and reaching 256 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
November 5, 2015
Touchdown
9:18 PM CST (03:18 UTC)
Lifted
9:30 PM CST (03:30 UTC)
On the ground
12 minutes
Path length
4.3 miles (6.8 km)
Path width
256 yards (234 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
McCurtain County
Touchdown point
33.820, -94.650
Lift-off point
33.840, -94.580
Record number
1511052118-01

The damage survey

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed across Southeast Oklahoma on the evening of November 5th, 2015. Due to a very strongly sheared atmospheric environment, one of these storms produced a tornado as an upper level trough moved into the Southern Plains/Lower Mississippi Valley. This tornado touched down in McCurtain County, Oklahoma south of the Haworth community and mostly downed trees along its path.

An EF-1 tornado first developed south of Haworth, Oklahoma and traveled east northeast before dissipating near the CR 2190/4670 intersection. Damage consisted on snapped and/or uprooted trees. One house suffered minor roof damage from a fallen tree.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC06:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchSHV
22:01 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchSHV
02:02 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
03:35 UTC03:54 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:48 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), 00:00Z

3.3 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. November 6, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2015-11-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 57 joules per kilogram, CIN -141, lifted condensation level 915 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 2015-11-06The 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 170 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
57 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-141 J/kg
Surface CAPE
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
915 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
199 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KBAD), 12:00Z

8.7 hours after it, 170 km from the path. November 6, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2015-11-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -68237, lifted condensation level 854 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2015-11-06The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.193958Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-68237 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
854 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Idabel (4O4), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:35 UTC71.668170° 12 kt181012.9
01:55 UTC71.668180° 12 kt171012.9
02:15 UTC71.668190° 12 kt191013.2
02:35 UTC71.668210° 10 kt161013.9
02:55 UTC71.668310° 9 kt1014.6
03:15 UTC69.866.2250° 8 kt1014.2
03:35 UTC69.866.2190° 16 kt251014.9
03:55 UTC6864.4190° 13 kt171013.9
04:15 UTC6862.6210° 9 kt1014.2
04:35 UTC66.262.6190° 9 kt1014.6
04:55 UTC66.262.6200° 10 kt1015.6
05:15 UTC66.262.6210° 6 kt1015.6

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

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 164 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:20 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
03:18 UTCTORNADO2 S HaworthMccurtain, OKAN EF-1 TORNADO FIRST DEVELOPED SOUTH OF HAWORTH AND TRAVELED NE FOR 4.5 MILES BEFORE DISSIPATING NEAR THE CR 2190/4670 INTERSECTION. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF SNAPPED AND UPROOTED PINE TREES. ONE HOUSE SUFFERED MINOR ROOF DAM
03:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 70HaworthMccurtain, OK
03:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W BokhomaMccurtain, OKTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ALONG HWY 3 NEAR INTERSECTION WITH BOKHOMA ROAD

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 November 5, 2015

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 52:22 PM CSTEF0Okfuskee, OK2.5100$2,000
November 54:08 PM CSTEF0Tarrant, TX3.940$120,000

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.