EF0 tornado, Eva, Oklahoma, April 15, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

April 15, 2016

Touchdown

8:02 PM CDT (01:02 UTC)

Lifted

8:04 PM CDT (01:04 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Texas County

Touchdown point

36.796, -101.951

Lift-off point

36.805, -101.939

Record number

1604151902-01

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

• Power pole also snapped. 50 yards wide.

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

A vigorous low pressure system produced supercell thunderstorms across the western Oklahoma Panhandle during the afternoon and evening of April 15th. Four separate brief tornadoes were reported by spotters and also documented through video by storm chasers across Texas County, in the vicinity of Eva. Two produced damage consistent with EF-0 and EF-1 on the Fujita scale. Several reports of large hail were received.

A brief tornado was observed by emergency managers and storm chasers just southwest of Eva. The tornado lasted for just under one minute and no damage was observed. The tornado was assigned an EF-0 rating.

The tornado destroyed two out buildings, a silo and snapped a power pole. Based on damage only on central and northeast portion of farmhouse complex damaged, the tornado likely touched down in the complex and continued into open country from there. The tornado was rated EF-1 with estimated peak wind of 104 mph.

Very minimal damage was noted in a farmhouse complex. Damage included a metal roof partially peeled back, a broken power pole and tractor trailer rolled onto its side. This tornado was rated EF-0 with estimated peak wind of 80 mph.

This tornado was witnessed by spotters and storm chasers approximately 5 to 6 miles north-northeast of Eva. No damage was reported. EF-0 rating was assigned.

Trained spotter reported a tornado on the ground for several minutes north of Eva and near highway 95. This storm already had a history of producing tornadoes. No damage occurred as the tornado remained in open grasslands.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:52 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:01 UTC and running to 02:56 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 Amarillo radar (KAMA), 176 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:02 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 2016 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.