Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2016

EF0 tornado, Felt, Oklahoma, May 16, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Cimarron County on May 16, 2016, touching down at 4:57 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 16, 2016
Touchdown
4:57 PM CDT (21:57 UTC)
Lifted
4:58 PM CDT (21:58 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cimarron County
Touchdown point
36.588, -102.765
Lift-off point
36.591, -102.760
Record number
1605161557-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms developed in an unstable and sheared environment across New Mexico and moved east across portions of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Hail up to golf ball size and winds as high as 70 mph were reported. Two brief tornadoes were observed by storm chasers near Felt in Cimarron County.

Several storm chasers witnessed a brief tornado about 3 miles northwest of Felt. No damage was observed. An EF-0 rating was assigned.

A second brief tornado was reported by multiple storm chasers approximately two miles northeast of Felt. No damage was observed. A rating of EF-0 was assigned.

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

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:36 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:31 UTC and running to 01:54 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:31 UTC01:54 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAMA
20:07 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
20:56 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
21:24 UTC00:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryAMA
21:36 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
21:57 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:20 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningAMA

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. May 16, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-16Temperature 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 -308, lifted condensation level 513 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-16The 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 213 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
-308 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
513 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
245 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 179 km from the path. May 17, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1214 joules per kilogram, CIN -133, lifted condensation level 1620 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-05-17The 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 240 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1214 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-133 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3449 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
349 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
16.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 178 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:56 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
20:59 UTCHAIL 15 W WheelessCimarron, OK
21:39 UTCTORNADO3 N FeltCimarron, OKTORNADO REPORTED BY SEVERAL STORM CHASERS
21:57 UTCTORNADO1 E FeltCimarron, OKSECOND TORNADO REPORTED BY MULTIPLE STORM CHASERS
22:01 UTCHAIL 1FeltCimarron, OK
22:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 605 Ene FeltCimarron, OKCIMARRON COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE REPORTS GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL. 60 MPH WIND GUSTS AND HEAVY RAIN PRODUCING MUDDY ROADS
22:05 UTCHAIL 1.755 Ene FeltCimarron, OKCIMARRON COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE REPORTS GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL. 60 MPH WIND GUSTS AND HEAVY RAIN PRODUCING MUDDY ROADS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 2016

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 164:39 PM CDTEF0Cimarron, OK0.525
May 165:40 PM CDTEF1Dallam, TX0.925
May 166:06 PM CDTEF0Dallam, TX0.250
May 168:52 PM CDTEF0Hemphill, TX0.125
May 169:06 PM CDTEF0Hemphill, TX9.425
May 169:35 PM CDTEF1Hemphill, TX to OK0.650

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.