Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2016

Unrated tornado, Marlow, Oklahoma, May 8, 2016

This Unrated tornado ran 1.3 miles across Stephens County on May 8, 2016, touching down at 7:03 PM CDT and reaching 40 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 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
May 8, 2016
Touchdown
7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)
Lifted
7:07 PM CDT (00:07 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stephens County
Touchdown point
34.581, -98.076
Lift-off point
34.581, -98.053
Record number
1605081803-01

What the Weather Service recorded

With the help of an upper low, storms fired along the dryline in western Oklahoma on the 8th, with some of them becoming severe and producing flash flooding.

Numerous spotters and storm chasers observed a tornado near State Highway 7 to the southeast of the town of Central High. No significant damage was reported.

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

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:40 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:05 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WatchOUN
23:40 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOUN
23:44 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
00:13 UTC00:34 UTCTornado WarningOUN

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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 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.

Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. May 9, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2016-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1059 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 761 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, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2016-05-09The 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 174 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
1059 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1729 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
761 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

11.9 hours after it, 93 km from the path. May 9, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2016-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 686 joules per kilogram, CIN -97, lifted condensation level 620 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2016-05-09The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
686 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-97 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1264 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
336 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
6.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:04 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
23:14 UTCHAIL 1.257 S Fort CobbCaddo, OK
23:17 UTCHAIL 1LawtonComanche, OK
23:22 UTCTSTM WND GST 642 S LawtonComanche, OK
23:25 UTCFLASH FLOODLawtonComanche, OKROADS BECOMING QUICKLY IMPASSABLE IN LAWTON.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 631 E LawtonComanche, OK
23:34 UTCFLASH FLOODLawtonComanche, OKWATER RESCUES ON WEST SIDE OF LAWTON. RELAYED BY KSWO-TV.
23:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 695 Ese LawtonComanche, OK15 INCH TREE BRANCH SNAPPED AND DOWN ON THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE. TWO LARGE TREES UPROOTED AND POWER POLES SNAPPED JUST NORTH OF HOUSE.
23:38 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 E LawtonComanche, OKHIGH TENSION UTILITY POLE BLOWN OVER.
00:03 UTCTORNADO2 Se Central HighStephens, OK
00:50 UTCFLASH FLOODLawtonComanche, OKFLOODING RESULTING IN IMPASSABLE ROADS IN THE VICINITY OF 2ND STREET AND THE MALL.
01:17 UTCFLASH FLOODLawtonComanche, OKLAWTON FIRE DEPARTMENT CLOSED CACHE ROAD A QUATER MILE EAST OF NE 75TH STREET DUE TO FLOODING.

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 8, 2016

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 85:33 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS8.825
May 86:00 PM CDTEF0Trego, KS1.925
May 86:25 PM CDTEF0Red Willow, NE0.325
May 87:00 PM CDTEF0Ellis, KS0.950
May 87:08 PM CDTEF2Ellis, KS6.9440$2,000
May 87:27 PM CDTEF1Rooks, KS2.8500$15,000
May 87:29 PM CDTEF0Frontier, NE0.020

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.