EF3 tornado, Joy to Roff, Oklahoma, May 9, 2016

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 9, 2016

Touchdown

4:34 PM CDT (21:34 UTC)

Lifted

5:17 PM CDT (22:17 UTC)

On the ground

43 minutes

Path length

16.6 miles (26.7 km)

Path width

1,500 yards (1372 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$4.0 million

Counties

Murray and Pontotoc counties

Touchdown point

34.565, -97.146

Lift-off point

34.595, -96.859

Record number

1605091534-01

424 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• truck tossed a couple hundred feet with bounce marks
• Multiple large trees down. Cutoff at ground level.
• very strong stripping of vegetation.
• poorly constructed but tree damage impressive.

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

With the help of an upper low, storms fired along the dryline in central Oklahoma on the 9th, with some of them becoming severe.

After the Katie tornado dissipated, the storm produced another tornado that developed just west of US-77 between Wynnewood and Davis. Some tree damage was noted between the Washita River and US-77. The tornado moved about three miles through open land before damaging or destroying numerous houses and other structures along and near Palmer Road and Buel Green Road to the northwest and north of Sulphur. Through this time, the tornado grew to nearly one mile in width. Numerous houses from Meadow road to just east of US-177 received EF3 damage. Near Meadow Road and Burnside Road, cars parked near a destroyed barn were displaced about 280 yards to the east. Preliminary analysis of winds from the Doppler on Wheels mobile research radar provided by the Center for Severe Weather Research indicated approximately 218 mph (+/-) at 17 meters AGL near US-177 N of Buel Green Road, however there were no structures in the immediate vicinity of this wind maximum to give a corresponding damage rating.||The tornado moved east-northeast after crossing US-177 with the path width gradually diminishing. The tornado moved along the Murray-Pontotoc County line affecting both counties for the last three miles before dissipating about 2 miles south-southwest of Roff. The center line of the tornado did move into Pontotoc County approximately three miles southwest of Roff.

The tornado that passed north of Sulphur in Murray County moved along the Murray-Pontotoc County line for three miles affecting both counties before dissipating approximately 2 miles south-southwest of Roff. The center of the tornadic circulation moved east-northeast into Pontotoc County approximately 3 miles southwest of Roff.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:27 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:36 UTC and running to 23:32 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Pauls Valley Municipal Airport (PVJ), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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

27 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.