Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2017

EF0 tornado, Holdenville, Oklahoma, April 25, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Hughes County on April 25, 2017, touching down at 10:50 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 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
April 25, 2017
Touchdown
10:50 PM CDT (03:50 UTC)
Lifted
10:52 PM CDT (03:52 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.0 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Hughes County
Touchdown point
35.076, -96.395
Lift-off point
35.089, -96.380
Record number
1704252150-01

What the Weather Service recorded

As a cold front swept through into abundant moisture on the evening of the 25th, storms fired along and near the front with several of them becoming severe.

A few trees were damaged and there was some roof damage to some homes and businesses as a small tornado moved northeast across the south and east side of Holdenville.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:49 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:05 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:00 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:00 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchOUN
03:27 UTC04:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
03:49 UTC04:05 UTCTornado WarningOUN
04:31 UTC05:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
04:45 UTC05:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
08:38 UTC09:04 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
10:40 UTC13:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryOUN

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 00:49 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

3.8 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. April 26, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2017-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1456 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 1711 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 2017-04-26The 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 160 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 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
1456 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3280 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1711 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
160 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
10.8
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

8.2 hours after it, 93 km from the path. April 26, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2017-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 566 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 2017-04-26The 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 193 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 81 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
81 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
417 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:52 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
03:42 UTCHAIL 1.5HoldenvilleHughes, OK
03:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ene HoldenvilleHughes, OKAWNING DESTROYED AT WALMART. TREE DOWNED. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
03:50 UTCTORNADO1 Ene HoldenvilleHughes, OKNUMEROUS TREES DOWNED. WINDOWS BLOWN OUT. ROOFS BLOWN OFF. AIR CONDITIONER UNITS BLOWN OFF AT WALMART. AWNING DESTROYED AT WALMART. MOST DAMAGE OCCURRED FROM NEAR JOHN STREET ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF TOWN TO THE WALMART NEAR
03:57 UTCHAIL 2BrooksvillePottawatomie, OK
04:23 UTCHAIL 18 Ne StratfordPontotoc, OK
04:25 UTCHAIL 1.751 Wnw VanossPontotoc, OK
04:32 UTCHAIL 16 Ene VanossPontotoc, OK
04:39 UTCHAIL 1.757 Ne VanossPontotoc, OK
04:40 UTCHAIL 1.253 E VanossPontotoc, OKHALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL REPORTED NEAR PICKETT.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 2017

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2510:13 PM CDTEF0Pontotoc, OK0.750$4,000
April 2511:33 PM CDTEF1Mayes, OK6.4550$75,000
April 2511:34 PM CDTEF1Mayes, OK4.1600$40,000
April 2511:46 PM CDTEF1Mayes, OK10.2400$25,000

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.