Unrated tornado, Erick, Oklahoma, May 16, 2017

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.

Rating

Unrated

Date

May 16, 2017

Touchdown

6:08 PM CDT (23:08 UTC)

Lifted

6:11 PM CDT (23:11 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Beckham County

Touchdown point

35.070, -99.920

Lift-off point

35.070, -99.900

Record number

1705161708-01

Storms formed along the dryline in the Texas panhandle on the afternoon of the 16th before moving eastward. As a cold front caught up to the storms, convection increased and storms began to form into a line. This line continued eastward across the state overnight into the 17th.

The Erick Fire Department and storm chasers observed a tornado south of the entrance to Sandy Sanders Wildlife Management Area on State Highway 30. No damage was reported.

An NWS employee observed a tornado from an occluded mesocyclone to the south-southeast of Erick. The tornado was observed for about two minutes. No damage was reported and the specific path is estimated.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:48 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:54 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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.

Elk City (ELK), 62 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:09 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 2017 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.