EF2 tornado, Carter to Canute, 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

May 16, 2017

Touchdown

6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)

Lifted

7:18 PM CDT (00:18 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

18.0 miles (29.0 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

10

Property damage

$25 million

Counties

Beckham and Washita counties

Touchdown point

35.240, -99.555

Lift-off point

35.409, -99.329

Record number

1705161746-01

71 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 132 mph.

• several power poles being replaced along road west of this location. road closed. also tree damage and poles S of this point.
• center pivot irrigation rig blown over
• power lines down along this W-E road for more than a mile.
• not tornado damage. utility truck and tree service doing work to clear dead tree.

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

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 Elk City tornado initially developed near the North Fork of the Red River about 3 miles northwest of Carter. Damage was primarily to trees and power poles for the first few miles as it moved northeast approaching State Highway 34.||One fatality occurred on State Highway 34 (Merritt Road) south of State Highway 152 when his vehicle was impacted by the tornado. According to law enforcement, the victim had been in a mobile home, then left in his vehicle to try and find more substantial shelter. He had returned to his mobile home and it's believed he was still in the vehicle when the tornado hit.||Moving northeast, permanent homes and mobile homes were damaged, and damage continued to power poles and trees. About two miles southwest of Elk City Reservoir, damage intensity with persistent EF-2 damage into Elk City as the tornado continued northeast over Elk City Reservoir and through a neighborhood on south side of Elk City just west of State Highway 6. Numerous homes were damaged and mobile homes damaged or destroyed from southwest of Elk City Reservoir through the south side of Elk City. The tornado continued moving east-northeast out of Elk City and moved into Washita County. ||Damage assessments found 66 homes destroyed (62 in Elk City) and 140 homes damaged (126 in Elk City). In addition, 3 businesses were destroyed and 5 businesses were damaged by the tornado. Damage costs are a rough estimate.

The Elk City tornado moved into Washita County and moved northeast about 3 miles before dissipating. Three outbuildings were damaged or destroyed and one house received minor damage. Otherwise, damage was primarily to trees and power lines in Washita County. Damage costs were roughly estimated.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:13 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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.

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:49 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.