Unrated tornado, Davidson to Loveland, Oklahoma, May 2, 2018

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 2, 2018

Touchdown

7:02 PM CDT (00:02 UTC)

Lifted

7:07 PM CDT (00:07 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Tillman County

Touchdown point

34.195, -98.676

Lift-off point

34.197, -98.616

Record number

1805021802-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Damaged power poles along SH-36 that were being fixed by utility crews.

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

Several discrete supercells formed off a dryline in the eastern parts of the panhandles in the late afternoon of the 2nd. These storms moved eastward through the evening, eventually congealing into a line before coming across central Oklahoma. QLCS tornadoes became a significant hazard at this point. After this round of storms made its way out of the area, scattered storms began to form from central Texas up into south western Oklahoma overnight, moving generally northeast into the early morning hours.

A tornado moved southeast in an area east-southeast of Davidson. Light roof damage was observed to a house near the beginning of the tornado path with tree damage noted along the path.

A tornado developed south of Hollister and moved east-southeast to just southwest of Loveland. Power poles and one outbuilding and were damaged.

This tornado developed approximately 3 miles northwest of Loveland, on the north side of a large and destructive area of thunderstorm winds that moved from near the Frederick airport to near Loveland (see above). The tornado initially moved south-southeast, and then curved to the southeast and east in an area southwest of Loveland. Except for one outbuilding that was destroyed southwest of Loveland, the damage was primarily to trees and power poles. Much of the path remained over open fields.

Storm chasers observed a tornado that developed just south-southeast of Grandfield and moved east. The tornado dissipated before moving into Cotton County and Devol. No damage was reported.

A tornado developed about 5 miles east-northeast of Loveland and moved northeast crossing into Cotton County and dissipating about 5 miles south of Chattanooga. Utility poles were damaged both along State Highway 36 in Tillman County and NS243 Road in Cotton County.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:47 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:01 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:16 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.

Wichita Falls/Shep (SPS), 28 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), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 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 2018 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.