Unrated tornado, Bidding Spgs to Baron, Oklahoma, April 28, 2021

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

April 28, 2021

Touchdown

6:01 AM CDT (11:01 UTC)

Lifted

6:04 AM CDT (11:04 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Adair County

Touchdown point

35.824, -94.726

Lift-off point

35.836, -94.703

Record number

2104280501-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• Photo courtesy Adair County Emergency Management
• Photo courtesy of Adair County Emergency Management

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms moved through eastern Oklahoma during the morning of the 28th. These storms produced locally heavy rainfall that resulted in flash flooding, damaging wind gusts, and three tornadoes. Another round of thunderstorms developed across eastern Oklahoma during the evening of the 28th, as a cold front moved into the area. The strongest storms produced damaging wind.||Widespread heavy rainfall of four to six inches, with isolated amounts to eight inches, resulted in significant rises on rivers in eastern Oklahoma. Major flooding occurred along the Illinois River, with moderate flooding along the Poteau River.

This tornado produced a tornadic debris signature on the KSRX WSR-88D that lasted at least three minutes. The survey team could not access the heavily wooded area where this tornado likely occurred due to the lack of roads transecting the path.

This tornado damaged a home, destroyed a couple outbuildings, damaged chicken houses, and uprooted trees. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:52 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:01 UTC and running to 15:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:53 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:59 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 2021 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.