Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2021

EF0 tornado, Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 10, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Tulsa County on November 10, 2021, touching down at 7:14 PM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
November 10, 2021
Touchdown
7:14 PM CST (01:14 UTC)
Lifted
7:16 PM CST (01:16 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Tulsa County
Touchdown point
36.132, -95.976
Lift-off point
36.132, -95.967
Record number
2111101914-01

The damage survey

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

  • several barns damaged, grain silo damaged

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed into eastern Oklahoma during the evening of the 10th, ahead of a cold front approaching the area. In response to a strong upper level disturbance translating into the Southern Plains from the west during the day, wind fields and low level wind shear strengthened across eastern Oklahoma ahead of the approaching thunderstorms. The thunderstorms organized into a squall line that moved across the area, with the strongest storms producing damaging wind. A portion of the line of thunderstorms accelerated forward, and low-level circulations developed along the leading edge of this portion of the line, which resulted in several brief tornadoes.

This tornado developed over Woodward Park, where large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado then moved through a neighborhood just east of the park, where a couple trees were uprooted, and large tree limbs were snapped. A few homes were damaged, primarily from the trees or tree limbs falling onto them. The tornado dissipated near Utica Square. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 80 to 85 mph.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:26 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:26 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTSA
00:43 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
01:07 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
01:20 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningTSA
01:23 UTC04:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryTSA
01:26 UTC01:32 UTCTornado WarningTSA
01:29 UTC01:37 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA

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 00:46 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

1.2 hours before the tornado, 164 km from the path. November 11, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2021-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 964 joules per kilogram, CIN -28, lifted condensation level 884 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2021-11-11The 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 186 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
964 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1559 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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
00:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 6511 W SapulpaCreek, OK
01:09 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Wsw TulsaTulsa, OKTREE DOWNED BY THUNDERSTORM WINDS AND BLOCKING RIVERSIDE DRIVE.
01:13 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 E TulsaTulsa, OKSOCIAL MEDIA REPORT WITH PICTURE OF LARGE TREE DOWNED BY THUNDERSTORM WINDS.
01:14 UTCTORNADO3 W TulsaTulsa, OKAN EF-0 TORNADO SNAPPED LARGE TREE LIMBS IN WOODWARD PARK.
01:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W TulsaTulsa, OKSOCIAL MEDIA REPORT WITH PICTURE OF LARGE TREES DAMAGED BY THUNDERSTORM WINDS.
01:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nnw Broken ArrowTulsa, OKPOWER LINES DOWN AND BROKEN POWER POLES ALONG 31ST STREET BETWEEN 130TH AND 137TH EAST AVE. TIME IS APPROXIMATE.
01:21 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 E TulsaTulsa, OKSOCIAL MEDIA WITH PIC SHOWING TREE DAMAGE. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE PATH.
01:21 UTCTORNADO4 Wsw CatoosaTulsa, OKBROKEN LIMBS LARGER THAN 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER AS WELL AS SIGNS BLOWN OVER A FEW BLOCKS SOUTH OF ADMIRAL ON 145TH EAST AVE.
01:26 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nne Broken ArrowTulsa, OKGRAIN SILO FLIPPED ON ITS SIDE. TREE BLOWN DOWN AND ONTO A FENCE. PART OF A HORSE BARN ROOF BLOWN OFF. DAMAGE OCCURRED AROUND THE EAST 31ST AND COUNTY LINE ROAD AREA.
01:26 UTCTORNADO5 Nne Broken ArrowWagoner, OKAN EF-0 TORNADO DAMAGED BARNS, SNAPPED LARGE TREE LIMBS, AND DAMAGED A SMALL GRAIN SILO.
01:29 UTCTORNADO1 Sw CatoosaRogers, OKAN EF-0 TORNADO SNAPPED LARGE TREE LIMBS.
01:48 UTCHAIL 0.753 Sw BixbyTulsa, OK

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 10, 2021

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 106:35 PM CSTUnratedStephens, OK4.0100
November 107:26 PM CSTEF0Wagoner, OK0.4100$75,000
November 107:29 PM CSTEF0Rogers, OK0.380

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.