Unrated tornado, Indiahoma to Meers, Oklahoma, October 12, 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

October 12, 2021

Touchdown

9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)

Lifted

9:07 PM CDT (02:07 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Comanche County

Touchdown point

34.778, -98.685

Lift-off point

34.803, -98.661

Record number

2110122000-01

21 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 108 mph.

• Car port attached to barn destroyed
• We think this door is from this event
• SN report of power lines down on SH-19 trapping people in cars. Other report of metal barn "blown apart" somewhere in area.
• Likely location of house damage seen in tweet.

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

A warm front lifted north during the afternoon and evening of the 12th, with a couple supercells developing along it across southwest OK. Large hail, strong winds, and numerous tornadoes were reported with these storms as they moved northeastward. Later, a line of severe storms moved into far western OK along a cold front, with strong winds and hail reported with these storms.

This tornado moved into Comanche County from Kiowa County approximately three miles north of U.S. Highway 62, and moved northeast and then due north. At least one home suffered some shingle damage, a mobile home received roof damage, and a barn door was blown in. Tree damage was also observed along the path. None of the damage in Comanche County was observed to be greater than EF0, although the tornado was likely stronger as there were few damage indicators encountered along the path.

Radar indicated strong rotation with a tornado debris signature in an inaccessible area of the Wichita Mountains. The path and path dimensions are estimated.

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

48 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:12 UTC, 48 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:34 UTC and running to 04:00 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:33 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), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:00 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

20 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.