EF0 tornado, Oklahoma City to Spencer, Oklahoma, October 13, 2021

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

October 13, 2021

Touchdown

5:22 AM CDT (10:22 UTC)

Lifted

5:28 AM CDT (10:28 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Oklahoma County

Touchdown point

35.508, -97.460

Lift-off point

35.537, -97.393

Record number

2110130422-01

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 107 mph.

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.

A tornado from a QLCS (quasi-linear convective system) developed just east of the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds near General Pershing Boulevard just east of May Avenue. The tornado moved northeast and east affecting the Youngs-Englewood, Classen-Ten-Penn, Plaza, Mesta Park and Heritage Hills districts of Oklahoma City. Damage was generally confined to tree damage, including some snapped tree trunks. There was no significant structure damage observed. The tornado dissipated just southeast of NE 23rd Street and Interstate 235.

A third tornado from a QLCS (quasi-linear convective system) storm system that affected the Oklahoma City area developed over Forest Park near Northeast 36th Street and Bryant Avenue, and moved northeast into northeast Oklahoma City dissipating northwest of Northeast 63rd Street and Midwest Boulevard. The damage observed was generally broken tree branches and limbs.

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 10:07 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:50 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.

Tinker Afb (TIK), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Norman radar (KTLX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:22 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

12 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.