Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2022

Unrated tornado, LeFlore County, Oklahoma, April 11, 2022

This Unrated tornado ran 0.8 miles across LeFlore County on April 11, 2022, touching down at 7:11 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
April 11, 2022
Touchdown
7:11 PM CDT (00:11 UTC)
Lifted
7:13 PM CDT (00:13 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
LeFlore County
Touchdown point
34.816, -95.011
Lift-off point
34.817, -94.998
Record number
2204111811-01

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:05 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:31 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WatchTSA
20:52 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
21:13 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
21:17 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningTSA
23:41 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
00:05 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningTSA
00:45 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
01:17 UTC01:59 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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

0.2 hours before the tornado, 223 km from the path. April 12, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 2022-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 125 joules per kilogram, CIN -216, lifted condensation level 1157 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 2022-04-12The 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 136 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
125 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-216 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1027 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1157 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
220 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 223 km from the path. April 12, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2022-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1335 joules per kilogram, CIN -354, lifted condensation level 919 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 12:00Z on 2022-04-12The 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 447 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1335 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-354 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2063 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
919 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
447 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
478 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:12 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
23:40 UTCHAIL 12 S Red OakLatimer, OKTIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
23:43 UTCHAIL 1.25BengalLatimer, OKRELAYED VIA TWITTER. 4 MILES N OF TALIHINA.
00:30 UTCHAIL 13 Sw SummerfieldLe Flore, OK
01:39 UTCHAIL 1PoteauLe Flore, OK

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 11, 2022

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 115:12 PM CDTEF1Sebastian, AR1.0140
April 115:23 PM CDTEF1Franklin, AR2.4200$25,000
April 116:33 PM CDTEF1Logan, AR3.4100$85,000
April 118:07 PM CDTEF1Pulaski, AR7.8100

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.