Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2022
EF0 tornado, Harrah, Oklahoma, April 23, 2022
This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Oklahoma County on April 23, 2022, touching down at 8:20 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 23, 2022
- Touchdown
- 8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:22 PM CDT (01:22 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Oklahoma County
- Touchdown point
- 35.469, -97.214
- Lift-off point
- 35.476, -97.203
- Record number
- 2204231920-01
The damage survey
1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.
- 8 power poles down, 4 of them snapped
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
A dryline positioned itself to the west of the I-35 corridor, with several supercells developing by late afternoon of the 23rd. These storms brough hail and wind to parts of central and southwest Oklahoma, as well as a couple tornadoes.
A weak tornado developed just west of Peebly Road north of Reno Avenue and moved northeast. Tree damage was observed along Peebly Road and just west of the Kickapoo Turnpike. This tornado was within a much broader area of wind damage.
A weak tornado touched down about 4 miles northwest of Harrah and moved south-southeast near Peebly Road between NE 63rd and NE 50th Streets. Some light tree damages was observed. This was embedded within a much larger area of damaging thunderstorm winds.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
5 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:15 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:41 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:25 UTC and running to 04:36 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:25 UTC | 04:36 UTC | Tornado Watch | OUN |
| 00:03 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:37 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:39 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
| 01:10 UTC | 01:50 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 01:15 UTC | 01:41 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 04:36 UTC | 07:53 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | OUN |
| 12:00 UTC | 17:17 UTC | Flood Watch | OUN |
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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:32 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
1.3 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. April 24, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 749 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -34 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2137 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1125 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 234 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 260 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.3
- Supercell composite
- 12.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 33 km from the path. April 24, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 9 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -142 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 614 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 57 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 153 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 294 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The surface observations
Tinker Afb (TIK), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:56 UTC | 74.5 | 61 | 170° 18 kt | 1004.1 | ||
| 00:25 UTC | 73.4 | 60.8 | 170° 11 kt | 1004.4 | TS | |
| 00:44 UTC | 73.4 | 60.8 | 150° 11 kt | 21 | 1003.4 | VCTS |
| 00:51 UTC | 73.4 | 60.8 | 90° 7 kt | 20 | 1003 | TS |
| 00:54 UTC | 73.4 | 60.8 | 50° 12 kt | 20 | 1003.7 | TS -DZ |
| 00:56 UTC | 73.4 | 61.3 | 10° 9 kt | 18 | 1004.4 | -TSRA |
| 01:08 UTC | 68 | 66.2 | 270° 14 kt | 30 | 1006.1 | +TSRA |
| 01:11 UTC | 68 | 66.2 | 240° 12 kt | 30 | 1006.4 | +TSRA |
| 01:18 UTC | 66.2 | 66.2 | 260° 5 kt | 1005.8 | +TSRA | |
| 01:20 UTC | 66.2 | 66.2 | 310° 5 kt | 1006.1 | +TSRA | |
| 01:32 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 220° 11 kt | 1007.1 | VCTS -RA | |
| 01:40 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 210° 6 kt | 1007.1 | +TSRA | |
| 01:56 UTC | 64.4 | 64 | 170° 3 kt | 1007.1 | -TSRA | |
| 01:57 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1007.1 | VCTS -RA | |
| 02:18 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 150° 5 kt | 1007.5 | -TSRA | |
| 02:40 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 130° 7 kt | 1006.8 | -RA | |
| 02:56 UTC | 65 | 64.8 | 130° 5 kt | 1007.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norman radar (KTLX), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:19 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:35 UTC | HAIL 1 | 5 Sw Oklahoma City | Oklahoma, OK | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). |
| 00:41 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 W Oklahoma City | Oklahoma, OK | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). |
| 01:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Tinker Air Force B | Oklahoma, OK | POWER POLE DOWN ON SE 29TH BETWEEN DOUGLAS AND POST. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 01:27 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Harrah | Oklahoma, OK | 8 POWER POLES DOWN. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Oklahoma City | Oklahoma, OK | 3 DOWNED POWER POLES FROM NWSCHAT. |
| 01:31 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | 5 Ne Norman | Cleveland, 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 23, 2022
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 23 | 1:20 AM CDT | EF1 | Sheridan, KS | 5.6 | 125 | |||
| April 23 | 1:28 AM CDT | EF1 | Sheridan, KS | 7.8 | 125 | |||
| April 23 | 2:35 PM CDT | EF0 | Edmunds, SD | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| April 23 | 3:24 PM CDT | Unrated | LaMoure, ND | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| April 23 | 6:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Boone, IA | 9.1 | 80 | $28,000 | ||
| April 23 | 6:23 PM CDT | Unrated | Polk, IA | 3.9 | 60 | |||
| April 23 | 6:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, IA | 2.4 | 75 | $1,000 | ||
| April 23 | 6:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, MN | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 7:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Grady, OK | 3.8 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| April 23 | 7:15 PM CDT | Unrated | Canadian, OK | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Oklahoma, OK | 0.6 | 20 | $1,000 |
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.