Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2022
EF0 tornado, Wanette, Oklahoma, December 13, 2022
This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Pottawatomie County on December 13, 2022, touching down at 5:46 AM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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
- December 13, 2022
- Touchdown
- 5:46 AM CST (11:46 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:47 AM CST (11:47 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.6 miles (1.0 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Pottawatomie County
- Touchdown point
- 34.938, -97.116
- Lift-off point
- 34.944, -97.110
- Record number
- 2212130546-01
The damage survey
1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 112 mph.
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
Storms moved through Oklahoma late in the evening of December 12th and into the early morning hours of the 13th, producing isolated severe weather including a few tornadoes.
A trailer was damaged in far southern Pottawatomie County to the west-southwest of Wanette.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
8 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:38 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:35 UTC and running to 12:52 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:28 UTC | 12:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 11:35 UTC | 12:52 UTC | Tornado Watch | OUN |
| 11:38 UTC | 12:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 11:43 UTC | 12:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 12:08 UTC | 12:26 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 13:14 UTC | 16:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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 05:56 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
11.8 hours before the tornado, 41 km from the path. December 13, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 422 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 50 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 470 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 482 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 41 km from the path. December 13, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -22132 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2263 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 68 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -184 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -181 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
The radar
The Norman radar (KTLX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:46 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:02 UTC | FLOOD | 1 Ssw Norman | Cleveland, OK | FLOODING AND A STRANDED VEHICLE ON THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA CAMPUS. |
| 11:27 UTC | TORNADO | Wayne | Mcclain, OK | SIGNIFICANT HOUSE DAMAGE JUST NORTH OF WAYNE. TREE DAMAGE FROM WAYNE INTO SOUTHERN CLEVELAND COUNTY. |
| 11:27 UTC | TORNADO | Wayne | Mcclain, OK | TREE DAMAGE REPORTED FROM TORNADO IN WAYNE. |
| 11:30 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 S Norman | Cleveland, OK | STALLED CARS ON JENKINS STREET. |
| 11:46 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene Rosedale | Pottawatomie, OK | TREE AND TRAILER DAMAGE. |
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 December 13, 2022
30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 13 | 12:13 AM CST | Unrated | Beckham, OK | 0.2 | 40 | |||
| December 13 | 4:24 AM CST | EF1 | Stephens, OK | 0.3 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| December 13 | 4:51 AM CST | EF2 | Grady, OK | 0.6 | 50 | $75,000 | ||
| December 13 | 5:27 AM CST | EF2 | McClain, OK | 4.9 | 300 | $80,000 | ||
| December 13 | 5:35 AM CST | EF2 | Eastland, TX | 11.1 | 355 | |||
| December 13 | 5:55 AM CST | EF1 | Garvin, OK | 4.2 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| December 13 | 6:10 AM CST | EF0 | Parker, TX | 1.1 | 50 | |||
| December 13 | 6:31 AM CST | EF1 | Palo Pinto, TX | 3.7 | 230 | |||
| December 13 | 6:59 AM CST | EF2 | Wise, TX | 9.7 | 370 | 2 | ||
| December 13 | 7:00 AM CST | EF0 | Parker, TX | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| December 13 | 7:34 AM CST | EF1 | Erath, TX | 0.7 | 44 | |||
| December 13 | 7:44 AM CST | EF0 | Cooke, TX | 0.4 | 150 | $30,000 | ||
| December 13 | 8:10 AM CST | EF0 | Tarrant, TX | 0.8 | 25 | $50,000 | ||
| December 13 | 8:14 AM CST | EF1 | Tarrant, TX | 0.2 | 40 | $1,000 | ||
| December 13 | 8:18 AM CST | EF0 | Tarrant, TX | 0.3 | 25 | $1,000 | ||
| December 13 | 8:34 AM CST | EF1 | Tarrant, TX | 1.9 | 40 | |||
| December 13 | 8:42 AM CST | EF1 | Tarrant, TX | 3.1 | 150 | 5 | ||
| December 13 | 8:49 AM CST | EF1 | Tarrant, TX | 0.8 | 100 | |||
| December 13 | 9:47 AM CST | EF2 | Collin, TX | 17.6 | 225 | 2 | ||
| December 13 | 10:12 AM CST | EF1 | Hunt, TX | 6.6 | 50 | |||
| December 13 | 10:45 AM CST | EF2 | Lamar, TX | 10.2 | 200 | |||
| December 13 | 3:38 PM CST | EF2 | Panola, TX | 9.2 | 460 | $85,000 | ||
| December 13 | 4:36 PM CST | EF2 | Caddo Parish, LA | 3.5 | 700 | 2 | 2 | $500,000 |
| December 13 | 8:23 PM CST | EF3 | Union Parish, LA | 9.1 | 500 | 14 | $1.2 million | |
| December 13 | 10:19 PM CST | EF1 | Franklin Parish, LA | 11.3 | 300 | $270,000 | ||
| December 13 | 10:26 PM CST | EF1 | Rapides Parish, LA | 2.7 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| December 13 | 10:31 PM CST | EF1 | Rapides Parish, LA | 7.3 | 150 | $75,000 | ||
| December 13 | 11:12 PM CST | EF2 | Sharkey, MS | 1.1 | 250 | 3 | $1.0 million | |
| December 13 | 11:21 PM CST | EF2 | Issaquena, MS | 10.3 | 400 | $410,000 | ||
| December 13 | 11:56 PM CST | EF1 | Humphreys, MS | 3.1 | 200 | $100,000 |
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.