EF0 tornado, Mc Knight to Hollis, Oklahoma, May 31, 2022

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

May 31, 2022

Touchdown

6:32 PM CDT (23:32 UTC)

Lifted

6:33 PM CDT (23:33 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Harmon County

Touchdown point

34.677, -99.927

Lift-off point

34.677, -99.927

Record number

2205311732-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AMA and NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Car reportedly spun around and shifted 15 feet.
• Fifth wheel not anchored rolled 40 feet.
• All large tree limbs snapped om west tree.

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

Storms developed along a stationary boundary in northwestern Oklahoma into the Texas panhandle during the afternoon and evening of the 31st. Slow storm motions led to very heavy rainfall and flooding in some locations. Intense winds close to 80 mph, large hail, and a few tornadoes were also reported.

This tornado formed near Dodson TX (see separate entry for Collingsworth County TX in the Texas panhandle from NWS Amarillo). The tornado moved into Harmon County OK to the southeast of Dodson where two power poles were observed leaning along the state line. The tornado moved into agricultural fields in Harmon County and no additional damage was observed.

The Hollis police chief and a storm chaser observed a tornado that developed about 1 mile south-southwest of Hollis and moved east just south of town.

The Hollis police chief observed a tornado estimated to be about 8 miles northeast of Hollis. No damage was known except perhaps to some pivot irrigators. The location of this tornado was estimated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:31 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Childress Municipal (CDS), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:30 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 2022 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.