EF2 tornado, Brooksville to Earlsboro, Oklahoma, May 4, 2022

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 4, 2022

Touchdown

8:28 PM CDT (01:28 UTC)

Lifted

8:35 PM CDT (01:35 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Pottawatomie County

Touchdown point

35.257, -96.796

Lift-off point

35.264, -96.795

Record number

2205041928-01

Several rounds of storms occurred on the 4th as a large trough approached the region. Initially several storms developed across northwest Oklahoma with large hail, with new storm development then occurring along and south of a warm front in central Oklahoma during the afternoon. These storms produced several tornadoes, along with hail and damaging wind gusts. Another round of storms moved in from the Texas panhandle during the evening of the 4th, bringing more tornadoes, hail, and wind. Localized flooding was also reported due to storms training over the same areas.

Damage was found along US-177 to the south of Tecumseh as the tornado moved to the north and northeast. Additional tree damage was found by the survey crew along Harrison Road before the tornado dissipated just west of Skagg City Road.

This tornado touched down initially just southeast of the town of Earlsboro and made a looping path striking Earlsboro. The tornado initially moved northeast, then north about one-half mile west of the Pottawatomie-Seminole County line, then turned northwest and west along and north of Bob Crouch Road to the northeast of Earlsboro. The tornado then moved southeast and south across the east side of Earlsboro moving down Willie Stargell Avenue. The most significant damage was near the end of the path a mobile home, metal buildings and a outbuilding were destroyed.

The second Earlsboro tornado began nearly in the same spot that the first one developed (and dissipated). The first damage to trees and buildings was noted just east of the Union Pacific tracks along SH-9/US-270. The tornado then moved to briefly to the southeast before turning to the east. The tornado moved into Seminole County near SH-9/US-270.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:05 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:27 UTC and running to 02:42 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Seminole (SRE), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:25 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

17 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.