Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2022

Unrated tornado, Loveland, Oklahoma, May 4, 2022

This Unrated tornado ran 1.0 miles across Tillman County on May 4, 2022, touching down at 10:22 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
May 4, 2022
Touchdown
10:22 PM CDT (03:22 UTC)
Lifted
10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Tillman County
Touchdown point
34.249, -98.832
Lift-off point
34.259, -98.820
Record number
2205042122-01

What the Weather Service recorded

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.

Storm spotters observed to tornado to the southwest of Loveland. No damage was reported and the path is estimated.

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 03:17 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:42 UTC and running to 07:44 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:00 UTC09:47 UTCFlood WatchOUN
18:56 UTC02:42 UTCTornado WatchOUN
02:33 UTC03:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
02:42 UTC07:44 UTCTornado WatchOUN
02:59 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
03:17 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningOUN
03:37 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningOUN
04:31 UTC05:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
05:08 UTC06:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
05:10 UTC09:02 UTCFlood AdvisoryOUN
05:54 UTC06:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN

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 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.

The radar

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:24 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.

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 May 4, 2022

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 45:52 PM CDTUnratedDickens, TX3.730
May 46:23 PM CDTEF0Pottawatomie, OK4.6100$100,000
May 46:34 PM CDTUnratedKing, TX8.4100
May 46:37 PM CDTUnratedPottawatomie, OK1.0100
May 46:44 PM CDTEF2Seminole, OK12.51,760$300,000
May 47:00 PM CDTUnratedKing, TX7.9100
May 47:01 PM CDTEF0Seminole, OK2.0175
May 47:21 PM CDTEF1Seminole, OK13.61,350$120,000
May 47:40 PM CDTEF0Foard, TX9.3100
May 47:44 PM CDTEF1Okfuskee, OK0.4150$15,000
May 48:07 PM CDTEF1Pottawatomie, OK2.3100$10,000
May 48:11 PM CDTUnratedFoard, TX1.050
May 48:25 PM CDTEF3Foard, TX23.1600$100,000
May 48:28 PM CDTEF2Pottawatomie, OK3.4150$200,000
May 48:35 PM CDTEF1Pottawatomie, OK4.5175$10,000
May 48:58 PM CDTEF1Seminole, OK1.8150$30,000
May 49:52 PM CDTUnratedKiowa, OK0.220

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.