Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2022

EF0 tornado, Silo, Oklahoma, May 5, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Bryan County on May 5, 2022, touching down at 1:53 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 5, 2022
Touchdown
1:53 PM CDT (18:53 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Bryan County
Touchdown point
34.012, -96.417
Lift-off point
34.012, -96.417
Record number
2205051253-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper low moving across Oklahoma helped spark thunderstorms during the morning and early afternoon of the 5th, with several reports of hail received across central Oklahoma.

A resident took video of a funnel cloud or tornado looking southwest from Durant High School. Some tree branch damage was observed along Wilson Street in northwest Durant suggesting that this was a brief landspout tornado.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:42 UTC09:00 UTCTornado WatchOUN
18:01 UTC18:45 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. May 5, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2022-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1562 joules per kilogram, CIN -147, lifted condensation level 750 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2022-05-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 274 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1562 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-147 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1437 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
750 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
274 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
346 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

5.1 hours after it, 154 km from the path. May 6, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2022-05-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -91523, lifted condensation level 1785 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2022-05-06The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-91523 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1785 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Durant (DUA), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:55 UTC75.268150° 12 kt1009.1
17:15 UTC73.468180° 5 kt1009.5-RA
17:35 UTC73.468190° 6 kt1009.1-RA
17:55 UTC73.468160° 8 kt1008.8RA
18:15 UTC73.469.8140° 15 kt211008.1
18:35 UTC73.469.8160° 6 kt1008.1
18:55 UTC73.468160° 13 kt1007.8-RA
19:15 UTC71.666.2240° 12 kt201008.1-RA
19:35 UTC69.864.4240° 8 kt1008.1
19:55 UTC73.464.4260° 15 kt221008.5
20:15 UTC73.464.4290° 14 kt201008.5
20:35 UTC71.662.6280° 12 kt201008.1

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

The radar

The Norman radar (KTLX), 167 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:52 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:00 UTCHAIL 1.756 Ssw AlbanyBryan, OK
18:25 UTCHAIL 1.254 E WadeBryan, 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 May 5, 2022

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 52:09 AM CDTEF1Pittsburg, OK2.4450$30,000
May 512:53 PM CDTEF2Arkansas, AR1.5300$50,000
May 51:45 PM CDTEF2Rusk, TX8.61,0001$100,000
May 52:04 PM CDTEF1Rusk, TX8.3500
May 52:25 PM CDTEF1Rusk, TX3.3350$175,000

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.