EF1 tornado, Dibble to Washington, Oklahoma, April 19, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 19, 2023

Touchdown

7:47 PM CDT (00:47 UTC)

Lifted

7:53 PM CDT (00:53 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

McClain County

Touchdown point

35.090, -97.540

Lift-off point

35.097, -97.509

Record number

2304191847-01

261 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• Wood fence panels. This and some scattered 1-4” limbs, appears to be the final end of the damage path. No damage was found north and west of here
• Very small patch of missing shingles.
• Several uprooted trees 8-12” dia
• East edge of path marked by sporadic tree damage blown toward centerline.

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

Broad troughing was present aloft across the Western US during the afternoon/evening of the 19th. An area of surface low-pressure slowly deepened and moved towards north-central Kansas, with dryline extending from central Kansas through western-north Texas by the late afternoon hours. A well-timed lead upper wave, combined with broken insolation, led to the development of a few supercell thunderstorms across central Oklahoma. Multiple instances of large to very large (>2 inches) hail, along with 18 tornadoes, occurred across central Oklahoma.

The second tornado of the outbreak moved into McClain County from Grady County along County Road near Sunny Side Road. it moved east along Sunny Side road causing tree damage and roof damage to at least one home before turning southeast and then south-southeast and damaging another home roof and destroying a carport as it crossed State Highway 76.

The fourth tornado of the outbreak caused tree and power pole damage west of Cole between State Highway 76 and Rockwell Avenue north of 260th Street.

While the Cole-Goldsby tornado was still ongoing, the fifth tornado of the outbreak developed to the south. This tornado touched down just northwest of 260th Street and Fernwood Road, initially moving southeast then curving northeast dissipating southeast of Santa Fe Avenue and State Highway 74B. The tornado partially unroofed a home, heavily damaged an outbuilding, and produced tree damage along the path.

The Washington-Slaugherville tornado, the sixth of the outbreak, formed on the east edge of Washington and moved east and northeast crossing Interstate 35, and then crossing the Canadian River into Cleveland County due west of Slaugherville. In McClain County, a few homes suffered roof damage, and numerous trees along the path were damaged.

While observing the Washington-Slaughterville Tornado, a storm chaser observed another tornado north of State Highway 74. An NWS Damage Survey Team found a path of damaged trees, power poles and fences. This was the seventh tornado of the outbreak.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:15 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:49 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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/Westheimer (OUN), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:48 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 2023 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

30 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.