EF2 tornado, Cole to Stella, Oklahoma, February 26, 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 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

February 26, 2023

Touchdown

9:15 PM CST (03:15 UTC)

Lifted

9:38 PM CST (03:38 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

26.1 miles (42.0 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

12

Property damage

$50 million

Counties

McClain and Cleveland counties

Touchdown point

35.123, -97.550

Lift-off point

35.343, -97.177

Record number

2302262115-01

455 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Southern extent of tornado. Picture looking west
• Picture from alternate angle of earlier.
• Several branches strewn across field. Large branch is about 8-10 inches in diameter
• Open airport hangars with no doors. Lowered wind.

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

A powerful storm system, with highly anomalous magnitudes of wind shear and moisture for late February, impacted the forecast area on the evening of the 26th. A broken line of severe thunderstorms developed across the eastern Texas Panhandle/far western Oklahoma and quickly swept through much of the forecast area. Widespread wind damage, including gusts near 90 mph, along with a record number of tornadoes (13) for February occurred. Several reports of large hail were also received. Behind the line of thunderstorms, a tight pressure gradient and strong westerly low-level jet allowed widespread 50-60 mph winds gusts to continue through the late evening hours.

This tornado developed just west of Pennsylvania Avenue about 1/2 mile south of 290th Street where it took the roof off an outbuilding. The tornado moved east-northeast damaging a mobile home along 290th Street, and then snapped a couple of power poles as moved into the city limits of Goldsby just east of SW 24th Avenue. The tornado caused roof and fence damage in a neighborhood near NW 12th Avenue and Center Road in Goldsby before moving across the Goldsby airport damaging hangars. The tornado then crossed the Canadian River into Cleveland County.

The tornado that moved through Goldsby in McClain County crossed the Canadian River and into Cleveland County moving swiftly through southern and eastern portions of Norman. The tornado passed less than one mile southeast of the National Weather Center, and damaged numerous homes in neighborhoods near 12th Avenue SE and Cedar Lane Road, and northeast of 24th Avenue SE and Imhoff Road as well as damaging apartments and businesses near the intersection of State Highway 9 and US Highway 77. EF2 damage was noted at several apartment buildings, homes and businesses in these areas. Moving northeast, the tornado moved into less areas with less density of homes and people, but still affected neighborhoods near 36th Avenue SE and Lindsay Street, 48th Avenue SE and Lindsey, and 60th Avenue SE and Alameda Street. The tornado continued northeast damaging trees, power lines and a few homes before dissipating in far southeast Oklahoma City near SE 125th Street and Dobbs Road. The tornado moved at over 60 mph.

A tornado developed just inside Cleveland County southwest of the intersection of Southeast 89th Street and Pottawatomie Road. A house and outbuilding suffered roof damage. The tornado moved east one-quarter of a mile before crossing Pottawatomie Road and moving into Pottawatomie County.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:15 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:25 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:33 UTC and running to 04:35 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Norman/Westheimer (OUN), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:15 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

15 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.