EF1 tornado, Empire City to Loco, Oklahoma, June 15, 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

June 15, 2023

Touchdown

5:37 PM CDT (22:37 UTC)

Lifted

5:38 PM CDT (22:38 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Stephens County

Touchdown point

34.364, -97.990

Lift-off point

34.364, -97.982

Record number

2306151637-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 108 mph.

• Corum Fire Dept - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1039340087518026&set=p.1039340087518026&type=3
• Tree and power line damage; RV blown over; location approximate

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

The approach of an anomalously strong (for mid-June) upper-level disturbance lead to a widespread severe weather outbreak across portions of the forecast area, especially along and west of the I-35 corridor, during the afternoon into late evening of the 15th. This included the development of numerous supercell thunderstorms across the area. Despite relatively high cloud bases, strong low-level instability and sufficient low-level wind shear aided tornadic outcomes, with eleven tornadoes confirmed across western into southern Oklahoma. Numerous reports of large to very large hail, including reports of 4-inch hail in Lawton, and wind damage were received across area.

Spotters reported a tornado near 9 Mile Road in northwest Stephens County. No damage was reported and the specific tornado path is estimated.

A storm chaser south of Comanche saw a tornado to the north of Comanche. No damage was reported in this area and the specific tornado path is estimated.

A spotter reported observing a tornado that moved into the southwestern portion of Comanche. Trees were downed and an outbuilding damaged just southwest of Comanche, then damaged an apartment building in southwest Comanche.

A storm chaser observed a tornado west-northwest of Loco. Trees were snapped and uprooted along the tornado path. This tornado was embedded within an even larger area of damaging thunderstorms winds.

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

31 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:06 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:34 UTC and running to 01:44 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 19:57 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.

Halliburton Field Airport/Duncan (DUC), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:34 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

31 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.