EF1 tornado, Collinsville to Bushyhead, Oklahoma, June 17, 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 17, 2023

Touchdown

12:56 AM CDT (05:56 UTC)

Lifted

1:03 AM CDT (06:03 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.4 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Rogers County

Touchdown point

36.518, -95.565

Lift-off point

36.520, -95.471

Record number

2306172356-01

37 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• 13 large wood poles snapped through this swath

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

Severe thunderstorms developed over the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, southwestern Kansas, and southeastern Colorado during the afternoon of the 17th, along and ahead of a cold front as a strong upper level disturbance translated into the Southern Plains. These storms organized into a surging line of severe thunderstorms as they moved east across northern Oklahoma, reaching eastern Oklahoma during the late evening. Moderately strong instability was in place ahead of the storms, and the wind fields aloft, along with the deep-layer and low-level wind shear, became strong as the upper level disturbance approached from the west. The line of thunderstorms produced widespread wind damage across eastern Oklahoma, with wind gusts in excess of 100 mph at times. Widespread damage to the utility infrastructure occurred, especially throughout counties in northeastern Oklahoma, with nearly a million people without power during the peak of the storm. Some of these outages lasted more than a week. Many trees were blown down, and widespread damage to homes and businesses occurred. A tree fell onto a manufactured home near Oilton in Creek County, killing one of the occupants and injuring three others. Three tornadoes also occurred across portions of northeastern Oklahoma, each forming on the leading edge of the squall line.||Other severe thunderstorms developed during the late evening hours of the 17th near a stationary front that stretched across northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. These storms produced damaging wind across portions of southeastern Oklahoma.

This tornado developed east of Highway 169, southwest of Oologah. It moved just south of Oologah Lake, and dissipated southwest of Foyil. The tornado uprooted and snapped numerous trees, damaged a number of homes and outbuildings, and blew down numerous power poles. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 mph. A tornadic debris signature was detected by KINX WSR-88D associated with this tornado.

This tornado developed near an inlet of Oologah Lake, and moved east toward Chelsea. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped, and power poles were blown down. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:40 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:21 UTC and running to 07:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:23 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.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:53 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

8 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.