Unrated tornado, Isabella, Oklahoma, June 17, 2025

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

June 17, 2025

Touchdown

9:52 PM CDT (02:52 UTC)

Lifted

9:55 PM CDT (02:55 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Major County

Touchdown point

36.264, -98.386

Lift-off point

36.267, -98.353

Record number

2506172052-01

In addition to a morning complex of severe thunderstorms, a multi-modal severe weather outbreak impacted portions of northern and central Oklahoma during the evening of the 17th. Initial thunderstorm coverage during the morning across northern Oklahoma featured a few reports of thunderstorm wind damage/gusts. After quickly moving eastward, allowing for substantial airmass recovery across the area, additional severe thunderstorms developed ahead of an approaching synoptic wave by the early evening. Initial thunderstorms impacted the Oklahoma/Kansas border areas of Kay County, producing a few reports of large hail. All the while, an intense supercell thunderstorm was drifting from the northeastern Texas Panhandle into portions of western Oklahoma. This storm became tornadic as it crossed into Ellis and Roger Mills County, producing a significant (EF-2) tornado here. As this thunderstorm grew upscale, along with additional development to its north, an organized mesoscale convective system (MCS) took shape. Numerous reports of wind damage and three brief tornadoes occurred as this system swept eastward across the northern one-half of the forecast area.

Television storm chasers observed a small tornado northwest of Isabella. No damage was reported and the location is estimated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:44 UTC and running to 06:44 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 00:57 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.

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:48 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 2025 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.