Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2025
EF1 tornado, Metory to Barber, Oklahoma, June 7, 2025
From Metory to Barber, this EF1 tornado ran 9.3 miles across Cherokee County on June 7, 2025, touching down at 5:13 AM CDT and reaching 2,000 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF1
- Date
- June 7, 2025
- Touchdown
- 5:13 AM CDT (10:13 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:22 AM CDT (10:22 UTC)
- On the ground
- 9 minutes
- Path length
- 9.3 miles (15.0 km)
- Path width
- 2,000 yards (1829 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Cherokee County
- Touchdown point
- 35.848, -95.023
- Lift-off point
- 35.816, -94.862
- Record number
- 2506070413-01
The damage survey
18 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 94 mph.
- video capture from Clint Monday
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Strong to severe thunderstorms developed during the evening of the 6th over southeast Colorado, southwest Kansas, and the western Oklahoma Panhandle. The storms moved southeast through the early morning hours of the 7th, evolving into a well-organized squall line by the time they moved into eastern Oklahoma. The line of strong to severe thunderstorms produced a couple tornadoes and damaging wind across eastern Oklahoma.
This tornado developed near Highway 10, west of the Cherokee Nation Child Development Center, and traveled east-southeast for approximately 9 miles before dissipating just east of where the Illinois River widens into Tenkiller Lake. The tornado produced minor damage to some homes, uprooted trees, and snapped large tree limbs. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 95 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 tornado watch, issued at 06:07 UTC and running to 12:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06:07 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | TSA |
| 07:16 UTC | 12:47 UTC | Flood Advisory | TSA |
| 10:03 UTC | 10:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA |
| 10:13 UTC | 10:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA |
| 10:17 UTC | 10:33 UTC | Tornado Warning | TSA |
| 10:39 UTC | 10:56 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA |
| 20:05 UTC | 10:05 UTC | Flood Warning | TSA |
| 22:46 UTC | 19:30 UTC | Flood Warning | TSA |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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 air that afternoon
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.
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z
10.2 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. June 7, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -88 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 639 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 924 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 23 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 99 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z
1.8 hours after it, 157 km from the path. June 7, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -42 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 215 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 851 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 61 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 36 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Tahlequah Municipal (TQH), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:15 UTC | 68 | 68 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 08:35 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 08:55 UTC | 68 | 68 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 09:15 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 09:35 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 09:55 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 10:15 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 330° 23 kt | 30 | ||
| 10:35 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 340° 8 kt | 14 | BR | |
| 10:55 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 20° 6 kt | BR | ||
| 11:15 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 330° 3 kt | BR | ||
| 11:35 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 0° 0 kt | |||
| 11:55 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 240° 3 kt |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Tulsa radar (KINX), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:09 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Stilwell | Adair, OK | Trees down and power outages. |
| 10:10 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 6 Ese Peggs | Cherokee, OK | |
| 10:17 UTC | TORNADO | 5 S Tahlequah | Cherokee, OK | TDS observed on INX radar at reported time. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 7, 2025
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 7 | 1:12 AM CDT | EF0 | Woods, OK | 0.5 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| June 7 | 1:36 AM CDT | EF1 | Alfalfa, OK | 0.5 | 30 | $20,000 | ||
| June 7 | 5:52 AM CDT | EF1 | Pittsburg, OK | 8.9 | 2,000 | $100,000 | ||
| June 7 | 5:59 AM CDT | EF1 | Washington, AR | 8.0 | 900 | $50,000 | ||
| June 7 | 11:58 AM CDT | EF1 | Chickasaw, MS | 3.9 | 75 | $200,000 | ||
| June 7 | 3:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Daviess, KY | 2.1 | 25 | $50,000 | ||
| June 7 | 4:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Spencer, IN | 0.6 | 25 | $500 | ||
| June 7 | 7:05 PM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson, MO | 4.9 | 300 | |||
| June 7 | 8:35 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Francois, MO | 1.3 | 65 | $25,000 | ||
| June 7 | 9:52 PM CDT | EF1 | Cape Girardeau, MO | 3.5 | 50 | $110,000 | ||
| June 7 | 10:23 PM CDT | EF1 | Cape Girardeau, MO | 1.6 | 125 | $90,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.