EF1 tornado, Lone Grove to (Adm)Ardmore Apt, Oklahoma, March 4, 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 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

March 4, 2025

Touchdown

4:28 AM CST (10:28 UTC)

Lifted

4:29 AM CST (10:29 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

120 yards (110 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$500,000

County

Carter County

Touchdown point

34.232, -97.268

Lift-off point

34.239, -97.265

Record number

2503040428-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 78 mph.

• Barn damage (approx location). Barn damage and scattered metal. Debris scattered 1/4 mile or more down the highway. (per Ravia EM on Slack)
• Section of the metal roof of a mobile home removed, camper blown over and tree branches blown down. Shared images in Slack from Carter County EM.
• Pictures in slack from City of Ardmore EM.
• Windows frames removed from building.

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

An intense upper-level trough impacted the WFO Norman Forecast Area during the late evening of the 3rd through the 4th. Initial thunderstorm development occurred along an attendant cold front, moving west to east across the area early in the period. These initial thunderstorms produced reports of large hail and wind damage across western Oklahoma. A few hours later, during the predawn hours of the 4th, a maturing mesoscale convective system (MCS) swept across portions of south-central into southeastern Oklahoma, producing several tornadoes and widespread damaging winds. ||Finally, during daytime hours on the 4th, a strong pressure gradient and low-level jet axis promoted a widespread synoptic high wind episode across the forecast area. As a note, the first, last and highest magnitude wind gusts are those included in this episode for a particular zone (county).

A tornado developed east of Newport Road and Cardinal Road and moved north-northeast. At least three small homes were severely damaged. Three injuries were reported from one of these homes.

This tornado developed on the northern edge of the community of Gene Autry where a mobile home suffered roof damage and a camper was blown over. The tornado moved east-northeast crossing State Highway 53 and moving into the southern portion of Ardmore Municipal Airport. A barn was damaged along Highway 53, and windows were damaged in on outbuilding on the airport grounds.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:18 UTC and running to 11:37 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Ardmore Downtown Exec Airport (1F0), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:26 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

36 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.