EF1 tornado, Vanoss, Oklahoma, May 24, 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

May 24, 2025

Touchdown

4:10 AM CDT (09:10 UTC)

Lifted

4:15 AM CDT (09:15 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Pontotoc County

Touchdown point

34.758, -96.865

Lift-off point

34.738, -96.826

Record number

2505240310-01

1 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 110 mph.

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

The approximately 36-hour period, beginning during the initial hours of the 24th, featured three unique severe convective episodes across the WFO Norman Forecast Area. The initial round, triggered by moist isentropic ascent, featured scattered organized thunderstorms, including a few supercell thunderstorms. This activity produced primarily reports of large hail. However, localized storm-scale interactions across Cleveland, Pottawatomie, and Pontotoc Counties resulted in concentrated corridor of thunderstorm wind damage, as well as a tornado near Vanoss, OK, in Pontotoc County. During the same general time frame, a separate organized line of thunderstorms moved from far southern Kansas into north-central Oklahoma producing a few observed severe-caliber wind gusts. ||Following the morning activity, dry and pleasant conditions occurred for much of the day on the 24th. However, by near-sunset, a destabilizing boundary layer near and south of a warm front across western and southern Oklahoma fostered the development of a few briefly intense thunderstorms. Finally, a progressive and high-intensity wake low and heat burst event evolved from portions of western-north Texas into central Oklahoma during the late evening of the 24th into the 25th. This event, tied to decaying severe convection from across central Texas, featured strong and occasionally damaging wind gusts.

This tornado developed near the community of Vanoss and moved southeast. A home suffered significant roof damage along County Road 3450. Scattered damage was observed by emergency management personnel southeast to near the intersection of County Roads 3470 and 1570.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:57 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 07:32 UTC and running to 15:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:35 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.

Ada_municipal_airport (ADH), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:09 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.

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

1 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.