EF1 tornado, Little, Oklahoma, April 3, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 3, 2026

Touchdown

10:06 PM CDT (03:06 UTC)

Lifted

10:12 PM CDT (03:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Seminole County

Touchdown point

35.358, -96.760

Lift-off point

35.392, -96.704

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS OUN

The office's name for it

NW of Little

Survey last edited

June 5, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

This tornado began near the NS 3510 County Road and EW 1140 County Road intersection. The tornado produced tree and power line damage as it moved north and east. EF1 tree damage was noted along EW 1130 Road, just south of Interstate 40, where large tree limbs were broken off. The tornado then crossed Interstate 40 just east of the Seminole Rest Area, before dissipating near E 1120 County Road and S 354 County Road. The event time is estimated from radar.

Written by NWS OUN in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

16 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.

• Uprooted tree. Barn in background not damaged much.
• Multiple metal fence panels damaged or destroyed on the west and south sides of this facility. Several plastic greenhouses damaged
• Light debris from this location blown to the ENE
• Single pole. Apparently broken but already replaced

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

A high-amplitude (closed) upper storm system moved eastward across the Rockies on the 3rd and fostered a severe convective episode across portions of Oklahoma and western-north Texas. Initial thunderstorm development during the afternoon focused along a cold front from southwest into north-central Oklahoma, with a mix of multicell and supercell storm modes producing hail. Later in the evening, an intense complex of thunderstorms moved from west-central into east-central Oklahoma, including across the Oklahoma City Metropolitan area. This cluster produced swaths of damaging winds and several tornadoes. By the late evening, increasing frontal thunderstorms moved towards the Red River, producing intermittent wind gusts/damage and flooding.

This tornado began near the NS 3510 County Road and EW 1140 County Road intersection. The tornado produced tree and power line damage as it moved northeast. EF1 tree damage was noted along EW 1130 Road, just south of Interstate 40, where large tree limbs were broken off. The tornado then crossed Interstate 40 just east of the Seminole Rest Area and damage trees and fences near E1120 Road and S354 Road before dissipating.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:30 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:43 UTC and running to 07:50 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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 Norman radar (KTLX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:06 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 2026 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

5 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.