EF2 tornado, Purcell, Oklahoma, January 8, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2, preliminary

Date

January 8, 2026

Touchdown

7:24 AM CST (13:24 UTC)

Lifted

7:34 AM CST (13:34 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

9.4 miles (15.1 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

McClain and Cleveland counties

Touchdown point

34.967, -97.443

Lift-off point

35.047, -97.311

Highest wind the damage implies

115 mph

Surveyed by

NWS OUN

The office's name for it

Purcell

Survey last edited

March 20, 2026

Record number

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

This tornado developed near 180th Street and Ladd Road southwest

of Purcell and moved northeast. One home about 3 miles southwest

of Purcell had the roof removed. The tornado moved through

Purcell causing roof damage to a few homes and damaging utility

poles and trees. Moving out of the northeast side of Purcell, the

tornado crossed the Canadian River into Cleveland County. One

outbuilding was significantly damaged north of Lexington.

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

65 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• https://x.com/PappenheimWx/status/2009290013008142473 Time approximate from radar
• Several trees snapped and uprooted
• Some limb damage and bush damage.
• Limb snaps and debris along fence line from across street.

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

A fast-moving quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) swept across portions of central, southern and eastern Oklahoma on the morning of the 8th. This convective system was tied to the passage of a compact upper wave across the region, resulting in very strong wind fields within a weakly unstable boundary layer. In addition to sporadic pockets of thunderstorm wind damage, and generally sub-severe hail, a few tornadoes occurred in a corridor from near Purcell, OK to Shawnee, OK.

This tornado developed near 180th Street and Ladd Road southwest of Purcell and moved northeast. One home about 3 miles southwest of Purcell had the roof removed. A semi on Interstate 35 just west of Purcell was pushed over injuring one person. The tornado then moved through Purcell causing roof damage to a few homes and damaging utility poles and trees. Moving out of the northeast side of Purcell, the tornado crossed the Canadian River into Cleveland County.

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.

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 12:35 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.

The Norman radar (KTLX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:22 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

4 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.