EF1 tornado, Pink to Aydelotte, 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 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

January 8, 2026

Touchdown

8:06 AM CST (14:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:09 AM CST (14:09 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pottawatomie County

Touchdown point

35.369, -96.940

Lift-off point

35.398, -96.913

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS OUN

The office's name for it

Shawnee Tornado

Survey last edited

January 12, 2026

Record number

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

This tornado developed just north of Shawnee Regional Airport and

moved northeast damaging a couple of homes southwest of 45th

Street and Kickapoo Street. The tornado then crossed Interstate 40

and damaged the roof of a hotel and damaging a business as it

approached Harrison Street.

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

9 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 95 mph.

• Siding damage via OEM public damage report site.
• unspecified damage via OEM public damage report site.
• (unsure if this is correct house) Farrar survey. Damage to metal house roof. Utility pole damage in the area as well.
• (unsure if this is correct house). EM photos in slack of shingle damage.

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 is a continuation of a tornado that developed in Cleveland County. After crossing Pottawatomie Road into Pottawatomie County, a number of large, dead trees were broken, a small outbuilding destroyed and a porch was damaged. Continuing northeast, an outbuilding was damaged along Fishmarket Road, and at least two homes received roof damage in the area between the Shawnee Twin Lakes. The tornado dissipated northeast of Homer Lane Road and Patterson Road between the lakes.

A tornado developed on the north side of Shawnee, just north of Shawnee Regional Airport. The tornado damaged one home moving through a neighborhood west of State Highway 3E, but damage was mostly to trees and fences. Crossing Interstate 40, a hotel received roof damage just east of Shawnee Mall, and a bread truck was blown over near a Wal Mart. Two businesses were damaged northeast of the hotel and just west of Harrison Avenue. At one business, a roof AC unit was damaged, garage doors were blown in, vehicle windows were broken, and trees and power lines were downed. The tornado dissipated near Harrison Avenue south of Garretts Lake Road.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:38 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:15 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 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.

Shawnee Municipal Airport (SNL), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:07 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.