EF4 Clarksville–Idabel tornado, Texas and Oklahoma, November 4, 2022

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

November 4, 2022

Touchdown

6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)

Lifted

7:21 PM CDT (00:21 UTC)

On the ground

66 minutes

Path length

60.2 miles (96.9 km)

Path width

1,056 yards (966 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

13

Property damage

$37 million

Counties

Red River and McCurtain counties

Touchdown point

33.505, -95.242

Lift-off point

34.126, -94.508

Record number

2211041715-01

153 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• Virtual regional Quick Response Team (QRT) determine this to be an EF-4 home being swept clean from its slab and debris of the home being broken apart into small pieces and swept for 50-200 yards. Walls had large heavy duty nails attaching them to the frame of the house. The frame was removed with some of the nails pulled from the foundation while a few of the nails remained in the foundation.
• Oklahoma mesonet measured 108 mph, likely RFD winds
• Left edge of tornado track from Oklahoma mesonet idabel station.
• Rating based on drone footage.

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

A strong upper level trough progressed through the Rockies and into the Central and Southern Plains during the day on November 4th, enhancing strong surface low development over the Upper Red River Valley into Oklahoma. This produced a strong pressure gradient over the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, allowing for very rich Gulf moisture to surge north across the Ark-La-Tex area into Eastern Oklahoma and much of Arkansas. This generated moderate instability across these areas during the afternoon, as temperatures rose into the lower to mid 80s. Very strong wind shear was also in place over these areas, with the upper trough reinforcing a cold front southeast into Southeast Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, and East Texas. This trough enhanced large scale forcing along the front, with discrete supercell development also occurring ahead of the main line of storms over portions of East Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas. Multiple tornadoes, some strong, touched down across these areas, with additional instances of damaging winds also reported before the line of storms overtook these discrete supercells and shifted east across the remainder of East Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and into North Louisiana during the evening and overnight hours.

A strong upper level trough progressed through the Rockies and into the Central and Southern Plains during the day on November 4th, enhancing strong surface low development over the Upper Red River Valley into Oklahoma. This produced a strong pressure gradient over the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, allowing for very rich Gulf moisture to surge north across the Ark-La-Tex area into Eastern Oklahoma and much of Arkansas. This generated moderate instability across these areas during the afternoon, as temperatures rose into the lower to mid 80s. Very strong wind shear was also in place over these areas, with the upper trough reinforcing a cold front southeast into Southeast Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, and East Texas. This trough enhanced large scale forcing along the front, with discrete supercell development also occurring ahead of the main line of storms over portions of East Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas. Multiple tornadoes, some strong, touched down across these areas, with additional instances of damaging winds also reported before the line of storms overtook these discrete supercells and shifted east across the remainder of East Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and into North Louisiana during the evening and overnight hours.

An EF-4 tornado initially touched down near the Fulbright community southwest of Clarksville. An aerial survey confirmed that the tornado damage was to tin metal roof panels that were peeled off of a plant on CR-1200. As the tornado continued northeast, near FM-411, a single family home had all of its walls removed with only the interior room left standing where a family of three sheltered where winds were estimated at 150 mph. After it crossed FM-411, it hit another single family home and collapsed all the walls, injuring a woman who left her vehicle to take shelter inside the home. The tornado continued on to CR-1275 where debarking of a few trees was first observed in addition to thousands of trees that were snapped and uprooted throughout the path of the tornado. It then crossed US-82, CR-2123, CR-2124, and FM-2283. At FM-2283, it destroyed a single family home along with several outbuildings. This area could not be surveyed at this location as debris removal had already begun. The tornado then continued to move along CR-2125 and CR-2030 before taking a more eastward jog across SH-37. At this point, it is estimated that it was about a third of a mile wide and it began to widen further as it demonstrated more widespread tree snaps and isolated debarking throughout the remainder of Red River County. After crossing SH-37, the tornado wiped a single family home off of its foundation north of Clarksville with large portions of the walls and roof carried several hundred yards northeast of the home. This damage was surrounded by widespread tree snaps with isolated debarking. This location was reviewed by a regional Quick Response Team (QRT) that determined the damage at this location was EF-4 with maximum winds of 170 mph. This was based on the construction of the home, the debris field spread 50-200 yards downstream from the home in small pieces, and the slab of the home being wiped clean. Ten people on the property of the home took shelter in an oil drain of a metal outbuilding that was completely destroyed with no injuries. The damage swath widened to approximately 0.6 miles northeast of Clarksville as it approached Acworth and continued to cross the Red River. Before it crossed the Red River, it collapsed all the walls on a single family home and completely destroyed Mount Olive Church. It then lifted a double-wide manufactured home off the ground near FM-1159 and threw it 50 yards with three dogs inside that all survived. The tornado then crossed the Red River into south-central McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

This is the continuation of the Red River County Texas EF-4 tornado. This tornado had weakened upon entering Southern McCurtain County Oklahoma, producing EF-2 damage in rural areas southwest of Idabel, ripping the roofs off of several single family homes. Shortly before entering Idabel, the outer edge of this tornado hit the Oklahoma Mesonet observing platform located about 5 miles to the southwest off of Ravens Nest Road. An anemometer located 10 meters above the platform measured a wind gust of 108 mph, with a nearby single family home sustaining roof damage where EF-2 winds estimated near 125 mph removed a large section of the roof structure with a wall collapsing on another single family home off of Osprey Road. The tornado continued on to snap several hundred trees before hitting a single family home off of Boss Road which had a wall collapse and partial roof damage that could not be rated due to trees falling into the home. More EF-2 damage was observed as the tornado approached Highway 259 when the tornado removed the roof and much of the second story off of a single family home. The two people in the home took shelter on the first floor under the stairs, preventing injury as winds estimated at 125 mph damaged the home. As the tornado moved northeast across Stone Haven Road, a Davis weather station recorded a gust of approximately 130 mph. ||Upon entering Idabel, the tornado damaged additional roofs of homes in several neighborhoods on the southeast side of town. One of the most hard hit subdivisions was Country Club Estates. None of the homes in the Country Club Estates were rated due to tree damage which resulted in much of the structural damage from trees falling into homes. Nearby at the Idabel Country Club, nearly every tree sustained damage on approximately six holes, with mostly snaps observed. There was also some debarking of trees in this area, where an EF-3 swath of damage had begun. Behind the golf course, a single family home was destroyed with most of its walls collapsed except for a small interior room. ||The tornado continued to move northeast, hitting the Kiamichi Family Medical Center where EF-2 damage (near 115 mph) was estimated due to the facade components that were torn from the structure. As the tornado approached Highway 259 and East Washington Street, it damaged the sign of a McDonald's and a swath of EF-3 winds completely destroyed the Donut Crossing and Express Tire stores. A sign from the Donut Crossing store was lofted by the tornado and carried 14.3 miles where it was found on the west side of Eagletown. After crossing East Washington Street, the tornado completely destroyed the Trinity Baptist Church. Winds at this location were estimated to be near 155 mph with the total destruction of the metal building system which was surrounded by a brick wall that collapsed with concrete anchors pulled up from the ground. The tornado moved on to produce narrow EF-2 damage in the more broader EF-1 damage swath with small vorticies likely extending down to the ground from the elevated large funnel cloud at this point. ||After moving northeast of Idabel, the tornado crossed mainly rural areas and completely destroyed chicken houses while snapping hardwood and softwood trees for approximately the next ten miles. An areal survey indicates that the tornado briefly lifted near the Little River and then touched down again in a forested area before damaging a metal structure atop a chicken plant off of Craig Road. A survey team from the National Weather Service Little Rock office found EF-2 damage with 135 mph winds between Eagletown and Broken Bow just south of Highway 70, where numerous trees and several wooden utility poles were snapped near the base near the Tyson Craig Feed Mill, a large elevator structure on top of a silo collapsed with a portion of a metal roof and walls ripped off of an adjacent metal building, and a doublewide manufactured home at the eastern end of Box Turtle Road was thrown off of its concrete pad, nearly pulling out an underground shelter, rolling over it, and landing about 30 feet to the north. Over half of the house was stripped of the undercarriage. Only about one-third of the walls/roof were left with the remainder of the structure removed and scattered well to the north. ||As the tornado crossed Highway 70 just west of Eagletown, many additional pines and hardwoods were snapped and uprooted. Nearly all utility poles within the path were also snapped or pushed over. The tornado then moved into a heavily forested area north of Eagletown with more specific damage noted from Old Winship Road to Pero Creek through the use of high-resolution satellite imagery before the tornado finally lifted a few miles before reaching the border with Northwestern Sevier County in Southwest Arkansas. ||Remarkedly, only 6 injuries and no fatalities were reported from this long track tornado throughout Southern and Eastern McCurtain County Oklahoma. In total, 220 homes were estimated to had been affected by this tornado, with 10-20 businesses damaged or destroyed. Of the total homes affected, 65 of them were destroyed.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:53 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:37 UTC and running to 01:59 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 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.

Idabel (4O4), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 171 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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 2022 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.