Tornadoes in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area Since 1890

Note: This paper was originally written in 1994 as NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS SR-160. This version was last updated in September 2004 to include a tornado which occurred in the Deer Creek, OK area on May 29, 2004.

1. Introduction

Oklahoma City (OKC), by virtue of its large areal extent and location near the heart of "tornado alley," has earned a reputation over the years as one of the more tornado-prone cities in the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s, news and magazine articles sometimes quoted the number of times OKC has been struck by tornadoes; that number typically was in the 30s or lower 40s, depending on the year of publication. The source of the number most likely was a local listing, kept on station at the National Weather Service Forecast Office (WSFO OKC). That list included 43 tornadoes as of 1978. Sometime later, record keeping ceased for some reason and the existing list was relegated to a binder that was lost among the growing masses of other records that accumulated at the office.

In 1991, a project was initiated to revise the list by adding recent tornadoes (since 1978), validating existing entries, and searching for any others that might have been overlooked. This turned out to be a formidable task, for several reasons. One was the lack of reliable sources for events that occurred before 1950. The only readily- available data source prior to 1950, other than the local records on station at WSFO OKC, was Grazulis (1990). The compilation by Grazulis includes all tornadoes of F2 intensity or greater, and all killer tornadoes, from 1880 through 1989. Thus there are no records on weak tornadoes prior to 1950 (unless they happened to make it into the WSFO listing), and so the true number of tornadoes probably is much higher than the total arrived at herein. After 1950, records were cross-checked using Storm Data and the severe weather database compiled at the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).

A second obstacle arose in determining exactly where the OKC city limits are - or were. OKC covers a large area today, but the city limits have changed over the years such that some areas that are now part of OKC were not always within the city limits. Peripheral townships have emerged as well over the years, some of which are now wholly surrounded by OKC city land. In order to establish a consistent area, it was decided to include the present OKC limits and all other surrounding cities and towns that are contained largely or wholly within those limits. The resulting area (Figure 1, hereafter called the "immediate OKC area") includes roughly 600 square miles. All recorded tornado events occurring wholly or partly within this area are included in the list. In addition to OKC, the following jurisdictions are included: Bethany, Choctaw, Crutcho, Del City, Forest Park, Jones, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Nichols Hills, Nicoma Park, Valley Brook, the Village, Warr Acres, Witcher, and Yukon (Figure 1). The cities of Edmond, El Reno, and Norman are not included, which means that tornadoes striking within their city limits are not listed unless they also affected the immediate OKC area.

Each of the 113 tornado listings contains the date and time of initial touchdown (note that all times are CST), maximum F-scale rating (see Appendix for a description of the F Scale), number of people killed and injured (from the entire event), a dollar estimate of damage (not adjusted for inflation), the data source used, and a narrative describing what is known about the event. Estimated values are in parentheses. Maximum tornado path width and length, if known, are given in brackets at the end of each narrative.

Many of the events were found in more than one data source. In general the multiple sources were in good agreement. However, there were occasional differences, especially with F-scale ratings. The extensive research conducted by Grazulis (1990) suggests his ratings to be the most reliable, and they have been used when the ratings differed among the available sources. Since Grazulis lists only events of F2 intensity or greater, any event not found in his listing has been given a rating of either F0 or F1. Events listed as F2 in the SPC database, but not appearing in Grazulis 1990, are listed here as F1. Notes are included in the narrative of an event if differences were found in the F-scale ratings among the available sources. Weak events (F0 and F1) before 1950 had no assigned F scale in any of the available sources, and thus have been assigned an estimated rating based on the available data.

2. Statistics

May is the peak month for all tornadoes, followed closely by April and June (Figure 2). Nearly two thirds of all tornadoes in OKC have struck during those three months. Strong and violent tornadoes tend to occur slightly earlier, with April the peak month. (Note that 15 of the 18 April tornadoes were F2 or greater, and that 5 of the 9 F4/F5 tornadoes on record occurred in April.) Frequencies level off during the summer and autumn before dwindling during the winter. (December and January are the only two months in which the immediate OKC area has not been struck.)

Tornadoes striking OKC have formed most frequently between mid-afternoon and early evening (2 to 7 PM CST, or 3 to 8 PM CDT; see Figure 3). The period of peak activity also appears in the distribution of strong (F2/F3) and violent (F4/F5) tornadoes, although the peak of F2 or greater tornadoes appears to occur slightly later in the day (around 6 PM CST/7 PM CDT, vs. a broad peak centered around 4 PM CST/5 PM CDT for all events). Other notable findings include a general lack of early morning events (only one between 5 and 7 AM CST), a prevalence of weak events during the late morning and midday hours (with one notable exception), and a rapid increase in frequency during the early afternoon (1 to 2 PM CST, or 2 to 3 PM CDT).

Note: The time distribution in Figure 3 is based on tornado start time, which may be up to an hour or so earlier than the actual "strike time" in OKC in the case of long-track, long-lived tornadoes. For example, the F5 tornado of 3 May 1999 began around 626 PM CDT (526 PM CST), but entered the OKC city limits around 712 PM CDT, and lifted in Midwest City around 748 PM CDT. Since such events constitute only a small fraction of the total, the difference is not considered to be significant.

Tornado distribution by decade (Figure 4) is largely a reflection of the data sources used. The relatively small number of tornadoes through the 1930s is dominated by strong and violent events (F2 or greater), while the increase in frequency in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s is due mainly to a larger number of weak (F0 and F1) events. The frequency of weak events almost certainly has been more constant than the data indicate, but most of the weak events before 1950 probably were not documented.

The decrease in frequency from the 1960s/70s through the 1980s/90s may be due to changes in quality control of severe weather reports. (Note: Ten of the 13 tornadoes of the 1990s occurred on only 3 dates: 13 June 1998, 4 October 1998, and 3 May 1999.) More attention was placed on downbursts (Fujita 1985), resulting in closer inspection of wind damage and an increasing number of events being classified as straight-line (downburst) winds instead of tornadoes. If this is the case, then some of the reported tornadoes in earlier years may actually have been downbursts, and the decrease in frequency in the 1980s may actually reflect an adjustment toward more representative numbers (i.e. the totals from the 1960s and 70s may be too high).

Figure 5 shows the approximate locations and tracks of the tornadoes listed. Exact tracks are difficult to plot in many cases, especially the early ones, since the available data do not provide enough detail. (Also, many of the referenced landmarks no longer exist). Tracks of tornadoes prior to about 1970 are drawn subjectively from the information available, and may be accurate only within a few miles. This level of accuracy is still enough to reveal a slightly higher concentration of events on the south side of OKC. This trend is especially evident in F2/F3 tornadoes (shown in blue). Although several tornado "corridors" are suggested, it is likely that these distributions are no more than statistical fluctuations. Therefore, past tornado frequencies in a given location do not imply similar frequencies in the future.

Most of the tornadoes moved northeast, while a few moved east or east- southeast. Only one long-track event showed no eastward component of motion; it traveled north to north-northwest through the center of Oklahoma County and the eastern parts of OKC. Speeds, based on available reports, generally ranged from 15 to 40 mph. However, several events (especially weaker ones) displayed slow and erratic movement, and a few were nearly stationary during their short durations.

Some other interesting facts about OKC tornadoes:

• The F5 tornado that struck OKC on May 3,1999 was the deadliest (36 killed), costliest ($1 billion in damage), and most violent (first and only F5) tornado on record in the immediate OKC area.
  
  
• The second deadliest tornado occurred on June 12, 1942 (35 killed).
  
  
• The second costliest tornado occurred on March 20, 1948, with damage over $10 million mostly to aircraft at Tinker Air Force Base. The May 3, 1999 tornado thus produced roughly 100 times more damage than any other tornado on record in OKC. (This ratio actually is considerably lower if inflation is taken into account. But even with inflation, the May 3, 1999 tornado was the most costly by well over an order of magnitude.)
  
  
• Nine violent tornadoes (eight F4 and one F5) have struck the immediate OKC area. The most recent was on May 8, 2003.
  
  
• The record for tornadoes in a single day is 5, on June 8, 1974.
  
  
• The OKC area has been struck 17 times by two or more tornadoes on the same day:
  • May 12 1896 (2),
  • March 20 1948 (2),
  • April 30 1949 (2),
  • April 30 1951 (2),
  • April 29 1960 (2),
  • May 21 1961 (2),
  • August 31 1965 (3),
  • September 19 1965 (2),
  • June 10 1967 (2),
  • April 30 1970 (2),
  • June 8 1974 (5),
  • March 28 1988 (2),
  • June 13 1998 (4),
  • May 3 1999 (4),
  • October 22, 2000 (2),
  • May 8, 2003 (2), and
  • May 9, 2003 (3).

  Note that all but two events were between March and June, and that four were on April 29-30.

• The F5 tornado on May 3,1999 and the F4 tornado on May 8, 2003 closely paralleled the track of another violent (F4) tornado on April 25, 1893. That tornado moved NE from NW of Newcastle through Moore, was reportedly over a mile and a quarter wide at one point, and was one of at least five strong/violent tornadoes to strike central Oklahoma that day. It was the third deadliest tornado on the OKC list (31 killed).
  
  
• Of the four November tornadoes on record, three struck on the 19th; the fourth struck on the 20th.
  
  
• Since 1950, the longest period without a tornado in the immediate OKC area is 5 years, 8 months (October 8 1992 through June 12 1998. The area was then struck by 11 tornadoes in the following 11 months (June 13, 1998 to May 3, 1999).
  
  
• Since 1950, there have been only four periods of more than 2 years without a tornado in the immediate OKC area. One is given above; the other three are 5 years (June 1981 to May 1986), and 3 years, 5 months (April 1951 to September 1954), and 2 years, 6 months (October 2000 to April 2003).