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Tornadoes in Oklahoma
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Several destructive tornadoes have hit the state of Oklahoma since 1882, the year with the first recorded tornado within state boundaries. Oklahoma, located in Tornado Alley, experiences around 68 tornadoes annually, with each EF3+ tornado killing an average of 2.9 people. 497 tornadoes have been classified as "intense" in Oklahoma, being rated F3+ on the Fujita Scale[note 1] or EF3+ on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Oklahoma has seen thirteen F5 or EF5 tornadoes since 1905, the most recent hitting Moore in May 2013. The deadliest sliced through the Oklahoma panhandle in April 1947, hitting Woodward and killing at least 182 people.
Oklahoma was struck by several significant tornadoes prior to 1950, including an F5 tornado that hit Snyder and a large tornado that passed over Woodward and surrounding communities. The first tornado warning ever issued in the United States was sent out for the Tinker Air Force Base area on March 25, 1948, shortly before an F3 tornado hit the base. The 1950s were particularly devastating for Oklahoma, with 546 tornadoes killing a total of 154 people.[6] A large F5-rated tornado hit Blackwell in the early hours of May 26, 1955, and an F4 tornado killed seven people west of Stonewall in May 1959. Tornadoes in the 1960s were less damaging, with a total of 581 tornadoes touching down within state boundaries, killing 57 people. An F5 tornado moved through Prague and Sapulpa in May 1960, killing five people along a 71.8 mi (115.6 km) track. An F3 tornado hit downtown Oklahoma City five days earlier, inflicting $2.5 million (1960 USD)[7] in damages to the city and injuring 57 people.[6]
The 1970s, like the 1950s, was a particularly deadly decade for tornadoes in Oklahoma, with 433 tornadoes killing a combined total of 110 people.[6] The deadliest, rated F4, hit Wichita Falls, Texas before moving into Jefferson County on April 10, 1979. 42 people were killed by the tornado and a further 1,740 were injured. The majority of casualties took place along the tornado's track through Texas. Only 25 people were killed by tornadoes through the 1980s, eight of which were the result of an F3 tornado that moved through Morris on April 26, 1984. The strongest tornado was an F5 that moved through rural Choctaw and McCurtain counties, injuring 29.[6]
The 1990s were a significant decade for severe weather in Oklahoma, with over 55 people being killed by a total of 688 tornadoes.[6] The deadliest and most powerful devastated Bridge Creek, Moore and surrounding suburbs of Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999, where 41 people were killed. The tornado, which received an F5 rating, had the highest measured windspeeds ever recorded on Earth, at 321 miles per hour (517 km/h). The tornado inflicted a total of $1 billion (1999 USD)[8] in damage to the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, making it the second-costliest in Oklahoma history.[9] A large F4 tornado killed two people in Cimarron City and Mulhall on the same day; it was the largest tornado ever measured quantitatively.[10]
The 2000s were less significant, with 483 tornadoes killing a total of 32 people.[6] A large F4 tornado moved through southwestern Oklahoma City in May 2003, injuring 134 people. The first violent tornado to be rated on the Enhanced Fujita scale in Oklahoma hit the town of Picher on May 10, 2008, killing 21 people and inflicting an estimated $15,000,000 (2008 USD)[11] in damages to structures and farms along a 75.5 mi (121.5 km) spanning from Craig County in Oklahoma to Barry County in Missouri. The 2010s would mark a broad increase in the number of tornadoes that touched down annually, jumping from 103 in 2010 to 149 in 2019; the latter was the second-worst year for tornadoes in Oklahoma history, only behind 2024, which saw 152 tornadoes. The deadliest tornado of the decade would again hit Moore on May 20, 2013, killing 24 people and receiving a rating of EF5, making it the most recent tornado worldwide to top the Enhanced Fujita Scale as of July 2025. The tornado was the costliest in Oklahoma history and the third costliest in US history, leaving an estimated $2 billion (2013 USD) worth of damages in its wake.[12]
Tornadoes in Oklahoma have broken numerous national and worldwide records. Both the widest and most powerful tornadoes ever recorded occurred in Oklahoma. Two of the top ten costliest tornadoes in history have happened in Oklahoma and the state also has the most violent tornadoes out of any other state.[13] Tornadoes in Oklahoma have also been extensively featured in media; both 1996's Twister and 2024's Twisters take place primarily in Oklahoma.[14][15] Into the Storm and 13 Minutes, released in 2014 and 2021 respectively, are both set in fictional Oklahoman towns that were hit by tornadoes.[16]
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Climatology
Oklahoma is located in Tornado Alley, an expanse of land stretching from South Dakota to Texas. Tornadoes are more frequent in Tornado Alley than anywhere else in the world, and Oklahoma sees the second-highest number of tornadoes out of any state.[17] In the alley, warm and humid air from the equator meets cold, dry air from Canada and produced by the Rocky Mountains. This creates an ideal environment for tornadoes to form within supercellular thunderstorms.[18]
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Deadliest tornadoes
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Pre–1925
107 intense tornadoes hit Oklahoma prior to the year 1925. The majority of these tornadoes were deadly, with each tornado killing an average of 3.6 people. Tornadoes in this time-frame hit several populated places including Moore,[27] Stillwater and Sulphur.[28][29] The strongest tornado touched down on May 10, 1905, striking the community of Snyder and killing 97 people.[30] The tornado was the first to receive a rating of F5 on the Fujita Scale in Oklahoma's history.[30]
† Deadliest in Oklahoma history at time of event
‡ Tornado crossed state lines in or out of Oklahoma
May 10, 1905
This deadly F5 tornado was caused by a strong low pressure system that developed across the Rocky Mountains, near Denver, Colorado. Another storm was also located across Wyoming on May 9. Tornadoes formed on that day across several Plains states including Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The Colorado storm system then moved toward the Central and Southern Plains on the next day and affected areas slightly to the east of the area affected on May 9. A new trough of low pressure developed in the vicinity of the southern storm. It later moved across the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles.[33]
The tornado touched down just after 8:00 PM CST near the Kiowa/Greer County line and merged with the remnants of the first cyclone. It also proceeded northeast across the Red River Valley and Otter Creek region. At around 8:45 PM CST (after dark), it struck the town of Snyder, killing 97 people. Structures in the western and northern part of the town were completely demolished, with some homes being swept away. One hundred homes were leveled and 150 were badly damaged.[33] The tornado lifted northeast of Snyder shortly after 9:00 PM CST. Another tornado from a different supercell, which previously killed two in Elk City in Beckham County, killed three more in Quinlan, Oklahoma, which is about two hours northeast of Snyder.[33]
1925–1949
1925 through 1949 was a particularly devastating period in Oklahoma's tornado history, with 309 confirmed tornadoes killing over 600 people. The deadliest, a long-track F5 tornado, killed 181 people through Northwestern Oklahoma, where it directly impacted Woodward. 117 intense tornadoes hit Oklahoma in this time-frame, hitting several cities, including Moore, Norman, Leedey, Antlers and Pryor Creek. Caney would be hit by two F4 tornadoes in 1926 and 1948, respectively.[34] The first tornado warning in United States history was issued for Tinker Air Force Base on March 25, 1948, shortly before an F3 tornado hit the base.[35]
† Deadliest in Oklahoma history at time of event
‡ Tornado crossed state lines in or out of Oklahoma
April 9, 1947
Moving at an average forward speed of 42 to 50 mph (68 to 80 km/h), this large and violent tornado was first confirmed near Canadian, Texas. When it struck the town of Glazier, it may have been as much as two miles (3.2 km) in width. Most structures in town were swept completely away and scattered. Vehicles in the area were thrown hundreds of yards and mangled, shrubbery was debarked, and ground scouring occurred. Glazier was considered completely destroyed, with 17 dead, a major percentage of the populace. Press reports told of two people who were known to be together in Glazier before the tornado struck were found three miles (4.8 km) apart afterward. The tornado maintained its intensity as it slammed into Higgins, on the Texas–Oklahoma border, which was also devastated. The accepted death toll here was 51; again, a large portion of the residents of the town were killed or injured. Much of downtown Higgins was completely demolished, and entire rows of homes were swept away. At one residence, a 41⁄2-tonne (4,500 kg) lathe was reportedly ripped from its anchors and broken in half.[36]
After killing at least one other person, the tornado crossed the state line and entered Oklahoma. There the tornado was at its worst—the deadliest storm in that state's tornado-troubled history. Six more people were killed when the tornado swept away about 60 ranches and farms south of Shattuck, Gage, and Fargo. During its trek, the funnel was so wide and low to the ground that it did not resemble a prototypical tornado. The tornado then moved into Woodward, where it devastated the town and killed an estimated 107 people. The damage that occurred in Woodward was catastrophic. There, the tornado was 1.8 mi (2.9 km) wide and destroyed 100 city blocks. Many homes and businesses were leveled or swept away, and as the tornado struck the town's power plant, a 20-tonne (20,000 kg) steel boiler tank was lofted and thrown a block and a half. Large trees sustained severe debarking as well. The tornado finally dissipated in Woods County, west of Alva, where it wrecked 36 homes and injured 30 people.[36]
Cleanup in the region was made more difficult because of cold and snow that followed the tornado. Four-year-old Joan Gay Croft and her sister Jerri were among refugees taking shelter in a basement hallway of the Woodward hospital. As officials sent the injured to different hospitals in the area, two men took Joan away, saying they were taking her to Oklahoma City. She was never seen again. Over the years, several women have come forth saying they suspect they might be Joan, although none of the claims have been verified. She is likely deceased. The Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornado was the sixth deadliest in U.S. history, killing 184 and injuring 980; of these figures, 116 deaths and 782 injuries occurred in Oklahoma. An undetermined number of additional fatalities may have occurred in both states affected. In all, the tornado destroyed 626 homes and damaged 920 others, becoming the costliest on record in Oklahoma history.[36]
March 20, 1948
Two tornadoes which struck Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City on March 20 and 25, 1948. Both are estimated to have been equivalent to F3 in intensity on the modern Fujita scale of tornado intensity, which was not devised until 1971. The March 20 tornado was the costliest tornado in Oklahoma history at the time.[37] On March 25, meteorologists at the base noticed the extreme similarity between the weather conditions of that day and March 20, and later in the day issued a "tornado forecast", which was verified when a tornado struck the base that evening. This was the first official tornado forecast, as well as the first successful tornado forecast, in recorded history.[37]
Weather forecasting was still crude and prone to large errors in the era before weather satellites and computer modeling. Thunderstorms were not even in the forecast for the evening of March 20. However, around 9:30 pm storms were reported about 20 miles (32 km) to the southwest, and at 9:52 a tornado was sighted near Will Rogers Airport 7 miles (11 km) away, along with a 92-mile-per-hour (148 km/h) wind gust, moving northeast towards the base.[38]
At 10:00, the tornado reached the southwest corner of the base. Illuminated by nearly constant lightning, the tornado was highly visible as it bisected the base, tossing around planes which were parked in the open. The control tower reported a 78-mile-per-hour (126 km/h) wind gust before the windows shattered, injuring several personnel with flying glass. The tornado dissipated at the northeast corner of the base.[38] The tornado missed most structures on the base, but the damage to expensive military aircraft was substantial. The total damage cost came to around $10 million, or $131 million in 2024 United States dollars. This was the most damaging tornado in Oklahoma up to that date.[35]
1950–1974
1950 through 1974 saw 128 intense tornadoes in Oklahoma, resulting in the deaths of 240 people. The deadliest touched down in Kay County before crossing state lines into Kansas, striking the town of Udall, Kansas and killing eighty. The tornado was one of two to receive an F5 rating on May 25, 1955; the other killed twenty people in Blackwell. The Oklahoma City metropolitan area was hit particularly hard, with intense tornadoes moving through the area in 1951, 1960, 1973 and 1974. The largest tornado outbreak took place on June 8, 1974, with 22 tornadoes killing a combined total of 22 people. Two F3-rated tornadoes moved through metropolitan Tulsa on June 8, crossing paths over Jenks.
‡ Tornado crossed state lines in or out of Oklahoma
May 25, 1955
The tornado formed in extreme northern Noble County at around 9:00 p.m. CDT, just west of Marland, before crossing the county line, passing east of Tonkawa, and through the eastern portions of the Kay County town of Blackwell as an F5 tornado up to 400 yards (370 m) wide. It claimed the lives of 20 people in Blackwell and injured over 200 before crossing into and dissipating over Sumner County, Kansas. Along with destroying nearly 200 homes,[39] the tornado also demolished the town's main employers including the Acme Foundry and the Hazel Atlas Glass plant. 400 homes were destroyed or swept away, and 500 other homes were damaged.[39] 60 businesses were also destroyed and the local hospital also sustained major damage. Most of the western half of the town was spared the worst of the damage.[39] Multiple eyewitnesses reported seeing a prominent blue light in the funnel.[40]
About 30 minutes after producing the Blackwell tornado, the same supercell produced another large and violent and long-tracked tornado just east of the first tornado track near the Kansas/Oklahoma border. It proceeded northward across Sumner and Cowley Counties. The town of Udall, Kansas was especially hard hit with F5 damage that included the disintegration of numerous structures and homes all across the town. Even the town's water tower was toppled. The funnel, about 1,300 yards (1,200 m) wide, hit Udall at around 10:30 p.m. CDT. Half of the town's population was killed or injured. Numerous homes and businesses were destroyed, many of which were swept away, including a 30-by-40 foot concrete block building that was obliterated, with the foundation left mostly bare of any debris. Vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards and mangled beyond recognition, including a pickup truck that was wrapped around a tree and stripped of everything but its frame and tires.[41] The Udall public school building sustained major damage, with beams snapped and blown away.[42][43][44]
Almost immediately, volunteers and rescue workers descended into the darkness to aid the survivors. Ambulances and automobiles of all kinds rushed the growing numbers of injured to hospitals in three neighboring towns. The closest hospitals were William Newton and St Mary's Hospitals, 17 miles southeast in Winfield, the former of which took in 129 patients that night. Several were taken to St Luke's Hospital in Wellington, 23 miles to the southwest, while the remainder were taken to three hospitals in Wichita to the northwest.[45] This tornado was the deadliest in Kansas history with 80 fatalities and 273 injuries.[46]
1975–1999
1975 through 1999 saw 293 tornadoes, which collectively resulted in the deaths of over 150 people. The deadliest in Oklahoma moved through Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore and Del City on May 3, 1999; the tornado, which received an F5 rating, had the highest measured windspeeds ever recorded on Earth, at 321 miles per hour (517 km/h). The tornado inflicted an estimated total of $1 billion (1999 USD)[8] in damage to the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, making it the second-costliest in Oklahoma history.[9] Another F4 tornado that had killed 42 people in Wichita Falls, Texas moved into Jefferson County, but caused no deaths along the Oklahoma portion of its path.[47] Three F5 tornadoes hit Oklahoma during this time period, striking in 1976, 1982 and 1999. One of these tornadoes moved south of Spiro, killing two people. Another, which crossed Choctaw and McCurtain counties, injured 29 people near Broken Bow.
‡ Tornado crossed state lines in or out of Oklahoma
May 3, 1999
Through the afternoon to evening hours of May 3, 1999, the largest tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history would take place across the central portions of the state. Seventy confirmed tornadoes touched down within state boundaries, killing a total of 40 people. The deadliest and most powerful struck Moore; the tornado retained the highest windspeeds ever recorded on Earth. other powerful tornadoes include an F4 that killed one person in Kingfisher County and a large F4 tornado impacted Mulhall, killing two people.
On the evening of May 3, a large, long-lived and exceptionally powerful F5 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma in which the highest wind speed ever measured globally was recorded at 321 miles per hour (517 km/h) by a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar. Considered the strongest tornado ever recorded to have affected the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, the tornado devastated southern portions of Oklahoma City while near peak intensity, along with surrounding suburbs and towns to the south and southwest of the city during the early evening of Monday, May 3, 1999. Parts of Bridge Creek were rendered unrecognizable. The tornado covered 38 miles (61 km) during its 85-minute existence, destroying thousands of homes, killing 36 people (plus an additional five indirectly), and leaving US$1 billion (1999 USD) in damage,[49] ranking it as the fifth-costliest on record not accounting for inflation.[50] Its severity prompted the first-ever use of the tornado emergency statement by the National Weather Service.
The tornado first touched down at 6:23 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) in Grady County, roughly two miles (3.2 km) south-southwest of the town of Amber. It quickly intensified into a violent F4, and gradually reached F5 status after traveling 6.5 miles (10.5 km), at which time it struck the town of Bridge Creek. It fluctuated in strength, ranging from F2 to F5 status before it crossed into Cleveland County where it reached F5 intensity for a third time shortly before entering the city of Moore. By 7:30 p.m., the tornado crossed into Oklahoma County and battered southeastern Oklahoma City, Del City, and Midwest City before dissipating around 7:48 p.m. just outside Midwest City. A total of 8,132 homes, 1,041 apartments, 260 businesses, eleven public buildings, and seven churches were damaged or destroyed.[49]
2000–2006
The years 2000 through 2006 only saw nine intense tornadoes, none of which were fatal. These tornadoes caused a combined total of 154 injuries, the majority of which were sustained when an F4 tornado hit southwest Oklahoma City on May 8, 2003.[51] One fatality was recorded when an F2 tornado moved rural Coal and Atoka counties west of Coalgate on April 10, 2001.[52] The Fujita Scale, which had been used by the National Weather Service during tornado damage surveys to rate tornado damage, was discontinued in February 2007, being replaced by the Enhanced Fujita scale.[53]
2007–present
As of July 2025, a total of 1,220 tornadoes, 41 being intense, have killed over 99 people in Oklahoma since the implementation of the Enhanced Fujita Scale in 2007. The deadliest struck Moore on May 20, 2013, killing 24 people and injuring 212 others.[54] Two EF5 tornadoes have been recorded within state boundaries since 2007, both of which hit areas around Oklahoma City.[55][56] The widest tornado ever recorded, which reached a peak width of 4576 yd (4184 m) (2.6 miles), moved through rural farmland south of El Reno on May 31, 2013, killing eight people.[57]
‡ Tornado crossed state lines in or out of Oklahoma
May 20, 2013
In the afternoon hours of May 20, 2013, a large and violent EF5 tornado would again strike Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado had peak winds estimated at 210 miles per hour (340 km/h), killing 24 people (plus two indirect fatalities)[58] and injuring 212 others.[54] The tornado was part of a larger outbreak from a slow-moving weather system that had produced several other tornadoes across the Great Plains over the previous two days, including five that had struck portions of Central Oklahoma the day prior on May 19.[59]
The tornado touched down just northwest of Newcastle at 2:56 p.m. CDT (19:56 UTC), and quickly became violent, persisting for 39 minutes on a 13.85-mile (22.3 km) path through a heavily populated section of Moore, causing catastrophic damage of EF4 to EF5 intensity, before dissipating at 3:35 p.m. CDT (20:35 UTC) outside of Moore. The tornado was over one mile (1.6 km) across at its peak width.[60]: 13 The 2013 Moore tornado followed a roughly similar track to the deadlier 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, which was rated F5; neither of the stricken schools in the area had acquired purpose-built storm shelters in the intervening years.[59]
The tornado caused catastrophic damage around the city of Moore, with 1,150 homes destroyed as a result. Damage estimates ranged up to $2 billion, making it the costliest tornado since the 2011 Joplin tornado. As of 2025, this tornado is the most recent to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.[55]
May 31, 2013
This rain-wrapped and extremely large multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded and was part of a larger weather system that produced dozens of tornadoes over the preceding days. The tornado initially touched down at 6:03 p.m. Central Daylight Time (2303 UTC) about 8.3 miles (13.4 km) west-southwest of El Reno, rapidly growing in size and becoming more violent as it tracked through central portions of Canadian County. Remaining over mostly open terrain, the tornado did not impact many structures; however, measurements from mobile weather radars revealed extreme winds in excess of 313 mph (504 km/h) within the vortex. These are among the highest observed wind speeds on Earth, just slightly lower than the wind speeds of the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. As it crossed U.S. 81, it had grown to a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km), beating the previous width record set in 2004. Turning northeastward, the tornado soon weakened. Upon crossing Interstate 40, the tornado dissipated around 6:43 p.m. CDT (2343 UTC), after tracking for 16.2 miles (26.1 km), it avoided affecting the more densely populated areas near and within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.[61]
The tornado killed four storm chasers (three professional and one amateur), the first known deaths in the history of storm chasing.[62] Although the tornado remained over mostly open terrain, dozens of storm chasers unaware of its immense size and erratic movement were caught off-guard. Near U.S. 81, TWISTEX scientist and engineer Tim Samaras, along with his son Paul and research partner Carl Young, died in the tornado. Paul Samaras and Young were ejected from their Chevrolet Cobalt by the storm's sub-vortex, while Tim was still buckled in the passenger's seat. Local resident Richard Henderson, who decided to follow the storm, lost his life in that same area. He snapped a picture of the tornado from his cellular phone before it struck him.[57] Other chasers, including Mike Bettes of The Weather Channel and Reed Timmer, were either injured or had their vehicles damaged. A Doppler on Wheels-based analysis of how the tornado impacted these teams revealed that they were hit by an intense internal sub-vortex.[63] Overall, the tornado was responsible for eight fatalities and 151 injuries.[64] Due to the ferocity and sheer size, as well as its irregular movement and the deaths linked with this tornado, it has become one of the most studied and infamous tornadoes ever. The National Weather Service referred to the tornado as "the most dangerous tornado in storm observing history."[61]
Alongside rush hour traffic, thousands of residents in Oklahoma City attempted to outrun the storm by taking to the roads in an attempt to drive out of the tornado's projected path. By attempting to escape the storm by vehicle, in direct contrast to the recommended plan of action, residents put themselves at great risk from the storm; had the tornado maintained itself and passed over the congested freeways, more than 500 lives could have been lost.[65]
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Tornadoes by county
* Includes unofficially-rated tornado or tornadoes
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Tornadoes by month
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Longest span without a tornado
The longest timespan without a single tornado reported in Oklahoma was from May 17, 2003 to March 3, 2004, or 291 days.[149] The run was ended on March 4, 2004, when an F0 tornado touched down near Muldrow.[150]
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