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EF1 tornado in Johnston County, Oklahoma

Tornado April 19, 2025 · Johnston County, Oklahoma

EF1
Rating
12.0 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$150K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado moved across southeastern Johnston County, developing southeast of the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge near the community of Bee, and moving northeast and then north to south of Coleman. Damage was primarily to trees, but at least two homes had roof damage and a couple of outbuildings were damaged.

The wider storm

A severe weather and flash flood episode occurred across central and southern portions of the WFO Norman Forecast Area from the evening of the 19th into the early morning hours of the 20th. A slow-moving upper system continued to approach the area on the 19th. This, along with strong/moist low-level ascent atop a quasi-stationary boundary, helped initiate widespread thunderstorms across the region mentioned above. Strong wind shear and instability, especially along and ahead of the surface boundary, promoted organized thunderstorms, producing hail, wind and tornadoes. A few strong tornadoes also occurred (near Courtney in Love County and Little City in Marshall County). This episode also observed the first fatal weak (F/EF0-1) tornado since 1988 across the WFO Norman Forecast Area. Flash flooding also became a concern by the late evening of the 19th, with two flood-related fatalities occurring in the city of Moore, as multiple vehicles were swept off of Eastern Avenue into a nearby creek.

Began near Nida (34.1280, -96.5740).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

11 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1254356. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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