Hail — Woodward, Oklahoma

2025-05-18 · near Woodward, Woodward, Oklahoma

Event narrative

An image was shared. The location is approximate.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper-level trough continued to progress eastward across the Central and Southern Plains on the 18th, promoting another round of intense severe weather across the northwestern portion of the WFO Norman Forecast Area. During the early evening, a strong dryline served as the focus for thunderstorm initiation across the aforementioned area. A pair of intense supercell thunderstorms developed here, each producing large to very large hail, with multiple reports of hailstones ranging from four to five inches in diameter. In addition to very large hail, one of the supercells generated a tornado family consisting of four separate tornadoes across Ellis County. Among these was an intense EF3 tornado that impacted areas just southwest of Arnett, OK, causing significant damage along its path.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.4155, -99.3900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1259963. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.