EF3 Tornado — Ellis, Oklahoma

2025-05-18 · near Arnett, Ellis, Oklahoma

Event narrative

This tornado began near the intersection of E0630 Road and N1760 Road, breaking four power poles and damaging trees. It moved east-northeast along E0630 Road with extensive tree damage noted just east of N1770 Road. The tornado then turned more northeast and moved over open country. For much of the path, there were few if any damage indicators, but drone imagery from surveys by the National Severe Storms Laboratory and Disaster Imaging Inc, as well as visual sightings of the tornado confirms that this tornado was continuous along this 5 mile path. Additional tree damage was noted along E0620 Road as the tornado continued moving northeast, with the most severe damage along N1810 road about one-half mile south of E0610 Road where trees were partially debarked and only stubs of large limbs were left. The tornado was rated EF3 based on this severe tree damage. Near the end of the track, the tornado appeared to be at its most intense as it turned north with more extensive tree damage along E0610 Road on the western edge of the city of Arnett. A large shipping container was also displaced 175 feet at this location. This tornado turned northwest and dissipated just west of Arnett near US Highway 60.

Researchers with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the University of Oklahoma, and the OTUS (Observation of Tornadoes by UAS Systems) Project collected detailed datasets during the tornado as well as performing detailed damage surveys.

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 → (36.0900, -99.8650)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1262089. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.