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EF0 tornado in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 7, 2007 · Oklahoma County, Oklahoma

EF0
Rating
1.5 mi
Path length
30 yd
Path width
$25K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 occurred within the city limits of Oklahoma City. A narrow path of considerable tree damage was found from just northwest of the intersection of NE 36th Street and Martin Luther King Avenue to just east of the intersection of Interstate 35 and NE 50th Street, including a swath about 30 yards wide across Lincoln Park Golf Course. Damage consisted of numerous small to medium branches broken off trees, as well as numerous large rotted branches. A number of small trees in wet soil were also pushed over along this path. Minor shingle damage was noted to a home just east of I-35 and NE 50th Street, and minor gutter damage was noted to a large metal building just to the southwest of the house. A couple of wooden fences were pushed over and a small canopy was torn near the start of the path. However other structures in or near the path showed little discernible damage. Monetary damages were estimated.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms began early in the morning on the 6th, continued most of the day and into the early morning hours of the 7th. An upper level low pressure remained anchored over Colorado during this time period. Surface low pressure was located over southeast Colorado, with a dryline extending south along the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle border. Outflow boundaries were also present from previous thunderstorm activity. These boundaries were important in the formation of thunderstorms throughout the day. Moisture was in abundance that day, along with very strong instability. Wind shear remained quite favorable for supercell thunderstorms. Most of the thunderstorms began over the northwest half of Oklahoma, but moved south and east into the morning and afternoon hours of the 7th. Large hail, high winds, and tornadoes were common, with flooding rains also present. One small supercell thunderstorm developed east of the main thunderstorm area during the evening and produced two small tornadoes as it moved to the north. Two other tornadoes occurred in the early morning hours as thunderstorms moving northeast into central Oklahoma interacted with gust front boundaries from previous thunderstorms.

Began near Forest Park (35.5093, -97.4776).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 35822. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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