2025-04-02: QLCS Tornado in Owasso, OK

[gdlewen]

A QLCS tornado passed through my hometown of Owasso, OK early this morning. It looks like the news coverage is still maturing as most online links don't have comprehensive photos of the damage. But here's a start:

Residents begin recovery efforts in Owasso after tornado damages homes

Residents in Owasso are beginning the difficult task of cleaning up after a tornado tore through their community early Wednesday, leaving homes destroyed and power outages across the area.

www.newson6.com

More to post later after I go over my 4/1/2025 chase in N OK yesterday, but the SPC Storm Reports document the path pretty well:



It's interesting all of the reports are based on a combination of observed damage coincident with radar signature of some kind (correlation coefficient or velocity). It passed less than a mile from my house, but all I saw was the inside of a car wash--visbility was much less than 1/4 mile near me.

The weather radio woke me up and I'm not ashamed to admit I was not inclined to try and chase under those conditions even if I had time to get out for it: the westernmost edge of the warning polygon could have been drawn over my house. Anyone else in the Owasso area who might have actually seen this?

 

[Jeff Smith]

I was at home approx 10miles north and observed possible power flashes (could not definitely tell due to distance from the storm). Here are a couple of damage pics I shot driving through the area.

 

[gdlewen]

Turns out about 287 (or so) homes were damaged by the tornado, which was rated EF1. No one was killed or seriously injured, which considering the time of day (~6:40AM CDT) and the number of homes damaged, is very lucky.

 

[gdlewen]

I finally got a chance to look at the radar data for the Owasso tornado. I don't remember how this compared to the RadarScope animated display during the event. I let my Radarscope Pro Tier Two license lapse back to Tier 1 last year, so everything takes longer...is harder.... (But cheaper.)

Using Py-Art 2.01 to de-alias the base velocity scans and custom analysis to compute storm relative velocity, here is an animated GIF of KINX radar over the Owasso area. The time span is roughly from 1129Z to 1147Z. You can see the mesocyclone enter the field of view at about 36.2˚N on the RHS. The damage path begins just at US-75 south of 76th St.

(Now that I'm thinking about it I should have sketched in the damage path. Oh well.)

​

A few points:

1. Transparency mutes the colors and for this application I wanted things as vivid as possible, so only a few roads and labeling of "Owasso" are added manually as an overlay.
2. I used base velocities masked for reflectivity ≥ 0 dBZ to compute the storm motion, so it's no surprise that within the envelope of the high-reflectivity areas the radial velocities are better removed compared to the area ahead of the cell.

Finally, a debris signature persisted to about 3500 feet for a short time (a few minutes); for example:

Correlation Coefficient for KINX 0.5˚ 1141Z Scan​	Storm-Relative Velocity for KINX 0.5˚ 1141Z Scan​

The debris signature would pretty much clobber the inbound lobe of the velocity couplet if a direct superposition were attempted, although a blink-style display seems to work here.

​

 

[Mike Smith]

I am sorry to report that Owasso was yet another tornado with a negative lead-time National Weather Service tornado warning. The TOR was issued @ 6:39am, well after the damage began. I can post the details but I hope I have documented enough of these that everyone agrees there is a serious problem.