Oklahoma City, OK Tornado History — 346 Tornadoes Since 1950
How many tornadoes has Oklahoma City, OK had?
Oklahoma City has had 346 tornadoes on record within 25 miles since 1950, including 37 violent (EF3+) tornadoes.
When was the most recent tornado near Oklahoma City?
The most recent tornado within 25 miles of Oklahoma City was an EF0 on July 12, 2025.
When is tornado season in Oklahoma City?
May is historically the peak month for tornadoes near Oklahoma City, with 157 on record. Spring through early summer (April–June) generally sees the highest activity across most of the central and southern United States.
At a Glance
Recent Tornado Activity Near Oklahoma City
The last 20 years of confirmed tornadoes within 25 miles — 141 total, averaging 7.0 per year over this window.
Preliminary tornado reports near Oklahoma City since December 29, 2025
These are 3 preliminary reports, not confirmed tornadoes. They have not yet been through an NWS damage survey, and are not counted in the confirmed totals above.
Preliminary reports are revised, merged, and sometimes withdrawn — historically about 23% are consolidated downward once surveys complete. Ratings are omitted until a survey assigns one.
Confirmed records above are complete through December 29, 2025. NOAA publishes the confirmed archive annually, so tornadoes after that date appear here first and move into the totals above once finalized.
Within 25 miles of Oklahoma City. Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center preliminary storm reports, updated daily.
Tornadoes by Decade
Tornadoes by Enhanced Fujita Rating
F0–F5 ratings (pre-2007) are grouped with their EF equivalents. The Enhanced Fujita scale replaced the original Fujita scale in February 2007.
Tornadoes by Month
Casualties on Record Near Oklahoma City
95 fatalities have been recorded within 25 miles of Oklahoma City since 1950, across 14 events. 1,762 injuries have been reported across all events. 1999 was the deadliest year on record.
The deadliest single event was a F5 on May 3, 1999, which caused 36 fatalities along a 37.0-mile track.
Notable Tornadoes Near Oklahoma City
About Tornadoes in Oklahoma City
This overview was written April 23, 2026. The tornado counts and notable-event figures elsewhere on this page reflect the latest data and may differ from this summary.
Oklahoma City sits on the centerline of Tornado Alley and arguably has the most thoroughly documented tornado history of any US metro. The combination of Gulf moisture pushing up Interstate 35, dry-line convergence to the west, and strong upper-level shear in spring makes the OKC metro a near-perfect supercell environment from late April into early June. Severe-weather researchers from the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Storm Prediction Center — both headquartered in nearby Norman — study these storms in real time, which is partly why OKC events tend to have unusually rich post-survey records.
The May 3, 1999 outbreak
The defining event in OKC's modern tornado history is the Bridge Creek–Moore F5 tornado of May 3, 1999. The storm tracked from Chickasha through Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore, and into south Oklahoma City, leveling neighborhoods along Highway 4 and I-35. Mobile Doppler radar measured wind speeds of 302 mph (±20 mph) in a sub-vortex — still the highest tornado wind speed on direct record. The tornado was rated F5 on the original Fujita scale and is correctly cited as F5, not EF5 (the EF scale didn't take effect until February 2007).
Forty-six people died across the broader May 3 outbreak. Moore took the heaviest residential damage; the EF-equivalent footprint through south OKC was roughly 38 miles long. The 1999 event triggered widespread retrofitting of Oklahoma homes with FEMA-rated above-ground safe rooms and underground storm shelters — the city's tornado-shelter culture today is downstream of that day.
May 20, 2013 Moore EF5
Less than 14 years later, on May 20, 2013, an EF5 tornado tracked through Moore again. The path overlapped substantially with the 1999 footprint and damaged or destroyed Briarwood Elementary and Plaza Towers Elementary, where seven children were killed. Twenty-four people died total. Maximum winds were estimated at 210 mph; path length was 17 miles, peak width 1.3 miles.
The May 20, 2013 tornado is part of why some Moore neighborhoods (Plaza Towers, Briarwood, Highland Park) have been hit by multiple violent tornadoes in living memory. Local meteorologists have documented at least four tornadoes (1999, 2003, 2010, 2013) traversing partially overlapping ground in south Oklahoma City and Moore — likely a combination of meteorological consistency (the prevailing storm motion in this part of the Plains is from southwest to northeast, parallel to I-35) and survivorship bias in damage surveys.
The 2013 El Reno tornado
Just 11 days after the Moore tornado, on May 31, 2013, a 2.6-mile-wide EF3 tornado developed near El Reno, west of OKC. It killed eight people, including three veteran storm chasers — the first chaser fatalities in modern severe-weather research. Mobile Doppler radar measured winds of 295–336 mph in a sub-vortex, and the parent circulation was the widest tornado on record. The El Reno event reshaped storm-chaser safety practices nationwide and led to formal NWS damage-survey methodology updates.
Tornadoes by neighborhood
Within the OKC metro itself, the highest-frequency tornado corridors run roughly along three lines: the I-35 corridor through south OKC and Moore, the I-40 corridor west toward El Reno and Yukon, and the I-44/Lake Hefner Parkway path through Bethany and the Belle Isle area. North OKC, Edmond, and the area around Tinker Air Force Base have seen fewer but not zero strong tornadoes — a 2010 EF4 tracked through Tinker AFB causing major aircraft damage.
What this means for OKC residents today
Oklahoma City has by far the highest density of tornado-shelter infrastructure of any US metro. The OKC metro has dozens of community storm shelters at schools, churches, and parks; many residential neighborhoods built since 2000 include in-home shelters as standard. Norman, Moore, and south OKC ZIP codes have particularly dense shelter coverage following the 1999 and 2013 events.
For real-time alerting during a warning, Oklahomans typically run multiple layers: phone-call alerts for the home's saved location, NOAA weather radio (Norman's transmitter is one of the most reliable in the country), local TV (KFOR and KOCO have legendary live-broadcast severe-weather coverage), and Wireless Emergency Alerts as a backup. The combination of high tornado frequency, well-documented history, and strong NWS local-office coverage makes OKC the de facto training ground for US severe-weather forecasting.