2018 Woodward, Oklahoma Tornado

The first major tornado of the short outbreak touched down on Day 1 at 3:16 PM CDT. Starting out as an EF2, the tornadoes killed 67 in a neighborhood full of mobile homes as the tornado was gaining EF3 intensity.

At 3:48 PM CDT while reaching peak intensity, the tornado completely destroyed multiple neighborhoods of well built houses, killing 181. With the tornado not dying out anytime soon, a tornado emergency was declared for Woodward and surrounding areas. At 4:09 PM CDT, the tornado briefly weakened to high-end EF4 before regaining strength into an EF5. As the tornado was approaching western Woodward, another person was killed when their house was completely swept away.

At 5:46 PM CDT, the tornado finally started to die out weakening into an EF3. At 5:57 PM CDT, a satellite tornado touched down, causing EF3 damage.

At 6:03 PM CDT, the tornado dissipated 16.9 miles west of Woodward. In all, the EF5 killed 249, injured 428, and caused $2.7 billion in damages. Many have compared this twister to the Woodward F5 back in 1947 that killed 181 people.

Later that evening, over 350 people were found trapped in their houses when the tornado caused their roof to collapse.

The tornado had recorded wind speeds of 261 mph measured by multiple doppler radar trucks. The rating is widely accepted by multiple surveyors and scientists who studied the mean, devastating EF5 rated tornado.