EF-4 tornado tears through Enid, Oklahoma: what we know about the April 23 storm

What’s happening

A violent tornado tore across the south side of Enid, Oklahoma on the evening of Thursday, April 23, 2026, leveling homes in one neighborhood, damaging Vance Air Force Base, and prompting Governor Kevin Stitt to declare a disaster emergency in Garfield and Kay counties. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a rare Tornado Emergency for southeast Enid at about 8:22 p.m. local time, calling the storm a “confirmed large and destructive tornado.” Survey crews later gave it a preliminary rating of EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with estimated peak winds in the 170 to 175 mile-per-hour range. (Note: the YouTube video’s title spells the city as “Edin,” but the actual location is Enid, the seat of Garfield County in north-central Oklahoma.)

The Max Velocity Severe Weather Center YouTube channel covered the storm live as it developed across the Great Plains, and the broadcast captured the tornado as chasers tracked it toward Enid in real time. The video reflects the live, evolving picture from the afternoon and evening of April 23. This article focuses on what verified news sources have since confirmed about the tornado, the damage, and the response.

Background

Enid is a city of roughly 50,000 residents about 65 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. It is the home of Vance Air Force Base, a U.S. Air Force pilot training installation, and sits in a part of Oklahoma that has long been considered prime tornado country. Even so, EF-4 tornadoes — the second-strongest category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — are rare. According to the NWS as quoted by OKC Fox, Thursday’s storm was “the first EF-4 tornado to hit Garfield County in several decades,” with the prior such tornado striking on April 26, 1991.

The tornado was also the first EF-4 confirmed anywhere in the United States in 2026, according to coverage by Fox Weather. Independent weather analysts at iWeatherNet noted that the Tornado Emergency issued for Enid appears to be the first ever declared in Oklahoma during the month of April, with all previous Oklahoma tornado emergencies on record having occurred in May. The Tornado Emergency designation, used sparingly since 1999, is reserved for confirmed violent tornadoes moving into populated areas.

The storm was part of a broader severe weather outbreak across the central United States. Multiple supercells produced tornadoes from Texas and Oklahoma into the Upper Midwest on the same day, and forecasters warned of additional severe weather risks heading into the weekend.

What independent sources confirm

According to coverage by Public Radio Tulsa, the National Weather Service rated the Enid tornado as a preliminary EF-4 with estimated winds of 170 to 175 mph. The same report and coverage from OKC Fox place the tornado on the ground from roughly 8:11 p.m. to 8:40 p.m. CDT, a duration of about 29 to 37 minutes. The path covered approximately 9.5 miles, with a maximum width of about 500 yards. NWS meteorologist Rick Smith confirmed the historic nature of the rating in those reports.

The hardest-hit area was the Gray Ridge neighborhood on the south side of Enid, where homes were knocked off their foundations or destroyed outright. CBS News reported that Mayor David Mason described Gray Ridge as the site of “some of the worst damage,” and that Keli Cain, public affairs director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said that “no deaths have been reported but there have been 10-15 injuries.” About 40 homes across Enid and Garfield County sustained damage ranging from major to total destruction, according to Fox Weather.

Vance Air Force Base, which sits in the path the tornado traveled, was closed until further notice for power and water restoration. The installation said all personnel were accounted for and no on-base injuries were reported, and an assistance area was set up at the base fitness center for affected airmen and their families, according to Public Radio Tulsa. Governor Stitt toured the damage on Friday and was quoted by Public Radio Tulsa saying, “Usually when we come to a neighborhood like this that’s been hit this hard, there’s one or two deaths. Thank the Lord that nobody was killed or seriously injured here.” OKC Fox reported that the governor’s office issued a disaster emergency declaration for Garfield and Kay counties to free up state recovery resources.

What’s still unclear

The EF-4 rating, wind speeds, path length, and time on the ground are all preliminary figures. Damage surveys can extend over several days, and final numbers — including the exact maximum wind speed and the precise number of structures destroyed versus damaged — may shift as the NWS completes its assessment. The full economic cost of the damage and the federal disaster assistance request have not yet been quantified in public reporting.

The total injury count has also been described in slightly different ways across outlets, ranging from “about 10” to “10 to 15,” and the breakdown by severity has not been published. Reporting on a separate, weaker tornado that touched down elsewhere in northern Oklahoma the same evening is still limited, and damage tallies from outside Enid have not yet been finalized.