Teams from the National Weather Service are assessing damage in central Oklahoma from Thursday morning's storms.
The agency has confirmed five tornadoes:
- EF-2 in the Purcell area
- EF-1 near the Shawnee Twin Lakes
- EF-1 in north Shawnee
- EF-1 in Wynona
- EF-0 near Lake Thunderbird
The Weather Service says damage assessments will continue Friday.
Damage in Purcell included an overturned semi, roof and tree damage and downed powerpoles. It's what you would expect in the spring, not so much in January.
State Climatologist Gary McManus says winter tornadoes aren’t unprecedented, but they are rare, at least until recent times.
"It’s not unheard of. We’ve had—before today—we’ve had 30 tornadoes in January in Oklahoma since 1950," McManus said. "In the last four or five years we’ve had about a dozen in January, as early as January 2nd. So, this isn’t the earliest. It’s certainly not the first January tornado we’ve had."
But McManus is concerned the severe storm season is off to such an early start.
"It’s something we certainly don’t like to see this early because you worry about, you know, 'what’s the rest of the year going to be like?'"
Thursday's tornado warnings were the first to be issued in the nation this year.
Despite the damage from the storms, the first twisters of 2026 resulted in no reported injuries.
