Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1960

F2 tornado, Wagoner County, Oklahoma, May 19, 1960

This F2 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Wagoner County on May 19, 1960, touching down at 8:22 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
May 19, 1960
Touchdown
8:22 PM GMT-5 (01:22 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wagoner County
Touchdown point
35.870, -95.530
Record number
271

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Fort Smith Muni, AR (KFSM), 00:00Z

1.4 hours before the tornado, 126 km from the path. May 20, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 00:00Z on 1960-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3674 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 1542 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 00:00Z on 1960-05-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
3674 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3758 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1542 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Smith Muni, AR (KFSM), 12:00Z

10.6 hours after it, 126 km from the path. May 20, 1960.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 12:00Z on 1960-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 557 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Smith Muni, AR at 12:00Z on 1960-05-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
557 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1960 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 19, 1960

27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 192:00 AM GMT-5F1Conway, AR8.7417$5,000 to $50,000
May 195:00 PM GMT-5F0Caddo, OK0.110
May 195:00 PM GMT-5F1Caddo, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 195:25 PM GMT-5F2Cleveland, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 195:50 PM GMT-5F0Stephens, OK0.110
May 196:05 PM GMT-5F2Delaware, IN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 196:30 PM GMT-5F4Wabaunsee, KS20.61012$5 million to $50 million
May 196:33 PM GMT-5F0Freeborn, MN0.110
May 196:47 PM GMT-5F4Shawnee, KS27.5880192$500,000 to $5 million
May 197:04 PM GMT-5F3Jefferson, KS11.5101
May 197:30 PM GMT-5F1Richardson, NE0.110$500 to $5,000
May 197:35 PM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 198:00 PM GMT-5F1Rogers, OK4.550$5,000 to $50,000
May 198:10 PM GMT-5F1Lawrence, MO0.217$500 to $5,000
May 198:20 PM GMT-5F1Muskogee, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 198:30 PM GMT-5F3Jefferson, KS13.3101
May 198:30 PM GMT-5F1Mayes, OK0.110
May 198:40 PM GMT-5F1Neosho, KS2.010$50 to $500
May 199:30 PM GMT-5F0Shawnee, KS0.110under $50
May 199:45 PM GMT-5F2Shawnee, KS4.110$500 to $5,000
May 199:50 PM GMT-5F0Sequoyah, OK0.110
May 1910:00 PM GMT-5F1Barton, MO1.517$5,000 to $50,000
May 1910:00 PM GMT-5F1Cherokee, KS0.110under $50
May 1911:15 PM GMT-5F1Johnson, MO0.217$500 to $5,000
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F0Tulsa, OK0.110
May 1912:20 AM GMT-5F1Linn, MO1.540$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.