F1 tornado, Meridian, Oklahoma, May 29, 2004

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 mphthis tornado

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

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

May 29, 2004

Touchdown

10:01 PM CDT (03:01 UTC)

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Logan County

Touchdown point

35.770, -97.220

Lift-off point

35.770, -97.220

Record number

945

On this day one supercell thunderstorm produced all the tornadoes in the state of Oklahoma and a majority of the extremely large hail. This storm began in extreme west central Oklahoma, moved through center sections of the state, and ended in extreme eastern Oklahoma. The storm affected portions of both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas.

This nighttime tornado formed in rural areas 1 mile east of Indian Meridian Road and 2.5 miles north of the Oklahoma-Logan county line, or 5 miles SSE of Meridian, causing a small but concentrated area of tree and power line damage. Several large trees, with trunk diameters of 1 to 2 feet, were uprooted or snapped off near the base. Large tree limbs were snapped off from numerous other trees in the area. The damage was confined to mostly open country. No structural damage was found.

This tornado was described by spotters as having a large funnel and as a possible "wedge" tornado, but no damage was reported (although power flashes were observed). The estimated track, based on spotters and NSSL rotation track maps from the Twin Lakes radar, began 5 miles SE of Meridian and continued NE across rural areas, ending just inside the Logan/Lincoln County line at 2125 CST, 6 miles east of Meridian. The parent mesocyclone occluded shortly thereafter, with a new one forming to the southeast.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

4 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:57 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:02 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Guthrie (GOK), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Norman radar (KTLX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:00 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

77 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 78 of them

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.

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