Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2010

EF0 tornado, Leedey to Camargo, Oklahoma, May 19, 2010

From Leedey to Camargo, this EF0 tornado ran 5.9 miles across Dewey County on May 19, 2010, touching down at 3:24 PM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

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

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
May 19, 2010
Touchdown
3:24 PM CDT (20:24 UTC)
Lifted
3:30 PM CDT (20:30 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
5.9 miles (9.5 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Dewey County
Touchdown point
35.923, -99.377
Lift-off point
35.956, -99.313
Record number
1005191424-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A large storm system moved through the southern and central Plains during the morning and afternoon of the 19th. Thunderstorms, some of them severe, had developed over the Texas panhandle and moved east into northwest and north central Oklahoma during the early morning hours. Additional development, aided by the low-level jet, occurred into parts of central Oklahoma, north of a warm front that was slowly moving north to near Interstate 40. ||By mid afternoon, the well-defined front was located from parts of west-central into central Oklahoma, just north of the Oklahoma City metro area. Two thunderstorms developed near and along the front, one over Roger Mills and Dewey counties, and the other over northern Blaine county. The storms quickly became tornadic, with the first tornado of the day occurring north of Leedey in Dewey county. Another tornado, and probably the most photographed one of the day, occurred just north of Hennessey. Tornadoes, most of them brief in duration, and large hail continued across western and central Kingfisher county, and across northern Logan, southeast Garfield, and Payne counties. Another thunderstorm developed further east along the dry line later in the afternoon, and the storm eventually produced a tornado west of Prague in Lincoln county. ||Finally, two supercell thunderstorms developed further south along the dry line that moved into central Oklahoma. Although both showed significant rotation on radar, only the supercell that moved from Stephens through Murray counties produced tornadoes. Two tornadoes were reported, one just southeast of Wynnewood and another north of Sulphur.||Additional severe thunderstorms developed across southern Oklahoma, but the main impacts had shifted from tornadoes to large hail and very heavy rainfall. By the time it was all said and done, five main supercells had occurred over parts of western and central Oklahoma, producing at least nine tornadoes. Widespread significant damage did not occur due to the location/short duration of the tornadoes, and only three minor injuries were reported.

Video and radar evidence showed a tornado northwest of Leedey. The tornado moved over open country, with no known damage occurring.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:10 UTC and running to 01:53 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:49 UTC08:42 UTCTornado WatchOUN
07:07 UTC07:45 UTCTornado WarningOUN
07:43 UTC08:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
08:39 UTC08:58 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
08:42 UTC15:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchOUN
09:22 UTC10:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
10:25 UTC11:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
14:48 UTC03:51 UTCFlash Flood WatchOUN
19:10 UTC01:53 UTCTornado WatchOUN
20:12 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
20:26 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningOUN
21:09 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningOUN
21:41 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
21:52 UTC22:06 UTCTornado WarningOUN

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 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.

Lamont, OK (KLMN), 00:00Z

3.6 hours after it, 184 km from the path. May 20, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lamont, OK at 00:00Z on 2010-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 498 joules per kilogram, CIN -124, lifted condensation level 980 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Lamont, OK at 00:00Z on 2010-05-20The 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 224 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
498 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-124 J/kg
Surface CAPE
526 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
980 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:25 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:52 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.73 Ne ArnettEllis, OK24 HOUR RAIN REPORT.
20:28 UTCTORNADO3 N LeedeyDewey, OKTIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED
20:28 UTCTORNADO4 N LeedeyDewey, OKNO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED WITH THIS TORNADO.
20:42 UTCHAIL 24 Ssw CamargoDewey, OK
20:42 UTCHAIL 2.57 Nne LeedeyDewey, OK
20:50 UTCHAIL 1.753 S CamargoDewey, OKREPORT FROM VORTEX2
21:50 UTCHAIL 17 W CantonDewey, OKREPORTED BY VORTEX2. HAIL COVERING THE GROUND

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 19, 2010

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 191:22 AM CDTEF0Ellis, OK0.550
May 191:56 AM CDTEF1Hutchinson, TX0.4100$28,000
May 193:15 AM CDTEF1Ellis, OK0.530
May 193:32 AM CDTEF0Ochiltree, TX1.150
May 194:41 PM CDTEF0Kingfisher, OK0.150
May 195:08 PM CDTEF0Kingfisher, OK0.110
May 195:24 PM CDTEF0Logan, OK1.620
May 195:33 PM CDTEF1Kingfisher, OK14.0751
May 195:48 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.130
May 195:48 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.230
May 195:55 PM CDTEF0Finney, KS0.450
May 195:56 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.550
May 196:03 PM CDTEF1Payne, OK10.6200
May 196:04 PM CDTEF0Logan, OK0.110
May 196:26 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.330
May 196:57 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.230
May 197:03 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.450
May 197:09 PM CDTEF0Creek, OK0.150
May 197:37 PM CDTEF1Creek, OK5.0600$15,000
May 198:12 PM CDTEF1Lincoln, OK1.425
May 196:15 PM PDTEF0Grant, WA0.2100$2,000
May 198:31 PM CDTEF1Garvin, OK17.5375
May 198:46 PM CDTEF1Okfuskee, OK8.0500
May 199:05 PM CDTEF1Okfuskee, OK10.0500$15,000

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.