EF1 tornado, Loyal to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, May 19, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 19, 2010

Touchdown

5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)

Lifted

6:00 PM CDT (23:00 UTC)

On the ground

27 minutes

Path length

14.0 miles (22.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Kingfisher County

Touchdown point

35.970, -98.138

Lift-off point

35.927, -97.896

Record number

1005191633-01

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.

The tornado developed just west of Loyal, where an un-anchored trailer home was destroyed and a power pole was downed. The tornado continued east toward the southern edge of Loyal, with tree damage reported in Loyal. The tornado crossed US Highway 81 north of Kingfisher, and a truck was blown off the road with the driver suffering minor injuries. Also near this location, the Department of Transportation salt barn was destroyed five miles north of Kingfisher and sign/fence damage occurred just east of this location. Monetary damage estimates were not available.

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

NWS Norman, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 18, 6:48 PM CDT, 22 hours 45 minutes earlier.

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Watonga (JWG), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:33 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 2010 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.