EF1 tornado, Greenwood Jct to Figure Five, Oklahoma, May 24, 2011

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 24, 2011

Touchdown

11:37 PM CDT (04:37 UTC)

Lifted

11:47 PM CDT (04:47 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.4 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Crawford and Sequoyah counties

Touchdown point

35.440, -94.460

Lift-off point

35.480, -94.380

Record number

1105242237-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• Several trees were snapped or uprooted in this area.
• Several trees were uprooted in this area.
• Several trees were snapped in this area. Lots of siding was also taken off a steel-framed building in this area.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Severe thunderstorms developed along a dry line over central Oklahoma during the afternoon hours. Very unstable air and strong wind shear east of the dry line supported supercell thunderstorm structures, which persisted as the storms moved into eastern Oklahoma during the evening hours. These severe storms produced tornadoes, large hail to golfball size, and very strong damaging downburst wind across much of eastern Oklahoma.

Severe thunderstorms developed along a dry line over central Oklahoma during the afternoon hours. Very unstable air and strong wind shear east of the dry line supported supercell thunderstorm structures, which persisted as the storms moved into northwestern Arkansas late in the evening. These severe storms produced tornadoes, large hail, and damaging downburst wind across portions of northwestern Arkansas. One of the tornadoes was especially intense, resulting in considerable damage to several towns as well as three fatalities in Franklin County.

This is the first of two segments of this tornado. In Sequoyah County, this tornado snapped or uprooted a number of large trees. Maximum estimated wind in the tornado based on this damage was about 105 mph. The tornado continued into Crawford County, Arkansas.

This is the second of two segments of this tornado. In Crawford County, this tornado destroyed several barns, damaged several permanent homes, blew siding off a metal building, and snapped or uprooted a number of large trees.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:27 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:10 UTC and running to 05:54 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 01:05 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.

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:39 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

47 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.