EF1 tornado, Shamrock to Bristow, Oklahoma, May 24, 2016

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, 2016

Touchdown

5:28 PM CDT (22:28 UTC)

Lifted

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Creek County

Touchdown point

35.908, -96.484

Lift-off point

35.864, -96.363

Record number

1605241628-01

50 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 110 mph.

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

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of May 24th along an outflow boundary from early morning storms that had settled across north central Oklahoma. The atmosphere over eastern Oklahoma had become very unstable by late afternoon as these storms moved into the area. Combined with strong wind shear, this instability supported the development of severe thunderstorms, including supercells. A couple tornadoes, hail larger than golfball size, damaging wind, and locally heavy rainfall occurred with these storms as they affected the region into the early morning hours of the 25th.

This tornado developed northwest of the intersection of Highway 16 and S 433rd West Avenue, where trees were snapped. A home was severely damaged, multiple outbuildings were destroyed, and trees were snapped south of Highway 16 as the tornado tracked to the southeast. Multiple homes were damaged, outbuildings were destroyed, and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted along W 201st Street S and Highway 16. The tornado then turned sharply to the east and crossed Highway 48 north of Bristow, where large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado dissipated between I-44 and the S 337th West Avenue. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:21 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:43 UTC and running to 00:54 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:27 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 2016 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

43 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.