EF3 tornado, Blue to Lane, Oklahoma, April 30, 2019

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

9:07 PM CDT (02:07 UTC)

Lifted

9:42 PM CDT (02:42 UTC)

On the ground

35 minutes

Path length

27.6 miles (44.4 km)

Path width

1,400 yards (1280 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

16

Property damage

$300,000

Counties

Bryan and Atoka counties

Touchdown point

33.971, -96.207

Lift-off point

34.319, -95.974

Record number

1904302007-01

86 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• north side of road, west edge of damage path
• unsure of DI, neighboring house just W has no significant damage.
• east edge of path, some large limb damage in nearby trees.
• mobile home and outbuilding destroyed, six vehicles destroyed.

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

A stationary front and and upper wave produced numerous thunderstorms with a variety of severe weather on the 30th.

A tornado developed about 2 miles south-southeast of Blue, and quickly became a large and strong tornado. Before crossing SH-70 east of Blue, the tornado widened to 1400 yards and damaged or destroyed a number of mobile homes. One mobile home was blown about 50-75 yards east-northeast into a grove of trees. A woman in this mobile home suffered significant injuries and died in a hospital on May 2. The tornado crossed US-70 producing significant tree damage. Just north of US-70, another mobile home was destroyed and blown away with another fatality. The tornado moved northeast into a less densely populate area, although at least one other home was unroofed northeast of Blue.||About two miles south of the Atoka County line, the tornado hit an anchored mobile home that was destroyed with the debris scattered hundreds of yards to the east and southeast. The tornado continued to produce tree damage in northern Bryan County and moved into Atoka County near just west of Matoy Road.

This tornado initially developed in Bryan County near Blue, and entered Atoka County just west of Matoy Road. The tornado produced widespread tree damage as it moved northeast crossing Matoy Road on either side of Clear Boggy Creek. North of the creek, a cabin or small home was destroyed, and another home was damaged. As the tornado moved north-northeast, damage continued to trees, power poles, and sheds. One mobile home was blown off piers south-southwest of Lane. The tornado weakened as it approached State Highway 3 and the town of Lane. The tornado brushed the town of Lane with some tree and shingle damage before dissipating about 1.5 miles northeast of Lane.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:07 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:02 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Norman radar (KTLX), 171 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:08 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 2019 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

55 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.