EF2 tornado, Bond to Centerville, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

10:41 PM CDT (03:41 UTC)

Lifted

10:57 PM CDT (03:57 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Pittsburg County

Touchdown point

34.790, -95.649

Lift-off point

34.873, -95.520

Record number

1904302141-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• trees snapped fell onto home
• multiple large trees snapped this area
• multiple large trees snapped in this area

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Oklahoma during the early afternoon hours of the 30th, to the east of a stationary frontal boundary that was located across north-central Oklahoma into northwest Texas. Moderately strong instability combined with strong wind shear resulted in the development of supercell thunderstorms, which produced multiple tornadoes, including two strong tornadoes, large hail up to half dollar size, and damaging winds. Locally heavy rainfall also occurred across portions of northeastern Oklahoma, which resulted in flash flooding.

This tornado developed from a remnant mesocyclone that had a history of producing a strong tornado in Bryan and Atoka Counties. The circulation in the storm strengthened southwest of Haileyville, just east of the S Bache Road and south of Ray Road, where this tornado developed. It moved north-northeast significantly damaging several homes, destroying barns and outbuildings, and snapping or uprooting trees from Ray Road to Crawley Road. The tornado then moved through open country for a couple miles and turned northeast as it moved across S Smallwood Lane, where it snapped many trees and destroyed outbuildings. It continued to produced significant tree damage along Highway 63 as it approached Haileyville. Many homes and businesses were damaged in town, some were destroyed, as it continued northeast to Lone Oak Road W on the northeast side of town, where the tornado began to move east. Homes were damaged, many trees were snapped, an electrical substation was damaged, and power poles were snapped before it dissipated near Price Road, south of Shelton Road. This tornado was observed by multiple people. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:22 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 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.

Mc Alester Regional (MLC), 19 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), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:38 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.