Unrated tornado, Talala, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

2:51 PM CDT (19:51 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Rogers County

Touchdown point

36.535, -95.804

Lift-off point

36.535, -95.804

Record number

1904301351-01

17 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 120 mph.

• leaning in opposite directions
• picture is of the replacement poles

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 is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. In Rogers County, the tornado moved northeast and widened from near the E 340 Road across open country to north of the E 320 Road, where barns were damaged, the roofs of homes were damaged, and tree were uprooted. The tornado severely damaged a home, destroyed barns and outbuildings, and snapped two-pole utility structures near the S 4100 Road, before turning east and dissipating over open country north of the E 300 Road. It was observed by multiple people. Based on the damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

This tornado was a satellite tornado of the Talala Tornado, and was observed by a storm chaser. Since the tornado occurred over open country inaccessible by road, there is no known damage from this tornado.

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

37 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:14 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:02 UTC and running to 01:29 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:05 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.

Bartlesville/Philli (BVO), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:51 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.