Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2019
EF0 tornado, Clear Lake to Beaver, Oklahoma, August 23, 2019
From Clear Lake to Beaver, this EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Beaver County on August 23, 2019, touching down at 8:10 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- August 23, 2019
- Touchdown
- 8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Beaver County
- Touchdown point
- 36.797, -100.351
- Lift-off point
- 36.797, -100.386
- Record number
- 1908231910-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered to numerous thunderstorms developed during the evening across the eastern Oklahoma Panhandle along a low pressure trough. Thunderstorm development was enhanced by a vigorous mid-level shortwave trough encountering a very moist and unstable atmosphere.
The tornado touched down near a rural ranch home. Significant tree damage occurred in that location along with damage to the roof of a barn and the porch and roof of one home in the complex. Another outbuilding was destroyed further along the path. The degree of|damage and lack of damage to power poles along the path supported an EF0 rating.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
3 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:07 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:14 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:08 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 00:14 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | AMA |
| 00:45 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | AMA |
| 00:55 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 01:07 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | AMA |
| 01:45 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | AMA |
| 01:57 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 02:14 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | AMA |
| 02:27 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | AMA |
| 03:13 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 05:34 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Flood Warning | AMA |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:39 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 air that afternoon
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.
Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z
1.2 hours before the tornado, 116 km from the path. August 24, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 340 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -200 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 592 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1000 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 183 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 381 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z
10.8 hours after it, 116 km from the path. August 24, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -89820 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 427 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1227 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 190 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 94 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The radar
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:12 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 E Beaver | Beaver, OK | TRAINED SPOTTERS REPORTED THAT BARN WAS DESTROYED WITH DAMAGE TO A HOUSE 6 MILES EAST OF BEAVER. |
| 01:10 UTC | TORNADO | 9 E Beaver | Beaver, OK | BASED ON A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY, THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN 9 MILES EAST OF BEAVER, OKLAHOMA AT 810 PM, THEN LIFTED APPROXIMTELY 7 MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF BEAVER, OKLAHOMA AT 820 PM. THIS TORNADO WAS |
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 1 Ssw Beaver | Beaver, OK | |
| 01:21 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Beaver | Beaver, OK | |
| 02:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Beaver | Beaver, OK | FLOODING REPORTED IN BEAVER WITH WATER RUSHING ACROSS LOW LYING AREAS ON HIGHWAY 270 ALONG WITH OTHER ROADS IN BEAVER. |
| 02:18 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Forgan | Beaver, OK | REPORTS OF FLOODING WITH WATER COVERED ROADWAYS IN FORGAN. |
| 02:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 72 | 8 W Slapout | Beaver, OK | |
| 02:20 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Slapout | Beaver, OK | |
| 02:55 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Beaver | Beaver, OK | REPORTS OF WATER INSIDE A CONVENIENCE STORE IN NORTH BEAVER. |
| 02:55 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Beaver | Beaver, OK | REPORTS OF WATER INSIDE A CONVENIENT STORE IN NORTH BEAVER. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 23, 2019
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.