EF1 tornado, Seward to Edmond, Oklahoma, August 26, 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 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

August 26, 2019

Touchdown

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Lifted

9:01 PM CDT (02:01 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Logan and Oklahoma counties

Touchdown point

35.771, -97.496

Lift-off point

35.771, -97.496

Record number

1908261955-01

76 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• powerline repair underway. Tornado start point
• car port blown to the south along with half a cedar tree.
• houses appear to have no damage.
• most trees with snapped limbs. appear to be post oak. 20% trunks snapped.

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

A highly unstable airmass and a cold front produced intense thunderstorms with widespread various severe hazards including widespread wind damage across the OKC metro area.

The tornado developed near the intersection of West Simpson Road and Kelley Avenue and moved south-southwest. Damage was relatively spotty along the track and consisted primarily of broken tree limbs and branches, along with some snapped and uprooted trees. The most significant structure damage was to a home southeast of Simmons Road and Santa Fe Avenue where a large portion of the roof was removed. The tornado crossed Waterloo Road into Oklahoma County, but dissipated quickly south of the county line.||Damage was also noted north and east of the tornado track, although evidence suggested this was the result of a large surge of straight line thunderstorm winds.

A tornado that developed in Logan County moved south-southwest into Oklahoma County as it crossed Waterloo Road before quickly dissipating south of Waterloo Road near Santa Fe Avenue. Damage in Oklahoma County was confined to broken tree limbs.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:10 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Guthrie (GOK), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:54 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

5 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.