Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2019
EF1 tornado, Overbrook to Burneyville, Oklahoma, May 1, 2019
From Overbrook to Burneyville, this EF1 tornado ran 6.8 miles across Love County on May 1, 2019, touching down at 5:17 PM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- May 1, 2019
- Touchdown
- 5:17 PM CDT (22:17 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:26 PM CDT (22:26 UTC)
- On the ground
- 9 minutes
- Path length
- 6.8 miles (10.9 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Love County
- Touchdown point
- 33.833, -97.395
- Lift-off point
- 33.911, -97.325
- Record number
- 1905011617-01
The damage survey
21 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 109 mph.
- Mobile home damage. From Love County EM.
- Near pond. From Love County EM
- Tree branch onto power line. From Love County EM
- Tree fell on to storm shelter and truck. From Love County EM.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Outflow boundaries from previous days storms provided focus for thunderstorm development with a variety of severe weather on the 1st.
A tornado caused damage to trees about 5 miles north of Marietta near US Highway 77.
A tornado moved northeast in Love County embedded within a larger area of damaging winds. Although most of the damage was to trees, one mobile home was blown off of it's foundation and destroyed about 3.5 miles east-southeast of Leon.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 18:00 UTC and running to 00:44 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:00 UTC | 00:44 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | OUN |
| 20:19 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 20:55 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 20:57 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 21:15 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 21:38 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
| 21:43 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 22:03 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | OUN |
| 22:04 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 22:12 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 22:44 UTC | 23:14 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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.
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z
10.3 hours before the tornado, 116 km from the path. May 1, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2939 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -33 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3137 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 632 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 242 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 218 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.3
- Supercell composite
- 11.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z
1.7 hours after it, 116 km from the path. May 2, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2332 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2946 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 775 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 239 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 270 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 14.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:15 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:35 UTC | HAIL 1 | Nnw Cornish | Jefferson, OK | SOME MELTING HAD OCCURRED PRIOR TO MEASUREMENT |
| 19:38 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 Ne Healdton | Carter, OK | |
| 20:34 UTC | HAIL 1 | 5 N Leon | Love, OK | |
| 21:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 57 | 1 N Ringling | Jefferson, OK | |
| 21:25 UTC | TORNADO | 5 W Marietta | Love, OK | |
| 22:11 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 W Lebanon | Love, OK | |
| 22:19 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 Sw Madill | Marshall, OK | |
| 22:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Se Leon | Love, OK | POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN IN THE 26000 BLOCK OF LAKE ROAD IN JIMTOWN |
| 22:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 63 | 2 Se Burneyville | Love, OK | |
| 22:45 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 63 | 2 Se Burneyville | Love, OK | |
| 22:50 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 1 Wnw Marietta | Love, OK | MEDIA REPORTED WIND GUSTS OF 60-70 MPH. |
| 22:56 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Sse Kingston | Marshall, OK | |
| 23:10 UTC | HAIL 2 | 4 Sse Kingston | Marshall, OK | GOLFBALL TO 2 INCH SIZE HAIL REPORTED ON MPING. |
| 23:11 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Se Leon | Love, OK | POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN IN THE 26000 BLOCK OF LAKE ROAD IN JIMTOWN |
| 23:11 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 W Overbrook | Love, OK | MARSDEN ROAD IS CLOSED APPROX HALF A MILE SOUTH OF S COUNTY LINE ROAD DUE TO HIGH WATER. FLOODING ON HWY 96 APPROX 3 MILES SOUTH OF HWY 32. |
| 23:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 E Madill | Marshall, OK | TREES DOWN IN MADILL. REPORT VIA TWITTER. |
| 23:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | E Oakland | Marshall, OK | POWER POLE SNAPPED IN MADILL ALONG 16TH STREET JUST SOUTH OF HWY 70. |
| 23:27 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Nnw Madill | Marshall, OK | ABOUT A FOOT AND A HALF OF WATER OVER ROADS. HEAVY RAIN. |
| 23:48 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 6 Wsw Overbrook | Love, OK | OSWALT ROAD IS BEING SHUT DOWN 3 MILES WEST OF MARSDEN ROAD |
| 00:11 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 Sse Kingston | Marshall, OK | STREET FLOODING REPORTED VIA MPING. |
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 May 1, 2019
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 | 6:08 AM CDT | EF1 | Ballard, KY | 0.6 | 85 | $35,000 | ||
| May 1 | 1:26 PM CDT | Unrated | Jefferson, OK | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| May 1 | 1:30 PM CDT | Unrated | Throckmorton, TX | 2.6 | 75 | |||
| May 1 | 2:01 PM CDT | Unrated | Baylor, TX | 1.3 | 200 | |||
| May 1 | 2:08 PM CDT | Unrated | Jefferson, OK | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| May 1 | 4:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Love, OK | 3.2 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| May 1 | 4:46 PM CDT | EF0 | Love, OK | 0.8 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| May 1 | 5:46 PM CDT | Unrated | Haskell, TX | 0.0 | 30 | |||
| May 1 | 8:23 PM CDT | Unrated | Coryell, TX | 0.0 | 10 |
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.