EF1 tornado, Tiawah to Langley Arpt, Oklahoma, May 18, 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

May 18, 2019

Touchdown

11:58 AM CDT (16:58 UTC)

Lifted

12:11 PM CDT (17:11 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

10.1 miles (16.3 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

Counties

Rogers and Mayes counties

Touchdown point

36.305, -95.455

Lift-off point

36.400, -95.320

Record number

1905181058-01

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

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

A squall line moved through eastern Oklahoma during the morning hours of May 18th. Very strong low level wind shear and moderately strong instability ahead of the squall line resulted in the development of several tornadoes, as well as damaging wind and large hail up to quarter size, as the line of thunderstorms moved across the area.

This is the first segment of a two-segment tornado. This tornado developed south of Highway 20, about a mile west of the Rogers/Mayes County line. It moved northeast damaging homes, damaging outbuildings, and snapping large tree limbs from Highway 20 to the county line. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 80 to 85 mph. The tornado continued into Mayes County.

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. In Mayes County, this tornado snapped and uprooted trees, damaged outbuildings, and snapped power poles as it moved northeast from the Rogers/Mayes County line south of the W 480 Road to northeast of the intersection of the W 430 Road and N 431 Road where it dissipated. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

This tornado snapped large tree limbs and blew down a few power poles. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 75 to 80 mph.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:33 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:10 UTC and running to 19:17 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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.

Claremore Regional Airport (GCM), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:58 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

24 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.