EF0 tornado, Warr Acres to Forest Park, Oklahoma, May 25, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

May 25, 2019

Touchdown

10:57 PM CDT (03:57 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2,000

County

Oklahoma County

Touchdown point

35.536, -97.460

Lift-off point

35.536, -97.460

Record number

1905252157-01

65 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 94 mph.

• Large tree leaning against house
• tree damage. no structure damage.
• Carport ripped off front of house.
• Car port and roof from neaby business on top of home

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

Scattered supercells merged into a linear system that produced a variety of severe weather on the 25th.

An area of damage consistent with a narrow QLCS tornado was found within a larger swath of damaging winds. This tornado developed near NW 11th Terrace and Warren Place and moved east along and just north of Liberty Avenue to just north of Liberty Avenue and Portland Avenue. Besides trees, damage was also observed to house roofs, porches and car ports with evidence of debris lofted.

A second area consistent with a tornado was observed within a larger swath of thunderstorm wind damage as a Quasi-Linear Convective System moved through. This tornado developed just west of NW 20th Street and Blackwelder Avenue and initially moved east-northeast. Just west of Douglas Avenue, the tornado turned north until reaching NW 23rd Street, then turned east-northeast dissipating near NW 24th Street and Western Avenue. A restaurant near NW 23rd Street and Douglas suffered roof damage on the east side of the building, and windows were broken in a building that had previously housed Rainbow Records at NW 23rd and Classen. Elsewhere along the path, trees and powerlines were damaged as well as roof damage to one home, an damaged outbuilding, and street signs along NW 23rd.

Within the larger area of thunderstorm wind damage, a small tornado developed just southeast of NE 42nd Street and Kelley Avenue and moved northeast to near NE 43rd Street and Everest Avenue. A church sign was destroyed and large trees were uprooted (although in ground that was much wetter than usual after recent heavy rainfall.) One of these trees fell onto a parked car.

One final tornado embedded within a larger area of wind damage caused damage to a convenience store at NE 63rd Street and Kelley Avenue, or just southeast of the Interstate 35/Interstate 44 interchange.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:49 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:22 UTC and running to 06:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:41 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.

Tinker Afb (TIK), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:59 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

21 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.