Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2019
EF1 tornado, Sumner, Oklahoma, May 5, 2019
This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Noble County on May 5, 2019, touching down at 11:54 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 5, 2019
- Touchdown
- 11:54 PM CDT (04:54 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:56 PM CDT (04:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- County
- Noble County
- Touchdown point
- 36.282, -97.198
- Lift-off point
- 36.277, -97.175
- Record number
- 1905052254-01
The damage survey
3 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 107 mph.
- Multiple trees snapped on property
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
Thunderstorms moved into the area late in the evening on the 5th with enough instability and shear present to maintain severe weather into the early morning hours of the 6th.
A car was flipped, a garage door damaged, and numerous trees were downed by a tornado east of Perry.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
6 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:48 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:52 UTC and running to 06:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:52 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | OUN |
| 03:10 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 03:16 UTC | 06:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
| 04:05 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 04:35 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 04:48 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 05:04 UTC | 05:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 05:14 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
| 06:23 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 02:12 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.
Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z
4.9 hours before the tornado, 119 km from the path. May 6, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1390 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -34 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2832 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1111 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 54 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 178 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 8.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.6 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
7.1 hours after it, 119 km from the path. May 6, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 903 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -188 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 69 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 757 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 214 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 235 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
The surface observations
Stillwater Municipal (SWO), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | 130° 11 kt | 1009.5 | ||||
| 03:00 UTC | 130° 11 kt | 1009.8 | ||||
| 03:05 UTC | 130° 11 kt | 1009.8 | ||||
| 03:10 UTC | 130° 15 kt | 1009.5 | ||||
| 03:15 UTC | 130° 13 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 03:23 UTC | 73 | 62 | 140° 15 kt | 1009.5 | VCTS -RA | |
| 03:25 UTC | 130° 13 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 03:30 UTC | 130° 11 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 03:31 UTC | 72 | 62 | 120° 11 kt | 1009.1 | TS | |
| 03:35 UTC | 120° 15 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 03:40 UTC | 120° 11 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 03:50 UTC | 120° 11 kt | 1009.1 | RA | |||
| 03:53 UTC | 70 | 63 | 120° 13 kt | 1008.8 | +TSRA | |
| 03:55 UTC | 14 kt | 1008.5 | +RA | |||
| 04:00 UTC | 16 kt | 1008.5 | -RA | |||
| 04:05 UTC | 15 kt | 1008.5 | -RA | |||
| 04:10 UTC | 140° 13 kt | 1008.5 | ||||
| 04:15 UTC | 220° 7 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 04:20 UTC | 280° 5 kt | 1009.5 | RA | |||
| 04:25 UTC | 290° 2 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 04:30 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1008.8 | -RA | |||
| 04:35 UTC | 150° 5 kt | 1008.8 | -RA | |||
| 04:36 UTC | 70 | 64 | 160° 7 kt | 1009.1 | VCTS RA | |
| 04:40 UTC | 150° 5 kt | 1008.8 | +RA | |||
| 04:44 UTC | 69 | 64 | 130° 6 kt | 1008.8 | +TSRA | |
| 04:45 UTC | 130° 7 kt | 1008.8 | RA | |||
| 04:53 UTC | 69 | 64 | 160° 13 kt | 1008.8 | VCTS -RA | |
| 04:55 UTC | 13 kt | 1008.8 | -RA | |||
| 05:00 UTC | 10 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 05:02 UTC | 69 | 64 | 280° 13 kt | 17 | 1010.2 | -TSRA |
| 05:05 UTC | 14 kt | 1010.2 | -RA | |||
| 05:10 UTC | 16 kt | 1009.1 | +RA | |||
| 05:15 UTC | 11 kt | 1010.8 | RA | |||
| 05:16 UTC | 64 | 59 | 250° 15 kt | 28 | 1011.2 | TSRA |
| 05:20 UTC | 23 kt | 1011.5 | +RA | |||
| 05:22 UTC | 62 | 58 | 350° 32 kt | 40 | 1010.8 | +TSRA BR |
| 05:25 UTC | 1010.8 | +RA FG | ||||
| 05:28 UTC | 61 | 58 | 10° 25 kt | 40 | 1010.8 | +TSRA FG |
| 05:30 UTC | 10° | 1010.5 | +RA BR | |||
| 05:33 UTC | 61 | 57 | 10° 23 kt | 37 | 1010.8 | +TSRA BR |
| 05:35 UTC | 20° 21 kt | 1010.8 | +RA BR | |||
| 05:37 UTC | 61 | 58 | 20° 20 kt | 35 | 1010.8 | TSRA BR |
| 05:40 UTC | 20° 16 kt | 1011.2 | -RA BR | |||
| 05:43 UTC | 61 | 58 | 20° 16 kt | 1011.5 | VCTS -RA | |
| 05:45 UTC | 20° 14 kt | -RA | ||||
| 05:46 UTC | 61 | 57 | 20° 13 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |
| 05:50 UTC | 20° 11 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |||
| 05:53 UTC | 61 | 57 | 10° 9 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |
| 05:55 UTC | 360° 8 kt | -RA | ||||
| 06:00 UTC | 20° 8 kt | 1011.5 | -RA | |||
| 06:05 UTC | 30° 9 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 06:10 UTC | 40° 11 kt | 1009.8 | -RA | |||
| 06:15 UTC | 40° 11 kt | 1009.8 | -RA | |||
| 06:20 UTC | 40° 13 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 06:25 UTC | 11 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 06:30 UTC | 30° 11 kt | 1009.8 | ||||
| 06:35 UTC | 30° 10 kt | 1009.8 | ||||
| 06:40 UTC | 30° 9 kt | 1009.8 | ||||
| 06:50 UTC | 40° 7 kt | 1010.2 | ||||
| 06:53 UTC | 61 | 56 | 60° 5 kt | 1010.2 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:52 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:40 UTC | HAIL 1 | Hunter | Garfield, OK | |
| 04:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 10 W Perry | Garfield, OK | LARGE BARN DESTROYED. |
| 04:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Perry | Noble, OK | TREES AND POWER POLES DOWN. |
| 04:52 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ese Perry | Noble, OK | LARGE BARN DESTROYED, TREES SNAPPED, CARS FLIPPED. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATE. |
| 05:26 UTC | TSTM WND GST 75 | 6 Wsw Pawnee | Pawnee, OK | STORM SPOTTER MEASURED A BRIEF GUST TO 75 MPH NEAR LELA ON THE PAWNEE AND NOBLE COUNTY LINE. RELAYED BY MEDIA VIA NWSCHAT. |
| 05:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | Perkins | Payne, OK | TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
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 5, 2019
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5 | 11:27 AM EDT | EF1 | Marion, FL | 0.9 | 100 | |||
| May 5 | 12:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Pinellas, FL | 0.4 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 5 | 5:35 PM CDT | Unrated | Lancaster, NE | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| May 5 | 5:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Ford, KS | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| May 5 | 5:38 PM CDT | EF2 | Lancaster, NE | 0.6 | 200 | |||
| May 5 | 5:45 PM CDT | EF2 | Lynn, TX | 17.2 | 2,112 | $36,000 | ||
| May 5 | 6:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Meade, KS | 1.1 | 100 | |||
| May 5 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Barton, KS | 0.6 | 75 | $40,000 | ||
| May 5 | 6:30 PM CDT | Unrated | Rice, KS | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 5 | 6:49 PM CDT | Unrated | Meade, KS | 0.4 | 75 | |||
| May 5 | 7:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Rice, KS | 0.5 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| May 5 | 7:04 PM CDT | Unrated | Meade, KS | 0.7 | 75 | |||
| May 5 | 7:12 PM CDT | EF1 | Lynn, TX | 5.0 | 880 | |||
| May 5 | 7:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Reno, KS | 0.3 | 200 | |||
| May 5 | 7:34 PM CDT | EF1 | Reno, KS | 0.1 | 300 | |||
| May 5 | 7:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Reno, KS | 0.4 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| May 5 | 8:00 PM CDT | Unrated | Reno, KS | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 5 | 8:20 PM CDT | Unrated | Reno, KS | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| May 5 | 8:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Sumner, KS | 0.8 | 75 | |||
| May 5 | 8:49 PM CDT | Unrated | Roberts, TX | 6.4 | 500 | |||
| May 5 | 8:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Borden, TX | 0.4 | 50 |
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.