EF1 tornado, Okemah to Okemah Arpt, Oklahoma, March 19, 2020

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

March 19, 2020

Touchdown

10:25 AM CDT (15:25 UTC)

Lifted

10:29 AM CDT (15:29 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

225 yards (206 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Okfuskee County

Touchdown point

35.404, -96.329

Lift-off point

35.418, -96.285

Record number

2003190925-01

6 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 97 mph.

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed over northwestern Texas and southwestern Oklahoma during the evening of the 18th. These storms moved northeast and affected portions of northeastern Oklahoma during the early morning hours of the 19th. Although instability had decreased ahead of these storms during the night-time hours, wind shear had strengthened significantly as these storms moved into northeast Oklahoma. As a result, one of these storms produced a tornado in Creek County. In addition, some of these thunderstorms moved repeatedly across the same areas, which resulted in locally heavy rainfall that combined with saturated soils, produced flash flooding. Another round of thunderstorms moved across northeastern Oklahoma later that morning. Another tornado developed with these thunderstorms, as well as locally damaging wind and flash flooding.||In addition to the flash flooding and severe weather, these multiple rounds of thunderstorms resulted in widespread heavy rainfall across northeastern Oklahoma. One to three inches fell across much of the area, with a heavier axis of three to six inches. This widespread heavy rainfall resulted in moderate flooding of the Caney and Neosho Rivers, and major flooding of the Illinois River.

This tornado developed south of I-40 and west of the N3760 Road. It moved east-northeast destroying a large outbuilding, damaging a home, and snapping large tree limbs as it crossed S 14th Street. Another outbuilding was destroyed east of S 14th Street, and large tree limbs were snapped as it crossed Highway 27. The tornado appeared to dissipate before crossing the N3780 Road, south of the E1100 Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:47 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.

Seminole (SRE), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:25 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 2020 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.