EF3 Holdenville tornado, Oklahoma, April 27, 2024

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 27, 2024

Touchdown

10:36 PM CDT (03:36 UTC)

Lifted

11:15 PM CDT (04:15 UTC)

On the ground

39 minutes

Path length

27.9 miles (44.9 km)

Path width

1,760 yards (1609 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

4

Property damage

$1.8 million

Counties

Hughes and Okfuskee counties

Touchdown point

35.001, -96.442

Lift-off point

35.388, -96.311

Record number

2404272136-01

101 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN and NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.

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

A widespread, long-duration and historic severe weather and tornado outbreak occurred from the late morning through late evening on the 27th. In all, 32 tornadoes affected portions of the WFO Norman Forecast Area, the third most in a single day during the period of reliable record. This included six significant (EF-2+) tornadoes and one violent (EF-4) tornado that struck Marietta (Love County). ||Synoptically, a slow-moving and deep mid/upper-level wave progressed across the Four Corners region during the day. At the surface, an area of low-pressure strengthened/deepened across southwest Kansas, with a trailing dryline extending near and just west of the 100th meridian through much of the day. As ascent overspread this feature, numerous (organized) severe thunderstorms developed across the WFO Norman Forecast Area, even by as early as daybreak/early morning hours. The boundary layer was characterized by strong instability and wind shear, favorable for an organized/supercell storm mode. Initial supercells across western Oklahoma produced a few reports of large hail and the first (brief) tornadoes of the event just after 10 AM. Supercell storm development continued across portions of the area, focusing along an axis from western-north Texas into north-central Oklahoma through much of the afternoon. The first significant (EF-2) tornado of the event impacted the eastern edge of Knox City (Knox County, Texas) just after 3 PM. Through the evening, a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) organized and swept across much of southern/central Oklahoma and adjacent north Texas. Numerous mesovortex-type tornadoes developed and impacted the aforementioned areas. Ahead of the main convective line, strong warm air advection, driven by an increasing (45-60 knot) low-level jet, promoted the development of pre-frontal/line supercell thunderstorms. Multiple of these storms became strongly tornadic, producing multiple strong and long-tracking tornadoes. This included an EF-2 tornado impacting the western portions of Ardmore, an EF-3 tornado making a direct impact on the historic downtown district and adjacent neighborhoods in Sulphur, an EF-3 tornado traversing western portions of Hughes County, just west of Holdenville, and an EF-4 tornado destroying a Dollar Tree distribution center and nearby large retail stores on the western side of Marietta. The latter three tornadoes resulted in fatalities (1 in Sulphur, 2 near Holdenville and 1 in Marietta) along with additional injuries. ||Beyond severe weather outcomes, a significant flash flooding event occurred from the late evening of the 27th through mid-morning of the 28th. The corridor of highest rainfall, with observed 24-hour totals of 5-to-8 inches, occurred across portions of south-central into southeast Oklahoma, on the heels of a cluster of significant tornado impacts earlier in the evening. Additional flooding occurred across far northern Oklahoma (Kay County) during the evening of the 27th.

Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of the 27th over central Oklahoma, along and ahead of the dry line, as a strong upper level low pressure system deepened into the Southern Rockies. Strong instability and strong wind shear over eastern Oklahoma supported organized severe thunderstorms, including supercells. The first round of storms affected portions of far northeastern Oklahoma during the early evening. By late evening, a line of severe thunderstorms moved into eastern Oklahoma from the west, with embedded supercells within the line, as well as a supercell ahead of the line. A strong tornado moved into Okfuskee County with the supercell ahead of the line. Multiple other tornadoes occurred as the storms moved through the area during the early morning hours of the 28th, along with damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. Isolated areas of flash flooding also occurred.||Another round of severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 28th. The strongest storms produced tornadoes, large hail to quarter size, and damaging wind gusts.

The Spaulding-Holdenville Tornado developed along County Road N369 in the south side of the town of Spaulding and moved north through Spaulding causing roof damage to a few homes and damaging some outbuildings, metal buildings and trees. The damage in and near Spaulding was primarily EF1 damage.||The tornado became wider as it moved north-northeast from Spaulding becoming almost two-thirds of a mile wide as it crossed County Road E135 and a mile wide as it moved north of County Road E134. Most of the damage west of Holdenville was between Spaulding Road and County Road N369 missing the most populated part of Holdenville to the west and the missing the Davis Correctional Facility to the east. The tornado continued producing roof damage to homes as well as damage to outbuildings, metal buildings, trees and power poles. ||The tornado was still about one mile in width as it moved north-northeast crossing US Highway 270 and County Road E132, but the intensity increased from EF1 to EF3 as it approached County Road E131. Multiple mobile homes were completely destroyed in this area. Two fatalities occurred in mobile homes here where a 35 year old man was killed in one mobile home and a 4 month old girl was killed in another.||Although the tornado moved through less densely populated areas of Hughes County continued moving north-northeast through less densely populated areas of Hughes County, it still produced significant roof damage to homes and destroyed mobile homes as it continued moving north-northeast, especially along State Highway 48 north of Holdenville, County Road E125 just east of State Highway 48, and E120 Road where EF2 damage was observed in each of these areas. The tornado then crossed E119 Road into Okfuskee County. See the Eastern Oklahoma entry from NWS Tulsa for the continuation of this tornado.

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado that started in Hughes County, where it also produced EF-3 damage. This strong tornado moved north-northeast from Hughes County, crossing into Okfuskee County between the N3730 and N3740 Roads. A home was destroyed just north of the county line. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, and numerous power poles were blown down through the E1170 Road, then it moved into the Bearden Oil and Gas Field, where road access was very minimal. Two high tension metal pole structures were blown down in this area, just south of the E1160 Road, and east of the N3740 Road. The tornado continued to move north-northeast severely damaging a home, and snapping numerous trees along the N3760 Road, before dissipating south of the E1110 Road and west of Highway 27. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 135 to 145 mph.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:17 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:50 UTC and running to 08:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:02 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), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:33 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 2024 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

62 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 63 of them

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.