EF4 Marietta–Dickson–Baum 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

April 27, 2024

Touchdown

11:08 PM CDT (04:08 UTC)

Lifted

11:43 PM CDT (04:43 UTC)

On the ground

35 minutes

Path length

26.8 miles (43.1 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

6

Property damage

$151 million

Counties

Love and Carter counties

Touchdown point

33.915, -97.144

Lift-off point

34.266, -96.967

Record number

2404272208-01

240 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• Path of tornado through a tree row 1/4 mi north.
• Homeland grocery store. Will need to confer on final wind estimate.
• Pic facing east of rooftop unit, 60m east of centerline.
• Is a Dollar general a large isolated retail building or a metal building system?

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.

The Marietta-Lake Murray-Dickson tornado first produced damage near Peanut Road south of Indian Trails Road about two miles southwest of downtown Marietta. Trees and power poles were damaged near the beginning of the path and a house received some shingle damage. EF2 damage was observed as the tornado moved north-northeast and crossed Indian Trails Road where a home was unroofed and many trees were snapped.||As the tornado turned more northeast, it struck a Dollar Tree Distribution Center just west of Interstate 35 on the west side of Marietta causing significant roof and exterior wall damage to the facility. The company reported that the building and the inventory were not salvageable. A fatality occurred as the tornado crossed Interstate 35 just northeast of the distribution center and south of State Highway 32 as a southbound semi truck was overturned by the tornado. The driver was injured and the passenger was killed. ||Just east of Interstate 35 along State Highway 32, the tornado destroyed a Dollar General store and a Homeland Grocery Store. NWS surveyors in coordination with a wind engineer rated the destruction of these two buildings as EF4. In this area, the tornado also caused significant damage to a truck stop, hospital and nursing home. The tornado continued north-northeast through the northwestern sections of Marietta continuing to produce tree, roof and power pole damage although damage intensity was not as strong as near State Highway 32.||After moving out of Marietta, the tornado turned northeast again snapping numerous trees and damaging a barn as it approached Lake Murray. The tornado crossed the southeastern portion of Lake Murray near the dam. It severely damaged a mobile home, destroyed a barn and snapped more trees after crossing the lake. The tornado then moved into Carter County near Scott Road.

The deaths

1 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.

11 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:57 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:45 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.

Ardmore Downtown Exec Airport (1F0), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norman radar (KTLX), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:06 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.