EF1 tornado, Schulter to Pumpkin Center, 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 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

April 27, 2024

Touchdown

12:14 AM CDT (05:14 UTC)

Lifted

12:23 AM CDT (05:23 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

8.9 miles (14.3 km)

Path width

1,100 yards (1006 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Okmulgee County

Touchdown point

35.607, -95.841

Lift-off point

35.706, -95.745

Record number

2404272314-01

74 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 107 mph.

• Center pivot irrigation overturned.

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

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.

This tornado developed west of Schulter and moved northeast across Highway 75 and the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge. It widened and strengthened as it moved across the E1000 Road, where numerous trees were uprooted or snapped. The tornado continued to widen as it approached Morris. At least 70 homes and businesses were damaged in Morris, then the tornado turned to the north and dissipated about a mile north of town. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 105 to 110 mph.

This tornado developed just east of Morris and moved northeast. The tornado widened, and turned north-northeast, just north of the E930 Road, and then turned northeast near the E910 Road, and dissipated east of the N4080 Road. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, numerous power poles were snapped, several homes were damaged, and several outbuildings were destroyed along the path of this tornado. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:59 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:51 UTC and running to 06:28 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.

The Tulsa radar (KINX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:14 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.