Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2024
EF0 tornado, Wellston, Oklahoma, May 13, 2024
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Lincoln County on May 13, 2024, touching down at 4:35 AM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- May 13, 2024
- Touchdown
- 4:35 AM CDT (09:35 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- Lincoln County
- Touchdown point
- 35.599, -97.134
- Lift-off point
- 35.599, -97.134
- Record number
- 2405130335-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak upper trough propagated into portions of the Central Plains from the late evening of the 12th into the early morning hours of the 13th. A small quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) developed across portions of northwest Oklahoma and pushed into central Oklahoma during the early morning hours of the 13th. With this complex, sub-severe hail and a weak tornado occurred.
Lincoln County Emergency Management reported damage to a home in far western Lincoln County about 6 miles southeast of Luther. A house received roof damage on the east side of the roof and a shed was blown 700 feet into a field.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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 surface observations
Tinker Afb (TIK), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norman radar (KTLX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:34 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 13, 2024
16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 13 | 3:32 AM CDT | EF1 | Lawrence, MS | 0.5 | 280 | $120,000 | ||
| May 13 | 3:37 AM CDT | EF1 | Lawrence, MS | 0.8 | 230 | $100,000 | ||
| May 13 | 11:44 AM CDT | Unrated | Walton, FL | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| May 13 | 3:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Calhoun, TX | 13.6 | 150 | $8,000 | ||
| May 13 | 3:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Taney, MO | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| May 13 | 4:41 PM CDT | EF2 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 3.4 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| May 13 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 6.5 | 300 | $150,000 | ||
| May 13 | 3:39 PM MST | EF0 | Coconino, AZ | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 13 | 6:22 PM CDT | EF2 | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 8.6 | 400 | $250,000 | ||
| May 13 | 6:34 PM CDT | Unrated | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 3.6 | 1 | |||
| May 13 | 6:35 PM CDT | Unrated | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 4.2 | 1 | |||
| May 13 | 6:37 PM CDT | Unrated | Iberville Parish, LA | 0.9 | 100 | |||
| May 13 | 6:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Iberville Parish, LA | 6.6 | 150 | |||
| May 13 | 6:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Pointe Coupee Parish, LA | 0.9 | 100 | $15,000 | ||
| May 13 | 6:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Iberville Parish, LA | 1.8 | 120 | $15,000 | ||
| May 13 | 7:23 PM CDT | EF1 | Livingston Parish, LA | 3.3 | 150 | $12,000 |
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.