Unrated tornado, Moorewood to Custer City, Oklahoma, May 19, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 19, 2024

Touchdown

6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)

Lifted

7:00 PM CDT (00:00 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

35.661, -99.332

Lift-off point

35.661, -99.323

Record number

2405191758-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• mPing report of trees uprooted or snapped and/or roof blown off.
• Compressor shed destroyed per EM. Unsure of DoD to use.
• Garage doors blown out of east and west ends of a barn per EM. Also tree top damage.

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

Significant severe weather occurred across portions of western into central Oklahoma from the late afternoon of the 19th through early morning on the 20th. Aloft, a strong and compact upper wave moved across portions of Kansas during the afternoon. While most severe weather outcomes were expected further north of the WFO Norman area, a few supercell thunderstorms developed along a trailing dryline near the 100th meridian. This included a powerful supercell thunderstorm that moved from Hemphill County, Texas (WFO Amarillo, Texas) into portions of Roger Mills/Custer/Washita/Blaine/Canadian/Oklahoma counties during the afternoon into late evening hours. This thunderstorm was responsible for thirteen (13) tornadoes, including significant tornadoes west of Custer City and near Yukon, Oklahoma. Significant damaging wind gusts/damage and large to very large hail also occurred with this thunderstorm. Additional hail-producing supercells developed into portions of northwestern Oklahoma during the evening, with one becoming briefly tornadic during the late evening across Woods County, Oklahoma.

A storm chaser observed this partially rain-wrapped tornado about 4 miles northeast of Hammon. No damage was reported and the tornado path was estimated.

A television storm chaser observed this tornado develop northwest of E0930 Road and N2205 Road moving southeast crossing E0930 Road. Initially the tornado was a narrow tornado, then as it turned east-northeast quickly become a large multiple-vortex tornado as observed visually and in the damage pattern. The total damage width was about 2.7 miles along N2240 Road, including both damaging inflow winds north of the tornado and very strong damaging Rear Flank Downdraft (RFD) winds south of the tornado, but the tornado width itself was about one mile wide based on the damage survey and preliminary mobile radar data from Texas Tech University. The tornado narrowed as it approached US-183 near E0920 Road and dissipated soon afterwards.||Although tree and power pole damage was observed along the entire path, the most significant structure damage occurred along E020 Road from near N2240 Road to just east of US-183. At least two outbuildings were destroyed and two others damaged and one home had roof damage. As the tornado approached N2260 Road, a trailer and a rail car used for storage were blown a significant distance to the west, despite being on the southern periphery of the damage area, giving further evidence of the multiple-vortex tornado.||Preliminary data from a Ka-band mobile research radar from Texas Tech University showed a peak instantaneous velocity of 87.9 m/s (197 mph) at about 30 meters AGL when the tornado was approximately 6 miles west-northwest of Custer City. This was an instantaneous velocity measurement which is not directly compatible with the 3-second average wind velocity used by the EF-scale to determine intensity, but does provide indirect evidence that the tornado was likely stronger locally than the EF2 rating based on the damage survey.

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

50 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:08 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:29 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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 Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:57 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

31 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.