EF1 tornado, Custer City to Weatherford, 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 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

May 19, 2024

Touchdown

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

Lifted

8:14 PM CDT (01:14 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

35.629, -98.774

Lift-off point

35.617, -98.691

Record number

2405191905-01

108 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 118 mph.

• mPing report of trees uprooted or snapped and/or roof blown off.
• Loss of roofing material and gutters.
• Tree branch driven into ground
• Home appeared to have front facade pushed inward; minor damage to outbuilding.

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.

While the large multiple-vortex tornado was approaching US-183 to the south, another tornado developed to the north along E0900 Road. It moved east along E0900 Road and then turned east-northeast after crossing US-183. The tornado was observed to dissipate north of Custer City by a meteorologist in the field. At least a half dozen outbuildings were significantly damaged and at least two of these were destroyed. In addition, tree and power pole damage was observed along the path.

This tornado developed near County Road N2370 north of County Road E0960. It moved southeast and then east crossing State Highway 54 about 6 miles north of Weatherford. One home east of SH-54 suffered significant roof damage and at least two others had some damage to shingles. One mobile home had roof and siding damage, a few outbuildings were damaged or destroyed, and numerous trees and power poles were damaged.

Satellite imagery indicated a narrow damage path in a farm field north of Weatherford. A storm chaser observed this tornado northeast of Weatherford doing damage along E 1000 Road where tree and power pole damage was observed.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:33 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:13 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 Norman radar (KTLX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:03 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.