Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 2024
Unrated tornado, Burneyville to Overbrook, Oklahoma, May 25, 2024
From Burneyville to Overbrook, this Unrated tornado ran 0.5 miles across Love County on May 25, 2024, touching down at 8:06 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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 mph
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- Unrated
- Date
- May 25, 2024
- Touchdown
- 8:06 PM CDT (01:06 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:07 PM CDT (01:07 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Love County
- Touchdown point
- 34.038, -97.209
- Lift-off point
- 34.044, -97.206
- Record number
- 2405251906-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A severe weather outbreak impacted portions of western Oklahoma and western-north Texas during the afternoon into evening of the 25th. At upper levels, a high-amplitude trough passed across the Plains during the day, with a focused jet ejection across portions of the Texas Panhandle/Oklahoma. The combination of strong dynamics/kinematics, locally extreme instability (objective analysis depiction >6000 J/kg CAPE) and unseasonably rich low-level moisture was sufficient for significant supercell thunderstorms. An initial round of supercells developed across portions of western-north Texas and eventually spread into portions of southwestern and southern Oklahoma through the evening. Additional supercells developed across northwestern Oklahoma, moving into northern Oklahoma by the late evening. All severe hazards, including multiple tornadoes, were observed with the most robust and longest-sustaining storms.
Storm chasers observed a tornado north-northeast of Burneyville. No damage was reported and the location is estimated.
Storm chasers observed a tornado to the west-southwest of Overbrook and northwest of Marietta. No damage was reported and the tornado path is estimated.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
42 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:24 UTC, 42 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 03:32 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:28 UTC | 03:32 UTC | Tornado Watch | OUN |
| 23:29 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 23:38 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:01 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 00:24 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:25 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 01:06 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 01:06 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 01:33 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | OUN |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced 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 01:17 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 air that afternoon
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.
Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z
1.1 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. May 26, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3919 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -23 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4067 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 575 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 75 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 326 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 262 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 6.8
- Supercell composite
- 21.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z
10.9 hours after it, 132 km from the path. May 26, 2024.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 875 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -388 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1869 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1592 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 64 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 465 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 441 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The surface observations
Ardmore Downtown Exec Airport (1F0), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:15 UTC | 80.6 | 75.2 | 130° 10 kt | 14 | 1005.4 | |
| 23:35 UTC | 80 | 75.4 | 190° 7 kt | 1006.1 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 80 | 75.6 | 160° 9 kt | 1004.4 | BR | |
| 00:15 UTC | 80.8 | 75.6 | 180° 10 kt | 14 | 1005.8 | RA |
| 00:35 UTC | 80.2 | 77 | 170° 9 kt | 1005.4 | RA BR | |
| 00:55 UTC | 79 | 77 | 160° 13 kt | 23 | 1004.7 | RA BR |
| 01:15 UTC | 71.6 | 66 | 120° 14 kt | 24 | 1004.7 | RA |
| 01:35 UTC | 73 | 66.2 | 110° 16 kt | 26 | 1004.4 | -RA |
| 01:55 UTC | 75 | 71.2 | 110° 10 kt | 1004.1 | BR | |
| 02:15 UTC | 77.7 | 75.7 | 120° 10 kt | 14 | 1004.4 | BR |
| 02:35 UTC | 78 | 76 | 150° 9 kt | 1004.1 | BR | |
| 02:55 UTC | 78 | 76.3 | 140° 10 kt | 1003.4 | BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norman radar (KTLX), 144 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:08 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 25, 2024
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | 4:59 PM EDT | EF0 | Beaver, PA | 0.1 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:16 PM CDT | EF1 | Archer, TX | 3.4 | 200 | $20,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Clay, TX | 3.4 | 100 | $2,000 | ||
| May 25 | 5:42 PM CDT | EF2 | Eastland, TX | 2.5 | 70 | $100,000 | ||
| May 25 | 6:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Woodward, OK | 2.6 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| May 25 | 6:29 PM CDT | Unrated | Major, OK | 3.4 | 200 | |||
| May 25 | 7:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Barber, KS | 1.3 | 1 | |||
| May 25 | 7:29 PM CDT | EF2 | Harper, KS | 6.7 | 100 | |||
| May 25 | 7:54 PM CDT | Unrated | Love, OK | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| May 25 | 9:39 PM CDT | EF3 | Valley View tornado, TX | 47.3 | 1,400 | 7 | 80 | $19 million |
| May 25 | 10:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Denton, TX | 1.4 | 800 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 25 | 11:19 PM CDT | EF3 | Claremore–Pryor tornado, OK | 23.9 | 2,000 | 2 | 23 | $45 million |
| May 25 | 11:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Collin, TX | 8.3 | 800 | $10,000 | ||
| May 25 | 11:23 PM CDT | EF3 | Collin, TX | 0.7 | 175 | $1.2 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:07 AM CDT | EF1 | Mayes, OK | 6.1 | 2,000 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:15 AM CDT | EF1 | Hunt, TX | 1.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 25 | 12:25 AM CDT | EF1 | Mayes, OK | 2.4 | 300 | $3.8 million | ||
| May 25 | 12:36 AM CDT | EF1 | Delaware, OK | 1.8 | 650 | |||
| May 25 | 12:59 AM CDT | EF3 | Decatur tornado, Oklahoma and Arkansas | 7.9 | 3,200 | 2 | $6.2 million |
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.