Unrated tornado, Chester, Oklahoma, May 25, 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 25, 2024

Touchdown

6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Major County

Touchdown point

36.288, -98.955

Lift-off point

36.316, -98.904

Record number

2405251729-01

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.

This tornado was observed by storm chasers including research meteorologists from NSSL. The tornado moved northeast in generally inaccessible rural areas and/or canyons north of Chester where damage was not observed. The tornado path is estimated.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:13 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 01:46 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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.

West Woodward (WWR), 55 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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

19 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.