EF1 tornado, Eldorado to Mc Queen, Oklahoma, November 18, 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

November 18, 2024

Touchdown

2:48 AM CST (08:48 UTC)

Lifted

2:52 AM CST (08:52 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Counties

Harmon and Jackson counties

Touchdown point

34.493, -99.782

Lift-off point

34.539, -99.760

Record number

2411180248-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Light debris (tin, farm chemical barrels) blown north and trapped along fence line
• Irrigation rig overturned approx 1/3 mi s of this road
• Logan: 4 power poles snapped in this curve

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

An intense (90-knot) mid-level jet streak lifted from the Texas Big Bend region into the Southern High Plains early on the 18th. An extensive quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) took shape across West Texas and moved into portions of western Oklahoma and western-north Texas during this time. With anomalously strong kinematics and marginally sufficient wind shear, a few portions of the line produced reports of thunderstorm wind damage and multiple brief/weak tornadoes. With time, the convective system gradually weakened into portions of central and eastern Oklahoma, producing only sporadic wind gusts/damage by daybreak.

This tornado developed in far western Jackson County. Utility poles were damaged along the Harmon County line as the tornado moved into southern Harmon County.

This tornado moved into southern Harmon County from far western Jackson County. Utility poles were snapped along and just north of the county line along State Highway 5.

This tornado began south of Gould, along or just west of State Highway 5 and north of E1660 Road. The tornado moved to the north and then northwest, before dissipating just to the west of the city of Gould. Numerous power poles were snapped and broken along E1650 road, while several central pivot irrigation units sustained damage.

A tornado developed just northeast of Duke where some light damage was reported. The tornado continued to move north into Greer County about a mile east of State Highway 34.

A Tornado Debris Signature (TDS) was observed on KFDR radar as this storm moved north from Harmon County into far southwestern Greer County west of the community of Russell. No specific damage locations were reported so this path is estimated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:03 UTC and running to 11:42 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:39 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), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:46 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

9 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.