EF3 tornado, Choctaw to Harrah, Oklahoma, November 3, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

November 3, 2024

Touchdown

1:57 AM CST (07:57 UTC)

Lifted

2:28 AM CST (08:28 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

25.1 miles (40.4 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$40 million

Counties

Oklahoma and Lincoln counties

Touchdown point

35.400, -97.242

Lift-off point

35.701, -97.002

Record number

2411030157-01

444 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 143 mph.

• Multiple snapped poles along this street
• Some roof material missing, trees uprooted in front yard. Trailer on side of house thrown a quarter mile northeast. Still looking for it.
• Backside of house is blown out
• Seems to be under construction

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

An expansive (high-amplitude) longwave trough, in combination with unseasonable moisture/instability and wind shear, yielded a prolonged period of severe weather and flooding across the southern two-thirds of Oklahoma and portions of western-north Texas. While thunderstorms began during the daytime on the 2nd, the episode's first (and most impactful) convective period occurred during the late evening hours of the 2nd into early morning of the 3rd. Both linear and cellular convective modes were observed during this time, producing numerous reports of damaging winds and a localized tornado event along the Interstate 44 corridor. This included three EF-3 tornadoes, causing significant damage across the eastern/southeastern suburbs of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan area and in areas east of Duncan/Comanche in Stephens County.��||Another widespread round of strong to severe thunderstorm activity occurred from the early afternoon into mid-evening on the 3rd, primarily across south-central into southeast Oklahoma. Once again, a mixed-mode event produced numerous reports of severe weather (mainly wind and a few tornadoes).

This tornado developed southeast of Indian Meridian Road and SE 59th Street in southeastern Oklahoma City, and then moved north and north and northeast through the far southeastern section of Choctaw, and the western and northern portions of Harrah. This tornado caused extensive damage to many homes, trees and power lines. ||EF1 damage was initially observed to trees, power lines and a few homes, but the more significant damage began as the tornado approached SE 44th Street. EF2 to EF3 damage was observed near and north of SE 44th Street as the tornado moved through neighborhoods between Indian Meridian Road and Triple XXX Road. Widespread EF2 to EF3 damage was also observed in neighborhoods near SE 15th Street and west of Peebly Road. The tornado continued moving northeast across Harrah and Horseshoe Lake producing EF1-EF2 damage before moving into Lincoln County north of NE 63rd Street.

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 07:42 UTC and running to 09:11 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:30 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), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:54 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

15 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.