EF0 tornado, Joy, Oklahoma, November 4, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

November 4, 2024

Touchdown

11:49 AM CST (17:49 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Murray County

Touchdown point

34.619, -97.161

Lift-off point

34.619, -97.161

Record number

2411041149-01

As the high-amplitude upper trough (the same as in episodes on the 2nd & 3rd) began to translate eastward, the final bout of a prolonged severe thunderstorm episode occurred from the early morning into early afternoon on the 4th. A small broken line of severe thunderstorms moved from southwest into central Oklahoma towards daybreak, producing a few reports of wind damage. As an attendant cold front accelerated eastward by the late morning, more thunderstorms developed, including a few supercells. A few brief/weak tornadoes and additional reports of thunderstorm wind damage were observed in south-central and eastern Oklahoma with this activity. From the late evening of the 2nd until the afternoon of the 4th, 26 tornadoes were recorded across Oklahoma, shattering the previous record for tornadoes in a single November (12, 1958).

An off-duty Storm Prediction Center employee observed a small tornado cross U.S. Highway 77 south of Wynnewood, or about 0.3 miles south of the Garvin-Murray County line. Some tree limb damage was observed.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:43 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:52 UTC and running to 19:54 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:12 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), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:50 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.