EF1 tornado, Oologah to Watova, Oklahoma, November 4, 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 4, 2024

Touchdown

12:49 PM CST (18:49 UTC)

Lifted

1:04 PM CST (19:04 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

9.6 miles (15.4 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Rogers and Nowata counties

Touchdown point

36.508, -95.812

Lift-off point

36.613, -95.698

Record number

2411041249-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed into and across eastern Oklahoma during the late morning through afternoon of the 4th, in an unseasonably moist and unstable air mass ahead of an approaching cold front. The atmosphere became very unstable ahead of the thunderstorms. The deep-layer and low-level wind shear strengthened during the afternoon, in response to a strong storm system translating into the Southern Plains from the Southern Rockies. The combination of very unstable air and very strong wind shear resulted in the development of some supercell thunderstorms, which produced multiple tornadoes across northeast and east central Oklahoma, including a long-track significant tornado that affected Cherokee and Adair Counties before moving into Arkansas. Damaging wind gusts also occurred. Locally heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding.

This is the first segment of a two-segment tornado. The tornado developed just east of the Washington/Rogers County line, near the E 350 Road, where a couple trees were blown down. It moved northeast over open country before impacting the Talala Oklahoma Mesonet station, which is located just west of the S 4080 Road and south of the E 300 Road. The mesonet instruments measured 94 mph wind gusts. The tornado crossed the S 4080 Road, uprooting trees, and then crossed into Nowata County west of the S 4100 Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. The tornado moved into Nowata County west of the N 4100 Road. It moved northeast and dissipated east of the N 4100 Road, and north of the E 280 Road. Trees were uprooted in its path. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:38 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:53 UTC and running to 22:16 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 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 Tulsa radar (KINX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:51 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

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.