Tornadoes in Oklahoma May 29, 2004

The evening of May 29, 2004 featured a supercell thunderstorm traversing through central Oklahoma, throwing out tornadoes along the way. The government's Storm Prediction Center recorded ten tornado reports from the storm that passed just north of Oklahoma City. Homes were destroyed in the towns of Geary (northwest of Oklahoma City) and Deer Creek (Grant County), and damage was reported in Okarche (Canadian County).

May 29 Oklahoma Tornado Spotter Reports: List | Animation | U.S. Map

NOTE: Apple Quicktime is required to play the movies below.


OKC Base Reflectivity @ 20:44 CDT - Northwest of Oklahoma City, the storm exhibits a clearly defined hook echo. Two storm attribute markers, M5 and L5, show TVS (Tornadic Vortex Signatures), large hail over two inches in diameter, and mesocyclones.		OKC Storm-Relative Velocity @ 20:44 CDT - Captured at the same time as the image at left, strong rotation is clearly shown in northern Canadian County with over 50 knots of inbound and outbound velocities.


OKC Base Reflectivity @ 20:48 CDT - A Tornado Warning is shown enclosing the hook echo in Canadian County while a Severe Thunderstorm Warning (yellow) is in effect for the rest of the storm. RadarPlus is forecasting large hail as the storm moves to the northeast over the next hour.		OKC Base Reflectivity @ 20:52 CDT - Another tornado warning (red) goes out for northern Oklahoma County as the hook echo and tornado begin to move into the northern suburbs of Oklahoma City. The tagged part of the storm at L5 has lost the tornadic signature but a new TVS has formed at S5, and M5 continues to carry it, also showing a high dbZ level at 68 with two inch diameter hail and a mesocyclone.


OKC Base Reflectivity MOVIE - The storm crawls across the Oklahoma countryside on this movie covering 19:07 to 22:38 CDT. The hook echo is apparent the entire time. In fact, at around 9:30 pm, it appears to have two hook echoes just north of Edmond, Oklahoma, as one hook dissolves and another forms.		OKC Storm-Relative Velocity MOVIE - Strong inbound and outbound velocities are apparent, clearly showing rotation, as the storm moves across the state from 19:11 to 22:42 CDT.


OKC Composite Reflectivity MOVIE - Composite Reflectivity, which masks the hook echo (because all levels of the radar data, not just the surface, are taken into account) but reveals that the storm's strength was as high as 73dbZ at two points. It also shows the anvil of the storm blowing off to the northeast during the storm's trek from 19:07 to 22:04 CDT.		OKC Base Velocity MOVIE - Even though Base Velocity is not the best product to observe tornadic rotation (because the movement of the storm counts into the velocity readings), strong inbound and outbound velocities are apparent, clearly showing rotation, as the storm moves across the state from 19:11 to 22:38 CDT.


OKC One-Hour Precip MOVIE - The undulations of the storm are seen in this animation from 19:19 to 22:46 CDT, which depicts the incredible rainfall from the storm, tagged at up to 3.9 inches per hour (of course this NEXRAD product is sometimes subject to exaggeration due to hail).		OKC Vertically Integrated Liquid MOVIE - The V.I.L. (a hail indicator) in this storm pegs the scale at 80 kg/m2 many times in this animation which shows the storm between 19:19 and 22:46 CDT.

SOURCES: KOTV (Damage reports), NOAA SPC (Tornado Reports), WeatherMatrix (Formatted Tornado Reports Table)