Oklahoma 61 WFO Norman CWA (all) 37 WFO Norman CWA (OK only) 34 Average May in Oklahoma 23
Preliminary 2019 totals (as of 5/30/19)
Oklahoma 83 WFO Norman CWA (all) 46 WFO Norman CWA (OK only) 43 Average for Oklahoma Jan-May 40
We are still investigating quite a few possible tornadoes, so these numbers will go up in the coming weeks
Tornado Trivia (State of Oklahoma)
• There have been eight EF2 and three EF3 tornadoes in the state in May for a combined 11 “strong” tornadoes o This is the highest number of EF2+EF3 tornadoes since 2015 (14) • For the period May 17-25, there was a tornado in the state on eight of those nine days (none on May 19) • There was a tornado every day in the state from May 20 through May 25 • There have been four tornado deaths in the state in 2019 o Two near Blue on April 30, two in El Reno May 25 o All four fatalities were in mobile homes and all from EF3 tornadoes
Outlooks (WFO Norman CWA)
• 22 of 30 days had at least a marginal risk on SPC day one outlook • There was a slight risk or higher on the day one outlook every day from May 17 through May 29 • Every day in May except for three (May 2, 10 and 11) had some SPC outlook (day 1,2,3 or 4-8) covering part of our area Watches (WFO Norman CWA) • 15 tornado watches included parts of our area in May • For the period May 20 through May 26, there was at least one tornado watch in effect every day somewhere in our CWA • Each of our 56 counties was in at least three tornado watches in May, with the majority (33) in six or more
Tornado Warnings (WFO Norman CWA)
• We issued 84 tornado warnings in May o 2008-2018 average for May is 45. Max was 125 in May 2015 • 28 of those were issued from the afternoon of May 20 through the early morning of May 21 • Only five of our 56 counties (Woodward, Tillman, Wilbarger, Murray, Pontotoc) had zero tornado warnings. • Atoka County had the most with 9, with Beckham, Washita, Greer and Kiowa all having 8
Other stats of interest for May 2019
• We added 92 new users to NWSChat • At 2:06 PM on May 20, we had at least 558 people logged in to our NWSChat room, a record high number for us and likely for the NWS • We did 15 emergency management/media partner webinars in May • The webinar on May 20th had the highest attendance ever at 539