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An F-5 that touched earth for 17 miles with a funnel that was sometimes as wide as a mile, and 220 MPH winds?
What a nightmare.
And can anyone explain to me why every house and trailer in the mid west does not come equipped with AT LEAST a cubbyhole buried in the ground for people to take refuge?
I heard one announcer telling people in harms way that they needed to abandon their bathrooms and closets to take shelter UNDER GROUND.
I am no expert but it seems to me that more violent tornados are coming more frquently, and in a much wider area than we have come to expect.
And millions of people living in these at risk states do not apparently have any real refuge from these storms.
Frankly that does not make sense to me.
Maybe 20 or 30 years ago a closet or a bathroom gave people enough protection for most tornados, but it seems to me like now, nothing short of a well build underground shelter will do.
Any mid westerners want to explain why the people aren't digging their own shelters?
Can't be that hard to create an emergency tornado refuge, can it?
The mother and baby were killed while traveling on Interstate 40, just west of Oklahoma City, when their vehicle was picked up by the storm, said Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. At least 40 to 50 people were being treated for injuries suffered in the storms, including five patients in critical condition, among them a child, according to the Integris Health hospital system. National Weather Service meteorologists at one point declared a tornado emergency for parts of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, including Moore, and storm spotters were tracking a tornado in the western suburb of Yukon.
Tornado debris hangs from a billboard sign, which was destroyed along Interstate-40 Westbound, as traffic passes slowly just east of El Reno, Oklahoma May 31, 2013.
One twister touched down on Interstate 40 and was reported headed toward Oklahoma City. Television images showed downed power lines and tossed cars as menacing gray funnels churned across the darkening prairie. A tornado also touched down in Moore, which was hit by a massive EF-5 twister last week that killed 24 people. "The Interstate is at a standstill," Randolph said. "We are begging people to get off the Interstate and seek immediate shelter ... We are in a dire situation." Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin told CNN that motorists stuck on any freeway in the path of a twister should try to go in the opposite direction to where the twister was coming from. "What we saw from the tornadoes that came through Moore and the other ones last week was that people who were in cars on the Interstate were killed," Fallin told CNN. Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis told CNN it was "unbelievable" that Moore had been hit again.
MULTIPLE STORMS
Tim Oram, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said it was difficult to know exactly how many tornadoes had touched down, but three major storms were potentially producing tornadoes throughout the center of the state. The service later lifted a tornado warning for Oklahoma City and surrounding areas, but cautioned that storms would bring flooding, large hail and damaging winds to an area south and east of the sprawling metropolitan area, which is home to more than 1.3 million people. At a little after 8 p.m. CDT, two of the storms were passing through Oklahoma City's southeastern suburbs, including Moore, he said. Those two storms were headed toward Norman, with the other storm southwest of the Oklahoma City.
Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City was shut down as it sheltered 1,200 people, local station KWTV reported. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company said that 68,000 customers in the Oklahoma City area were without power. Storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday killed at least three people, including a sheriff. The body of Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter was recovered early on Friday, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Authorities continued to search for a missing game warden on the Fourche La Fave River.
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An F-5 that touched earth for 17 miles with a funnel that was sometimes as wide as a mile, and 220 MPH winds?
What a nightmare.
And can anyone explain to me why every house and trailer in the mid west does not come equipped with AT LEAST a cubbyhole buried in the ground for people to take refuge?
I heard one announcer telling people in harms way that they needed to abandon their bathrooms and closets to take shelter UNDER GROUND.
I am no expert but it seems to me that more violent tornados are coming more frquently, and in a much wider area than we have come to expect.
And millions of people living in these at risk states do not apparently have any real refuge from these storms.
Frankly that does not make sense to me.
Maybe 20 or 30 years ago a closet or a bathroom gave people enough protection for most tornados, but it seems to me like now, nothing short of a well build underground shelter will do.
Any mid westerners want to explain why the people aren't digging their own shelters?
Can't be that hard to create an emergency tornado refuge, can it?
Five people were killed, including a mother and baby killed near Union City. Another person died at El Reno, the first city struck by the storm, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner. Circumstances involving the other two deaths weren't immediately known, Elliott said. About 50 people were hurt, five critically, hospital officials said. Meteorologists had warned about particularly nasty weather Friday but said the storm's fury didn't match that of a deadly twister that struck suburban Moore last week. Violent weather also moved through the St. Louis area, ripping part of the roof off a suburban casino.
Friday's broad storm in Oklahoma hit during the evening rush hour and stuck around, causing havoc on Interstate 40, a major artery connecting suburbs east and west of the city, and dropping so much rain on the area that streets were flooded to a depth of 4 feet. To the south, a severe storm with winds approaching 80 mph rolled into Moore, where a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado killed 24 on May 20. Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Norman, said that while the storm packed a powerful punch, it wasn't as strong as the Moore tornado. "This storm had everything you could handle at one time: tornadoes, hail, lightning, heavy rain, people clogging the highways," Smith said.
The region was fortunate because the storm touched down mostly in rural areas and missed central Oklahoma City. "It's not even close to anything like what we had last week," Smith said. "We were very concerned this would move into downtown. It would have been a major problem. It made all the difference that it was out in the country." The U.S. averages more than 1,200 tornadoes a year and most are relatively small. Of the 60 EF5 tornadoes to hit since 1950, Oklahoma and Alabama have been hit the most - seven times each. Heavy rain and hail hampered rescue efforts in Oklahoma City. Frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had moved east. Highways and streets were clogged late into the night as motorists worked their way around flooded portions of the city. Will Rogers World Airport said flights wouldn't resume until morning, after debris was cleared from runways.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said troopers found the bodies of a woman and an infant near their vehicle. Randolph said it's not known if the woman was driving into the storm when it hit around 7 p.m. Friday. Emergency officials reported that numerous injuries occurred in the area along I-40, and Randolph said there were toppled and wrecked cars littering the area. Troopers requested a number of ambulances at I-40 near Yukon, west of Oklahoma City. Standing water was several feet deep, and in some places it looked more like a hurricane had passed through than a tornado. More than 86,000 utility customers were without power. In Missouri, the combination of high water and fallen power lines closed dozen of roads, snarling traffic on highways and side streets in the St. Louis area. At the Hollywood Casino in suburban of Maryland Heights, gamblers rushed from the floor as a storm blew out windows and tore off part of the roof.
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Already, sad stories coming out of today's storms...
Mother and baby killed as tornadoes menace Oklahoma City
31 May`13 - Violent thunderstorms spawned tornadoes that menaced Oklahoma City and its already hard-hit suburb of Moore on Friday, killing a mother and her baby, and officials worried that drivers stuck on freeways could be trapped in the path of dangerous twisters.
The mother and baby were killed while traveling on Interstate 40, just west of Oklahoma City, when their vehicle was picked up by the storm, said Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The interstate was shut down due to the storm, with multiple crashes and injuries. At least 40 to 50 people were being treated for injuries suffered in the storms, including five patients in critical condition, among them a child, according to the Integris Health hospital system. National Weather Service meteorologists at one point declared a tornado emergency for parts of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, including Moore, and storm spotters were tracking a tornado in the western suburb of Yukon.
Tornado debris hangs from a billboard sign, which was destroyed along Interstate-40 Westbound, as traffic passes slowly just east of El Reno, Oklahoma May 31, 2013.
One twister touched down on Interstate 40 and was reported headed toward Oklahoma City. Television images showed downed power lines and tossed cars as menacing gray funnels churned across the darkening prairie. A tornado also touched down in Moore, which was hit by a massive EF-5 twister last week that killed 24 people. "The Interstate is at a standstill," Randolph said. "We are begging people to get off the Interstate and seek immediate shelter ... We are in a dire situation." Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin told CNN that motorists stuck on any freeway in the path of a twister should try to go in the opposite direction to where the twister was coming from. "What we saw from the tornadoes that came through Moore and the other ones last week was that people who were in cars on the Interstate were killed," Fallin told CNN. Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis told CNN it was "unbelievable" that Moore had been hit again.
MULTIPLE STORMS
Tim Oram, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said it was difficult to know exactly how many tornadoes had touched down, but three major storms were potentially producing tornadoes throughout the center of the state. The service later lifted a tornado warning for Oklahoma City and surrounding areas, but cautioned that storms would bring flooding, large hail and damaging winds to an area south and east of the sprawling metropolitan area, which is home to more than 1.3 million people. At a little after 8 p.m. CDT, two of the storms were passing through Oklahoma City's southeastern suburbs, including Moore, he said. Those two storms were headed toward Norman, with the other storm southwest of the Oklahoma City.
Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City was shut down as it sheltered 1,200 people, local station KWTV reported. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company said that 68,000 customers in the Oklahoma City area were without power. Storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday killed at least three people, including a sheriff. The body of Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter was recovered early on Friday, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Authorities continued to search for a missing game warden on the Fourche La Fave River.
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Oklahoma may be "OK" according to the state's license plates, but for tornadoes, its more than OK it's the world champ. "Central Oklahoma has more tornadoes per square mile than anywhere on Earth," says AccuWeather meteorologist Mike Smith. Over the last two weeks of May, two rare EF5 tornadoes, the strongest on the 0-to-5 Enhanced Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity, tore savage paths through the Sooner State, killing dozens of people. The one that hit May 31 was 2.6 miles wide, the widest ever recorded. In fact, of all the F5 or EF5 tornadoes that have hit the USA since 1950, Oklahoma has been hit by eight, more than any other state. An EF5 tornado is any tornado that has wind speeds of 200 mph or higher. The Enhanced Fujita scale replaced the Fujita scale (noted with "F" ratings) in 2007.
Last month's tornadoes tore through populated areas near Oklahoma City "probably the largest, most tornado-prone urban area in the world," according to weather historian Christopher Burt in his book Extreme Weather. Why is this? Why is the Sooner State so prone to deadly and devastating twisters? Unfortunately for Oklahomans, it's a dangerous and unlucky combination of meteorology, timing, topography and geography. "The ingredients come together in our part of the world so often because of the proximity of the Gulf and Rockies," says research meteorologist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla
Oklahoma provides a fertile breeding ground for tornadoes because of the clash between the warm, moist air from the Gulf and cold air from the Rockies and Canada: One of the main keys to tornado formation, Smith says, is "a large temperature spread over a short distance." "Water holds its heat more than land or air," Smith says. "So Oklahoma's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico means there is a source of very warm, moist air. As cold air comes from Canada, you can get temperatures of 80 degrees in the body of the state while it is in the 20s in the Panhandle." He says this provide the power to fuel severe thunderstorms. The time of year when most big Oklahoma tornadoes occur May is also key, according to Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center. May is a transition season, which has vestiges of winter cold and of the upcoming heat from summer. "It sets up these incredible contrast between air masses," he says.
Other factors include strong winds at high levels of the atmosphere along with a supply of dry air nearby, both of which Oklahoma has, Smith says: "The dry air from the New Mexico desert is just about in the perfect place to form a 'dry line,' which is often in Oklahoma." Dry air is also crucial to tornado formation, Smith says, so the storm doesn't get overloaded with rain and hail, which can cause it to collapse before it gets a chance to form a tornado. Oklahomans can likely breathe a sigh of relief after enduring the state's deadliest month for tornadoes in 14 years: The worst of the severe storm season has likely passed, as tornadoes usually form a bit farther to the north in June.
Oklahoma leads the world in tornadoes
