Massive twister kills at least 91 in Central Oklahoma

[Basco]

Article: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/21 ... -oklahoma/

Possibly the deadliest tornado since the Joplin, MO tornado which killed 161 people. But it may be the deadliest tornado in Oklahomas History (in terms of damage and death toll).

The 2 mile wide monster lasted for 40 minutes on a 20 mile track that lead it through, Newcastle, Parts of Oklahoma City, and Moore, who also suffered a catastrophic blow back on May 3, 1999 when an F-5 tore through the town.

Here are the reported damages:

- Entire subdivisions were obliterated and houses flattened in a large swath of the city.
- Two schools took a direct hit and were heavily damaged or destroyed.
- Briarwood Elementary School that had no fatalites.
- Plaza Towers Elementary School had 75 students and staff inside. At least seven children died from drowning in the basement.
- At least twenty children were confirmed dead.
- Large sections of Interstate 35 were shut down; debris was thrown onto the freeway.
- More than 38,000 electricity customers in Oklahoma without power.
- The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, gave the storm a preliminary rating of at least EF4. Witnesses said it more closely resembled "a giant black wall of destruction" than a typical twister.
- Afterwards, the city of Moore has no running water.

The devastation that those people witnessed after it passed over....
Their lives will never be the same again.

If you think You can help the victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes, especially the Moore, OK tornado by donating as much as you want. (This link will be up here "just in case" anyone can donate)
Link to Red Cross Donations: http://www.redcross.org/ok/oklahoma-city

Thanks
(My apologies if it's too long or if the pic is too big, when this stuff happens , i just want other people to know)

[KetchupWarthog]

My prayer goes for all those who are affected by that storm. Hope they'll do fine...

[Turbofan]

^I've made a post on this in the 2013 weather thread, but the actual death toll according to local media was at 51 yesterday; this morning they're saying it might actually be revised down to 24. Overnight the first responders resuced 101 people. So that number will be revised as the day progresses.

I live 8 miles south of Moore in another suburb of Oklahoma City. This tornado was huge, no doubt. Unfortunately the same city has been hit twice in the past (May 3rd, 1999, and again in May of 2003-the '03 storm wasn't nearly as bad). Just unreal. The sad part is the kids still trapped in that elementary school. I hoping some good news comes out of there...

[wingzfan99]

I live 8 miles south of Moore in another suburb of Oklahoma City. This tornado was huge, no doubt. Unfortunately the same city has been hit twice in the past (May 3rd, 1999, and again in May of 2003-the '03 storm wasn't nearly as bad). Just unreal. The sad part is the kids still trapped in that elementary school. I hoping some good news comes out of there...

Obviously my thoughts go out to those who lost loved ones in this, but we're also glad to hear you're okay as well Turbofan. 8 miles is mere inches when it comes to weather.

[Turbofan]

I live 8 miles south of Moore in another suburb of Oklahoma City. This tornado was huge, no doubt. Unfortunately the same city has been hit twice in the past (May 3rd, 1999, and again in May of 2003-the '03 storm wasn't nearly as bad). Just unreal. The sad part is the kids still trapped in that elementary school. I hoping some good news comes out of there...

Obviously my thoughts go out to those who lost loved ones in this, but we're also glad to hear you're okay as well Turbofan. 8 miles is mere inches when it comes to weather.

Thanks wingzfan. Yeah, we've actually had two days of this back-to-back, on Sunday, our city (Norman) actually had a close call. A tornadic rotating supercell went right over downtown Norman and developed a large wall cloud; later on moved to our east and produced a damaging tornado. That one later went on to parts of Bethel Acres and Shawnee and did damage there (part of the Sunday outbreak; there was a weaker tornado in Edmond that day as well). We're counting our blessings no doubt, but at the same time really sad for the affected people. Will be going out to the local Red Cross for sure.

[Basco]

They are still deciding on whether it was an EF4 or EF5 but for now they are calling it a Preliminary EF4+. But based on the data given and with the damage in the photos, it was either a Very strong EF4 or just barely an EF5.

"Even for a city toughened by disaster, Moore has never seen this kind of devastation."

I also found (actually I heard) from weather experts (and Reed Timmer) is that this tornado took a path similar to ghe May 3, 1999 F5, only slightly larger in width.
Even though 24 lives were lost, "We have got good news. The number right now is 24," Elliot said. "There was a lot of chaos."
She said additional bodies could yet be recovered.
Lets just hope that the death toll doesnt rise more than that, but due to what Elliot said, bodies may still be discovered.

Just yesterday I donated $100 to the Oklahoma Red Cross.

Also I too am glad to hear you're okay as well Turbofan. Out of my 2 years storm chasing (Joplin EF5 was my first major tornado) This is by far the worst damage i have ever seen from an Oklahoma tornado.

Lets just keep them in our prayers....

[Turbofan]

^Thanks Basco. Yes, I too hope that number doesn't rise.

The initial path of this tornado was quite similar to the May 3rd storm, but it later diverged and made a right turn straight into the city. Another thing was this one was moving only about 20-25 mph; that's what gives you chills when you look at it, of course any tornado this size is bad enough but when it's moving that slowly it's even worse.

To give you an idea of how unstable the atmospheric conditions were yesterday, at around 1:30 or 1:35 CDT, there were just some building cumulus towers just off to our west. When I looked outside about 20 minutes later, one of those had turned into a massive, full-blown supercell, with a rapidly rotating mesocyclone. That same supercell that did the damage in Moore persisted all the way into SW Missouri, and they were finding debris from it falling down in far NW Arkansas/SW Missouri, according to one of the local stations.

[decaff_42]

I heard on the radio today that it was currently 26 dead, 9 children.

[Honey Badger]

My Uncle lives in Woodward and was there when that last big tornado went through there. He (and his house) were fine but a tree landed on his neighbor's and a few houses elsewhere in the neighborhood where leveled. My prayers go out to the victims and friends and family of the victims. I hope the body count doesn't rise much more. Better yet, at all, but there are probably still a few more out there.

[Monoceros]

According to the research I've done myself, they are trying to determine also if this tornado is an EF4 or just and F5 from the massive size and dust and debris it had thrown around its center. Reports also indicated that the tornado in some instances developed an eye for a few miles before the tornado dissipated. Also, from the Doppler feedback images from NOAA show that the circulation started on a small storm cell coming up from the south heading in the direction of a bigger storm cell. As it neared it, its circulation increased and created a "hook" signature which is the telltale signs of a tornado. This is when it produced an eye and the heavy ring of debris started to throw Doppler into confusion as the center of the circulation was undetectable due to so much dust and objects present. At around 3:33PM, the circulation started to show signs of weakness and finally dissolved before it headed into a lake and disappeared from radar like it never happened. But the destruction is so bad that cleanup may be a nightmare and take longer than they anticipate.

There are storms in my area as we speak that show weak circulation cells moving from the west heading east. But NOAA and NWS don't expect flare-ups until around 2:20am local time. So I'm a little concerned as these parts aren't known to have tornadoes.

[Turbofan]

^The Norman NWS office updated this to an EF5 (still preliminary, but I think it will stay as an EF5) after doing damage surveys yesterday. Being a Meteorology graduate from O.U. I am quite impressed with your knowledge. You are correct, there was a pronounced hook echo on doppler radar with the parent supercell. But the radar was not confused, rather it picked up the actual debris being launched into the air (because there was so much of it), which was the debris signature right where the tornado was (on-air meteorologists refer to it as the "debris ball"). All of the storms on Monday developed either along a stalled cold front, extending roughly from just west of Oklahoma City NNE-ward or along the dryline that extended SSW-ward from the cold front. Dewpoints on both, Sunday and Monday were in the low 70s (that's basically deep Gulf moisture coming up all the way here) and temps were in the mid to upper 80s. Basically a volatile combination of instability with heavily sheared atmosphere.

You got severe weather overnight?

[Monoceros]

Yes, Turbofan. There was a few flare-ups overnight but it was nothing as bad as I anticipated. They all stayed North of my location but a few swaths of rain bands managed to make it down to my area and dumped rain and a few pellets of hail. The reason I said confused as far as Doppler is because some readings couldn't make heads or tails of the imaging. I saw thermal and water vapor imaging patterns that told a different story altogether, probably because they are older systems(WAY older). And yes, Gulf air (heavy humidity) played a large part of these storms developing much like the storms in my area.

And thank you TurboFan. I've been doing this stuff since I was little. The Weather Channel (back when it was good) was an inspiration for me to self teach myself a bit of meteorology. Not many think my knowledge is useful.

[Turbofan]

Not many think my knowledge is useful.

That shows how much they know, but any knowledge about how the weather works is self-empowerment. You have knowledge to use the tools out there and understand what's going on, that's always a big plus.

And yes, I also used to watch the Weather Channel back in the day mid 90's to about '05-'06. Then it started showing signs of change with all the shows and movies, and then NBC bought it and well, the rest you know lol. Although I have been giving it credit for the coverage of major recent events in the past few years. But it's definitely not the focused channel it once was.

[dustydan1995]

I have family members in tulsa and they were about to get hit when a funnel cloud was forming but then it dissapeared. I am glad there safe but for the ones hit, I send my prayers to them