Tony
Staff member
I'm sure most of you on here don't know what May 3rd 1999 means other than a date 20 years ago. But those of us here in central Oklahoma know that date all too well.
Today marks 20 years since a deadly F5 tornado with winds over 300 mph (500kph). On that day, 40 people were killed, 672 people were injured. It was one of the worse tornado outbreaks Oklahoma has ever seen.
F5 - 1
F4 - 2
F3 - 7
F2 - 8
F1 - 21
F0 - 33
Those are the number and size of tornadoes we had on that day. This was before the Enhanced Fujita scale, or EF scale. That day rewrote the books.
The F5 that tore through Moore Oklahoma and took out hundreds of acres of homes, businesses and schools was on the ground for 38 miles and the max wind speed of 318mph (511kph). One school that was hit was Pioneer Elementary School, the same school that I went to as a kid. If memory serves me correctly, 7 children were killed when a wall collapsed because of that F5 tornado.
I remember that day very well. I was actually wanting to go chase the storms that day, but my wife of 20 years talked me out of it. Probably a good thing she did...
Today marks 20 years since a deadly F5 tornado with winds over 300 mph (500kph). On that day, 40 people were killed, 672 people were injured. It was one of the worse tornado outbreaks Oklahoma has ever seen.
F5 - 1
F4 - 2
F3 - 7
F2 - 8
F1 - 21
F0 - 33
Those are the number and size of tornadoes we had on that day. This was before the Enhanced Fujita scale, or EF scale. That day rewrote the books.
The F5 that tore through Moore Oklahoma and took out hundreds of acres of homes, businesses and schools was on the ground for 38 miles and the max wind speed of 318mph (511kph). One school that was hit was Pioneer Elementary School, the same school that I went to as a kid. If memory serves me correctly, 7 children were killed when a wall collapsed because of that F5 tornado.
I remember that day very well. I was actually wanting to go chase the storms that day, but my wife of 20 years talked me out of it. Probably a good thing she did...