Monster Oklahoma Tornado Second Worst Ever
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Scores of people were killed by a monster tornado in an Oklahoma City suburb and it’s one of the worst on record by any standard, the Smithsonian finds. At an estimated two miles wide, the storm was one of the biggest recorded and it was also extremely powerful, with winds above 199mph. But what made it especially deadly was its duration—it was on the ground for 40 minutes, while most tornadoes only last for a few minutes.
- The strongest tornado ever recorded, with winds of 302mph, struck May 3, 1999, in Moore, Okla., the same place that was devastated by yesterday’s tornado, the Atlantic notes.
- The 1999 Oklahoma tornado was the deadliest since a tornado in Wichita Falls, Texas, killed 42 people on April 10, 1979, but it has been surpassed by several since, including the May 22, 2011, tornado that killed 158 people in Joplin, Mo.
- The worst tornado on record in the US was the “Tri-State” tornado that killed 695 people in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. That storm stayed on the ground for three and a half hours and killed 234 people in Murphysboro, Ill., alone.
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I recall reading about the 1925 tornado strike a long, long time ago (I think I was about seven at the time). It wasn’t a single tornado, but a storm system that spawned dozens of twisters across the Midwest. It was unusual because storms of that type are more typical of the Great Plains – and, according to the geography I use, the Midwest ends at the Mississippi River and, West of that, it’s the Great Plains.
So, who’s ready to move to Moore, OK? Any takers?… (crickets chirping)… On a serious note, why isn’t it a requirement for schools in Oklahoma to have tornado shelters? The Oklahoma County school superintendent said on the local news last night that each school makes their own decision to have one or not. It makes no sense. It needs to be mandatory. Moore is not a low income city so there’s no excuse.
That is so true. I was astonished when I read there were no public shelters in a place like Moore. You think they would have learned their lesson. I wonder if they will now?
I’m waiting for Pat Robertson to announce the sins the people of Moore are guilty of to bring this disaster upon them.
That’s inevitable E.A. and coincidentally I had just started researching that very subject.
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe we should hit the public forums with the idea that it’s god punishing us for Pat Robertson!
A sad irony in that Oklahoma legislators and people are among the biggest climate change deniers in the country. Monster tornadoes such as this arise out of global warming.
Do we now need laws banning tornadoes over 75 mph? There’s no reason so have one larger or faster than that!