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26 Years Ago Today, Monster F5 Tornado in OK
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:04 pm
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:04 pm
This was a killer and destroyed anything in its path. Even uprooted the ground. Guy at work and his wife took shelter in a crawl space under their stairwell and survived as it was only thing left. They lost everything but had their lives. He was a WW2 vet and lost all his pictures along with everything else.
I hauled arse with kids driving east then south and when came back home luckily my house had survived. Neighbor had lots of damage. So many stories about this one.
Reed Timmer, PhD
@ReedTimmerUSA
26 years ago today, the May 3, 1999 #tornado outbreak happened, including the strongest tornado in History - the Bridge Creek to Moore to OKC F5. I was a freshman meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, and we had just finished our calculus exam when we piled in the soft top Geo Tracker, driven by Matt Sannes. We blasted down I44 to target the dry line down near Altus, but ran into a lead renegade supercell that formed off a horizontal convective roll near Lawton. The storm looked like a nuclear explosion with news choppers flying all around it. Minutes later we intercepted a white elephant trunk outside of Cyril. Two tornadoes later with this cyclic #tornado producer, the F5 planted with the Doppler on Wheels nearby scanning winds in the vortex. They would measure a 300+ mph wind gust in the tornado near peak intensity. We briefly became disoriented in a forested area near Bridge Creek, and someone (possibly me) had the bright idea to abandon the Geo Tracker to take shelter beneath the overpass. Families were already sheltering there as the F5 slid by the overpass, sending RFD through the gap. We then saw the dark side this #tornado left behind in Moore, OK with total devastation. Horses wandering on the highway and people emerging from the rubble. This was a terrible day for many Oklahomans. A total of 74 tornadoes happened during the May 3, 1999 outbreak including 46 fatalities and $1.5 billion in damage.
I hauled arse with kids driving east then south and when came back home luckily my house had survived. Neighbor had lots of damage. So many stories about this one.
Reed Timmer, PhD
@ReedTimmerUSA
26 years ago today, the May 3, 1999 #tornado outbreak happened, including the strongest tornado in History - the Bridge Creek to Moore to OKC F5. I was a freshman meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, and we had just finished our calculus exam when we piled in the soft top Geo Tracker, driven by Matt Sannes. We blasted down I44 to target the dry line down near Altus, but ran into a lead renegade supercell that formed off a horizontal convective roll near Lawton. The storm looked like a nuclear explosion with news choppers flying all around it. Minutes later we intercepted a white elephant trunk outside of Cyril. Two tornadoes later with this cyclic #tornado producer, the F5 planted with the Doppler on Wheels nearby scanning winds in the vortex. They would measure a 300+ mph wind gust in the tornado near peak intensity. We briefly became disoriented in a forested area near Bridge Creek, and someone (possibly me) had the bright idea to abandon the Geo Tracker to take shelter beneath the overpass. Families were already sheltering there as the F5 slid by the overpass, sending RFD through the gap. We then saw the dark side this #tornado left behind in Moore, OK with total devastation. Horses wandering on the highway and people emerging from the rubble. This was a terrible day for many Oklahomans. A total of 74 tornadoes happened during the May 3, 1999 outbreak including 46 fatalities and $1.5 billion in damage.
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16
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:16 pm to OU Guy
A guy I work with whole house was leveled in Moore. Nothing but foundation left. They barely made into their neighbor’s fraidy hole.
He somehow won a Harley from Toby Keith that they gave him during an OU football halftime. I don’t remember the details, but that was the story.
He somehow won a Harley from Toby Keith that they gave him during an OU football halftime. I don’t remember the details, but that was the story.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:18 pm to OU Guy
quote:
That hook is pure nightmare fuel.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:18 pm to OU Guy
The bow on that motherfricker!
RIP
quote:
Toby Keith
RIP
This post was edited on 5/3/25 at 2:22 pm
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:19 pm to OU Guy
KFOR's live coverage that day
Includes the infamous ground level shot of a massive amount of debris spinning around the tornado
Includes the infamous ground level shot of a massive amount of debris spinning around the tornado
This post was edited on 5/3/25 at 3:23 pm
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:31 pm to rt3
Gary England was with News 9 not 4
This post was edited on 5/3/25 at 2:31 pm
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:39 pm to OU Guy
I watched this one the other day. It is a good overview of that storm and tornado.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:43 pm to OU Guy
Holy shite
Posted on 5/3/25 at 2:44 pm to OU Guy
Some of the fastest or the fastest wind ever recorded on earth.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 3:11 pm to jellyfish
quote:
Some of the fastest or the fastest wind ever recorded on earth.
I wish we had a fleet of a hundred DOW (Doppler on Wheels) vehicles. It would be tremendously helpful to have similar data on most violent tornadoes.
My opinion on the top two strongest tornadoes in recorded history are Smithville, MS, April 27, 2011 and this one.
The destruction caused by both was complete and horrific. The Bridge-Creek-Moore tornado was moving at around 26mph for the majority of its life. The Smithville tornado had an average forward motion of around 55mph, and likely topped 60mph at times. The destruction it rendered occurred in a matter of seconds, as in the span of around 3-5 seconds entire homes were swept from their foundations, plumbing ripped from the slabs and ground, home appliances shreaded to near dust, driveways and asphalt pulled from the earth and ground to nothing, etc....... In three seconds.
No trace of a semi and flatbed trailer loaded with large diameter steel pipe has been found to this day in the aftermath of the Smithville EF5.
Bridge Creek-Moore was a different beast, it just chugged along, steadily eating everything. The Jarrell, TX F5 was on the opposite end of the spectrum than the Smithville EF5. Its top speed was 15mph, and at times it was nearly stationary, leading to it just raking the same areas for seemingly an eternity.
These drastic differences in storm speed/motion are part of the problem with the Enhanced Fujita Scale being a solely damage-based intensity scale. But, unless we have high-value, detailed data on all violent tornadoes (as a DOW can provide) we will always have an imperfect scale for measuring and comparing the strength of tornadoes.
Of course, this is all just splitting hairs when it comes to high end EF4+ violent tornadoes. It doesn't matter what you call the damage, it is all complete and devastating.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 3:14 pm to OU Guy
This day and the bombing were two of the most memorable days I had growing up in OK.
I was headed to a buddy’s house east of Edmond. Crested a hill and one of the lesser tornadoes was in the road up ahead of us. Busted a quick u turn and got out of there.
I was headed to a buddy’s house east of Edmond. Crested a hill and one of the lesser tornadoes was in the road up ahead of us. Busted a quick u turn and got out of there.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 3:49 pm to OU Guy
Finger of God
Posted on 5/3/25 at 4:10 pm to udtiger
quote:
Finger of God
Cruel being.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 4:36 pm to udtiger
Finger of Satan is more like it. That was an evil beast.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 4:50 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 5/3/25 at 5:25 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 5/3/25 at 5:46 pm to OU Guy
This was so sad. I lived in Missouri for some years and my daughter was at school when a tornado was coming their way and this tornado was what came to my mind. The school had no basement but our house did. I drove like a mad man to that school and got her and drove back to our house. I wasnt about to play with nature that day.
I just realized the one i was thinking about in Moore was in 2013. That place has been hit with 2 F5 tornados. Damn.
I just realized the one i was thinking about in Moore was in 2013. That place has been hit with 2 F5 tornados. Damn.
This post was edited on 5/3/25 at 5:48 pm
Posted on 5/3/25 at 5:53 pm to tigafan4life
quote:
I just realized the one i was thinking about in Moore was in 2013. That place has been hit with 2 F5 tornados. Damn.
Yep.
And here is a town that has been hit by three E/F5s, with two on the same day during the April 3, 1974 Super Outbreak. The other was on April 27, 2011. This one is close to home for me.
Posted on 5/3/25 at 6:13 pm to LegendInMyMind
I just watched about an hour of that 1999 Moore monster. Just massive and unreal…
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