Rare Tornado Emergency issued for Oklahoma City

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

Very frightening stuff happening in Oklahoma!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/20/us/severe-weather/index.html?sr=fb052013weatherwarning415p

[DocM]

Rare? Really? Some of the largest & most destructive tornadoes ever measureed have happendd in and around OKC.

[Marshall Veteran]

Rare? Really? Some of the largest & most destructive tornadoes ever measureed have happendd in and around OKC.

This is what I immediately thought, after all, they're in "tornado alley"

OT: Around 2 dozen children are buried beneath a school their, completely horrific scene.

[DragonKid]

A Tornado Emergency is different from a Tornado Warning. A tornado emergency is only issued when there is a threat to heavily populated areas in terms of death and destruction. The first use of it was on May 3, 1999.

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

I borrowed the headline from CNN. I have been watching the weather channel and it is extremely tragic watching this entire town gone. Hopefully everyone heeded the warnings!

[DocM]

Terrible :(

~200 mph winds, and now 51 dead. Still looking for buried kids in the school. News said this is the 10th to hit Moore since 1979. NWS says enough tornadoes today to say it's an outbreak.

For perspective, the record for tornado wind intensity is the F5 monster 302 mph Bridge Creek - Moore, OK storm on May 3,1999. 39 killed directly, 5 indirectly.

[ILikeTobacco]

Rare? Really? Some of the largest & most destructive tornadoes ever measureed have happendd in and around OKC.

As someone else has said, it is rare in that it hit something other than just farm/cattle land. On top of that, it grew from an F1 to F5 extremely fast.

As an update. The national guard is getting read to fly an hi tech plane around the area that should be capable of finding people via heat signature. http://www.guardian....moore-live-blog

What is interesting is that local weathe services say it was an F5 but national services claim it was only F3. (200 mph is only F3). However, national services claim 1 mile wide while local say only half a mile. The reports are all over the place.

[ILikeTobacco]

7 kids confirmed dead at the elementary school. There is a teacher that was seriouesly injured, found covering 3 kids to protect them from debris.

I will post some picture if I go up this weekend. Buddy of mine needs some help with fixing his house.

[ATLien_0]

Latest report was a 2 mile wide tornado at least 51 dead.

Reading about this, makes me think back to when I was a kid I wanted to be a storm chaser. I still read about all the advanced technology these guys are working with to predict where the tornados are going to hit and increase warning times. However even with the increase in warning times, if people don't have proper protection against the elements its not much use. I would love to see some companies start working on better tornado safe structures or underground structures.

[webeagle12]

7 kids confirmed dead at the elementary school. There is a teacher that was seriouesly injured, found covering 3 kids to protect them from debris.

I will post some picture if I go up this weekend. Buddy of mine needs some help with fixing his house.

Make that 20+ :/ now

[ILikeTobacco]

Latest report was a 2 mile wide tornado at least 51 dead.

Reading about this, makes me think back to when I was a kid I wanted to be a storm chaser. I still read about all the advanced technology these guys are working with to predict where the tornados are going to hit and increase warning times. However even with the increase in warning times, if people don't have proper protection against the elements its not much use. I would love to see some companies start working on better tornado safe structures or underground structures.

The debris feild was reported at 2 miles wide but the tornado itself was smaller than that. However they are thinking 300+ mph winds.

[I am Reid]

Its always crazy to imagine just how massive these things are when they say it was 1-2 miles wide. You can be driving in your car at a good speed and it would still take you a few minutes just to reach the other side.

[Torolol]

whats the time of possible earliest detection of forming tornadoes ?

[ATLien_0]

whats the time of possible earliest detection of forming tornadoes ?

According to the Governor last night in an interview, they had been looking almost 3 days out and could tell there would be a significant chance the day it happened. With what I was saying earlier, it looks like they can get an idea 3 days out and day of they can pin point where it will hit. The issue I see is with safety structures and the way the buildings are built. I realize that almost nothing can with stand a 300mph tornado hence they underground bunkers.

[ILikeTobacco]

whats the time of possible earliest detection of forming tornadoes ?

Tornado watches are usually an hour or two ahead of time. That means there is some rotation in a storm and has the possibility of forming a funnel. When there is a funnel or sometimes even just strong rotation, it gets upgraded to a tornado warning. There is no way to tell where a tornado will happen. YOu have to remember how big the area is that has a possibility of a tornado happening. In the case of these storms, it was from Oklahoma... all the way to the Atlantic. The issue in predicting a tornado is that it is a very focused storm. The tornado was around a mile wide with a debris field of 2 miles or so. Outside of that, minor wind damage was reported. If you look at the images of the destruction in Moore, there streets where on one side, nothign is left but the foundation. On the side of the street, the house wasn't touched. When the Governor says that 3 days out, we knew, it means that 3 days ago, we knew that the entire state had a chance for tornados, not the Moore would be hit big. Until the storm forms, there is no way to know where a funnel will hit.

[DocM]

Now officially classified as an EF5 tornado.