News Horrific tornado strikes Oklahoma.

[Kyle]

It looks really bad folks. They're calling it on the news from people who've reported on these tornadoes for years "the worst tornado they've ever seen." Appears to have been an EF-5 tornado. Almost the entirety of southern Moore, Oklahoma has been annihilated including two schools with kids in them.

 

[Codz]

As if the May 3rd, 1999 tornado wasn't bad enough...

 

[Urwumpe]

OK - that is how EF5 damage looks like.

By the EDT time, this is a second tornado outbreak, not the one I had seen earlier in the news.

 

[Codz]

I actually lived near Moore for a couple years.

 

[Kyle]

It appears to have far exceeded the May 3rd, 1999 tornado according to eye witnesses from both of these events.

 

[Urwumpe]

You have to excuse our media in Germany about the actuality here.. we have a religious holiday here today.

 

[Kyle]

Oh no, they're reporting a confirmed 7 kids died from drowning at an elementary school and they fear up to "thirty" may also have lost their lives.

 

[TMac3000]

My thoughts and prayers are with those people

 

[Kyle]

37 confirmed dead and expected to rise.

---------- Post added at 01:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 AM ----------

51 dead now.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

NWS in Norman, OK produced this graphic comparing this tornado, and the 1999 track. I found this through another forum.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/580214_570340356320229_197110518_n.png

 

[Athena]

:blink:

I haven't seen damage like that since the tornado that struck Greensburg..

 

[Kyle]

For comparison sake, here's a picture from the 220mph EF-5 tornado that hit Joplin in May 2011. Top is the Joplin tornado, bottom is the Moore tornado.

 

[Athena]

...is this Bryawood Elementary School?

And i'm wondering, if the school was warned that there was a storm coming, why was there classes?

 

[Zatnikitelman]

...is this Bryawood Elementary School?

*IMAGE SNIPPED*

And i'm wondering, if the school was warned that there was a storm coming, why was there classes?

Because you can't warn for a tornado hours out, and even with higher tornado probabilities, it's no guarantee you'll even get a shower, much less a direct hit by a tornado. Just look at the huge area, that still only had a 10% chance of a strong tornado within 25 miles of a given point:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2013/day1probotlk_20130520_1200_torn_prt.gif
Tornadoes are just too unpredictable to make far-reaching decisions like this. Think about all the other schools that didn't even get a little wind, but were under the same probabilities of the school that did get hit.

That said, the school likely had minutes, maybe as little as one to get to cover. I'm thinking they had at least 6-8 given that they were able to get the students into the hallways, but even that's not very much. I hope that this disaster strengthens the need to continue researching tornadoes in the hope of providing better warning times.

 

[Washingtonian]

It looks really bad folks. They're calling it on the news from people who've reported on these tornadoes for years "the worst tornado they've ever seen." Appears to have been an EF-5 tornado. Almost the entirety of southern Moore, Oklahoma has been annihilated including two schools with kids in them.

Actually, am I the only one here that thinks that it doesn't look like a tornado but a really huge storm? I don't see the funnel like most tornadoes do. It just looks like a hurricane mixed in with smoke.

 

[Codz]

Actually, am I the only one here that thinks that it doesn't look like a tornado but a really huge storm? I don't see the funnel like most tornadoes do. It just looks like a hurricane mixed in with smoke.

It's definitely a tornado. Some tornadoes, especially EF-4's and 5's, have funnels that are more than half a mile in width. That, mixed with debris can cause it to look more like a thick low hanging cloud. These are called "wedge" tornadoes.

 

[Linguofreak]

Because you can't warn for a tornado hours out, and even with higher tornado probabilities, it's no guarantee you'll even get a shower, much less a direct hit by a tornado. Just look at the huge area, that still only had a 10% chance of a strong tornado within 25 miles of a given point:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2013/day1probotlk_20130520_1200_torn_prt.gif
Tornadoes are just too unpredictable to make far-reaching decisions like this. Think about all the other schools that didn't even get a little wind, but were under the same probabilities of the school that did get hit.

That said, the school likely had minutes, maybe as little as one to get to cover. I'm thinking they had at least 6-8 given that they were able to get the students into the hallways, but even that's not very much. I hope that this disaster strengthens the need to continue researching tornadoes in the hope of providing better warning times.

And even with as much as an hour's warning of approaching severe weather, getting all the kids in the school home before it hit would be dicey. And even if they got them all home, they wouldn't necessarily be any safer there. The best plan if you're already in shelter when you receive warning of a storm is to remain there until it passes.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Pretty glad I got out of that area a couple weeks ago...

---------- Post added at 12:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/tornado-oklahoma.html

---------- Post added at 12:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 AM ----------

Tornado watches may continue through tomorrow for the area. (third day in a row)

 

[Urwumpe]

And even with as much as an hour's warning of approaching severe weather, getting all the kids in the school home before it hit would be dicey. And even if they got them all home, they wouldn't necessarily be any safer there.

Also, you have to include that this weather was everything but normal. Even people who did everything right had been in very dangerous situations.

That is one is counted as EF-4+ is a bit strange, since there are quite many examples of EF-5 damage around (more than EF-4 examples), like only the foundations of buildings being left and even stronger buildings having their sidewalls removed completely. And the size of the damage area is also unbelieveable, you would rather expect a hurricane to cause this.

What disturbs is the short time between warning and impact. This one travelled pretty slowly (40 minutes on the ground, 32 km distance = about 50 km/h on the average) and was so huge that the rotation must have been visible as extraordinary on radar earlier, so that a warning even if no tornado sighting is confirmed might have been better. I have not seen such huge hooks often on radar images, I am not even sure if at all in that size. Also it must have been on the ground already for about 10 minutes before reaching the denser populated areas of Moore.

 

[N_Molson]

Violent and unexpected, little could have been done.

My thoughts to the victims and their families