REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

"Mammoth Oklahoma tornado was widest ever recorded – almost strongest, too"

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 06:04
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 671
PAGE 1 of 1

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 6:04 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

The tornado that ripped through El Reno, Okla., on Friday was the widest tornado ever recorded and had winds that hit nearly 300 miles per hour, close to the highest wind speed ever measured, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.

The record-setting twister was 2.6 miles wide at its maximum and carved a 16.2 mile path across mostly rural land west of Oklahoma City. It tops the previous record-holding tornado, which hit Hallam, Neb., on May 22, 2004, and was 2.5 miles wide.

The National Weather Service also upgraded the tornado to its most powerful class, an EF-5 ranking, on Tuesday. The agency upgraded the ranking from an EF-3 after surveying damage from the twister. The tornado and subsequent flooding killed 18 people, including four storm chasers.

El Reno now joins the Moore, Okla., tornado as the second EF-5 to hit Oklahoma in less than two weeks, another record for the state, according to the National Weather Service’s Norman, Okla., office.

Winds during Friday’s giant twister also nearly broke records.

A mobile doppler radar at the University of Oklahoma measured winds greater than 295 miles an hour at several times and locations within along the south side of the tornado, according to the Oklahoman.

Howard Bluestein, a University of Oklahoma professor, told The Washington Post that two of his graduate students clocked wind speeds as high as 296 miles per hour on their mobile doppler unit while observing the storm from the east.

The World Meteorological Organization requires direct measurements from anemometers for official wind speeds, meaning the strongest wind gust on record is officially 235 miles per hour in tropical cyclone Olive at Barrow Island, Australia, in 1996. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/0604/Mammoth-Oklahoma-tor
nado-was-widest-ever-recorded-almost-strongest-too-video?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem



So let's start arguing; if some newscaster called it the "worst tornado in history", how long a thread and how much snarking would be involved in arguing about that?

The betting window is open...

(By the way, "On average, more than 1,000 tornadoes hit the US each year, and only one might be an EF-5, reports National Climatic Data Center." So already we have two...GLOBAL WARMING!!!)

couldn't resist...

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
Sat, July 26, 2025 07:44 - 2647 posts
Is Elon Musk Nuts?
Sat, July 26, 2025 07:10 - 508 posts
QAnons' representatives here
Sat, July 26, 2025 06:23 - 819 posts
Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
Sat, July 26, 2025 05:50 - 8663 posts
Privilege in the United States
Fri, July 25, 2025 20:23 - 198 posts
human actions, global climate change, global human solutions
Fri, July 25, 2025 19:00 - 1030 posts
Obama
Fri, July 25, 2025 18:53 - 90 posts
ROBOTS DANCING: Funny, creepy, or both?
Fri, July 25, 2025 18:47 - 15 posts
Trump Is Destroying Everything He Touches
Fri, July 25, 2025 18:42 - 484 posts
In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
Fri, July 25, 2025 17:32 - 5697 posts
American Hiroshima: yes to if, no to when
Fri, July 25, 2025 09:29 - 99 posts
A well regulated Militia
Fri, July 25, 2025 09:29 - 68 posts

FFF.NET SOCIAL