On the evening of Monday, May 3, 1999, a large and exceptionally powerful
F5 tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
registered the
highest wind speeds ever measured globally; winds were recorded at by a
Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar. Considered the strongest tornado ever recorded to have affected the
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
, the tornado devastated southern portions of
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
, along with surrounding suburbs and towns to the south and southwest. The tornado covered during its 85-minute existence, destroying thousands of homes, killing 36 people (plus an additional five indirectly), and leaving US$1 billion (1999 USD) in damage,
ranking it as the fifth-costliest on record not accounting for inflation. It was the first use of the
tornado emergency
A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences in highly populated areas. Although it is not a new warning ...
statement by the
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
.
The tornado first touched down at 6:23 p.m.
Central Daylight Time (CDT) in
Grady County, roughly south-southwest of the town of
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...
. It quickly intensified into a violent F4, and gradually reached F5 status after traveling , at which time it struck the town of
Bridge Creek. It fluctuated in strength, ranging from F2 to F5 status before it crossed into
Cleveland County
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
where it reached F5 intensity for a third time shortly before entering the city of
Moore. By 7:30 pm, the tornado crossed into
Oklahoma County
Oklahoma County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 718,633, making it the most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Oklahoma City, the state capital and largest ci ...
and battered southeastern Oklahoma City,
Del City
Del City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 21,822 at the United States Census, 2020.
Del City is located near two major interstate highways, both of wh ...
, and
Midwest City
Midwest City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,371, making it the eighth largest city in the state.
The city was developed in r ...
before dissipating around 7:48 p.m. just outside Midwest City. A total of 8,132 homes, 1,041 apartments, 260 businesses, eleven public buildings, and seven churches were damaged or destroyed.
Large-scale search and rescue operations immediately took place in the affected areas. A major disaster declaration was signed by
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
the following day (May 4) allowing the state to receive federal aid. In the following months, disaster aid amounted to $67.8 million. Reconstruction projects in subsequent years led to a safer, tornado-ready community. However, on May 20, 2013, nearby areas adjacent to the 1999 storm's track along with some of the same areas in the path of the tornado
were again devastated by another large and violent
EF5 tornado
The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia.
The Enhanced Fujita scale repl ...
, resulting in 24 fatalities and extreme damage in the South Oklahoma City/Moore area.
Meteorological synopsis
![Meteorological setup of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Meteorological_setup_of_the_1999_Oklahoma_tornado_outbreak.gif)
The Bridge Creek–Moore tornado was part of a
much larger outbreak which produced 71 tornadoes across five states throughout the
Central Plains on May 3 alone, along with an additional 25 that touched down a day later in some of the areas affected by the previous day's activity (some of which were spawned by
supercell
A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( ...
s that developed on the evening of May 3), stretching eastward to the
Mississippi River Valley
The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflue ...
. The most prolific tornadic activity associated with the May 3 outbreak – and the multi-day outbreak as a whole – occurred in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
; 14 of the 66 tornadoes that occurred within the state that afternoon and evening produced damage consistent with the
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...
's "strong" (F2–F3) and "violent" (F4–F5) categories, which, in addition to the areas struck by the Bridge Creek–Moore
tornado family
A tornado family is a series of tornadoes spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm. These families form a line of successive or parallel tornado paths and can cover a short span or a vast distance. Tornado families are sometimes mistaken as a si ...
, affected towns such as
Mulhall,
Cimarron City
Cimarron City is a town in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 150 at the 2010 census, a 39.4 percent gain over the figure of 110 in 2000. ,
Dover,
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
and
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
.
On the morning of May 3, in its Day 1 Convective Outlook for the United States, the
Storm Prediction Center
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency that is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), operating under the control of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is part of the National Oceani ...
(SPC) – based in
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, approximately south of the tornado's eventual damage path – issued a slight risk of severe thunderstorms from southern
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
to central
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. SPC analysis had detected the presence of a
dry line
A dry line (also called a dew point line, or Marfa front, after Marfa, Texas) is a line across a continent that separates moist air and dry air. One of the most prominent examples of such a separation occurs in central North America, especially ...
that stretched from western
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
into western Texas that was approaching a warm, humid air-mass over the Central Plains; the condition ahead of the dry line and a connecting
trough positioned over northeastern
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
appeared to favor the development of thunderstorms later that day that would contain large
hail,
damaging straight-line winds, and isolated tornadoes.
SPC forecasters initially underestimated the atmospheric conditions that would support tornadic development that afternoon and evening. Around 4:00 a.m.
CDT that morning,
Doppler radar
A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fr ...
and wind profile data indicated a streak of elevated jet stream winds along the
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
−
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
border, though
weather balloon soundings sent up the previous evening by
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
(NWS) offices in the western U.S. and numerical
computer model
Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be deter ...
data failed to detect the fast-moving air current as it moved ashore from the Pacific Ocean. In addition, the dry line was diffused, with surface winds behind and ahead of the boundary moving into the region from a southerly direction. SPC meteorologists began to recalculate model data during the morning to account for the stronger wind profiles caused by the jet streak; the data acknowledged that thunderstorms would occur within the Central Plains, but disagreed on the exact area of greatest severe weather risk.
By 7:00 a.m. CDT,
CAPE (convective available potential energy) values began exceeding 4,000
J/
kg, an extreme value well above the climatological threshold favoring the development of severe thunderstorms.
Despite conflicting model data on the specified area where thunderstorms would develop, the newly available information that denoted a more favorable severe thunderstorm setup in that part of the state prompted the SPC to upgrade the forecasted threat of severe weather to a moderate risk for south-central Kansas, much of the western two-thirds of Oklahoma, and the northwestern and north-central portions of Texas at 11:15 a.m. CDT that morning, which now indicated that the atmospheric conditions present would "provide sufficient shear for a few strong or violent tornadic supercells given the abundant low level moisture and the high instability." The increasing threat of a severe weather/tornado outbreak for late that afternoon into the evening was reemphasized by NWS Norman forecasters in a Thunderstorm Outlook issued by the office at 12:30 p.m. CDT.
By the early afternoon hours, forecasters at both the SPC and NWS Norman (both of which shared an office complex near
Max Westheimer Airport at the time), realized that a major event was likely to take place based solely on observational data from radar and
weather satellite
A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ...
imagery and balloon soundings, as the computer models remained uncooperative in helping meteorologists determine where the greatest threat of severe storms would occur.
Conditions became highly conducive for tornadic development by 1:00 p.m. CDT as
wind shear
Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizont ...
intensified over the region (as confirmed by an unscheduled balloon sounding flight conducted by the NWS Norman office), creating a highly unstable atmosphere. The sounding balloon recorded winds blowing southwesterly at and respectively at the surface and at the level, southerly winds of and westerly winds of at ; it also indicated that a
capping inversion
A capping inversion is an elevated inversion layer that caps a convective planetary boundary layer.
The boundary layer is the part of the atmosphere which is closest to the ground. Normally, the sun heats the ground, which in turn heats th ...
over the region was weakening in southwestern Oklahoma and north Texas. With the warm air above the surface cooling down, this allowed warm air at the surface the chance to rise and potentially create thunderstorms.
Although
cirrus cloud
Cirrus ( cloud classification symbol: Ci) is a genus of high cloud made of ice crystals. Cirrus clouds typically appear delicate and wispy with white strands. Cirrus are usually formed when warm, dry air rises, causing water vapor deposition on ...
s − a bank of which had developed in west Texas and overspread portions of Oklahoma later in the morning − were present through much of the day, an area of clearing skies over western north Texas and southwestern Oklahoma early that afternoon allowed for the sun to heat up the moisture-laden region, creating significant
atmospheric instability
Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth's atmosphere is generally considered to be unstable and as a result the weather is subjected to a high degree of variability through distance and time. Atmospheric stability is a measure of t ...
.
At 3:49 p.m. CDT, the SPC − having gathered enough data to surmise that there was a credible threat of a significant severe weather outbreak occurring within the next few hours − amended its Day 1 Convective Outlook to place the western nine-tenths of the main body of Oklahoma, central and south-central Kansas and the northern two-thirds of Texas under a high severe weather risk, denoting a higher than normal probability of strong (F2+) tornadoes within the risk area. About 40 minutes after the revised outlook's issuance, at 4:30 p.m. CDT, the SPC issued a
tornado watch
A tornado watch ( SAME code: TOA) is a severe weather watch product issued by national weather forecasting agencies when meteorological conditions are favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes. In addit ...
for western and central Oklahoma, effective from 4:45 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. CDT that evening, for the threat of tornadoes, hail up to in diameter, wind gusts to and intense lightning. As that happened, the first thunderstorm cell of the unfolding event had already formed over southwestern Oklahoma.
Storm development and track
![Tornado1999AnimLrg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Tornado1999AnimLrg.gif)
The thunderstorm that eventually produced the F5 tornado began developing around 3:20 p.m. CDT that afternoon over northeastern
Tillman County (southwest of
Faxon). Despite the lack of overall
lift
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
prevalent in the region, the storm formed out of a
contrail
Contrails (; short for "condensation trails") or vapor trails are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several miles above the Earth's surface. Contrails ar ...
-like horizontal area of convective clouds that developed during peak surface heating over southwestern Oklahoma, located well ahead of the dry line that was still positioned farther to the west, which provided enhanced lift and speed shear necessary to develop the supercell.
Tracking northeast, the storm strengthened and entered
Comanche County shortly after 4:00 p.m. CDT.
By 4:15 p.m. CDT, the NWS Norman office issued a
severe thunderstorm warning
A severe thunderstorm warning ( SAME code: SVR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public that severe thunderstorms are imminent or occurring.
A sev ...
for Comanche County, as the initial storm continued to rapidly intensify over the southern half of the county; there, hail up to in diameter fell.
As the supercell's mesocyclonic rotation began to rapidly strengthen at the cloud base, a
tornado warning
A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public when a tornado has been reported or indicated by weather radar within the ...
was issued for the counties of Comanche,
Caddo, and
Grady at 4:50 p.m. CDT; one minute later, a small tornado roughly in diameter − the first of fourteen associated with supercell "A" (NWS Norman designated lettered names for the three tornado-producing supercells in the outbreak in storm surveys) − touched down east-northeast of
Medicine Park along
U.S. Route 62
U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) runs from the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canadian border. It is the only east-west United States Numbered Highway that connects Mexico and Can ...
. Five more tornadoes developed as the storm continued northeast; a sixth one, which would be given an F3 rating, touched down a short time later and caused substantial damage in central Grady County, including some to the
Chickasha Municipal Airport
Chickasha Municipal Airport is four miles northwest of Chickasha, in Grady County, Oklahoma. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''general aviation'' facility.
Facilities
The airport covers 7 ...
, where roofs were torn off of two hangars.
At 6:23 p.m. CDT, a ninth tornado associated with supercell "A" touched down about south-southwest of
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...
.
The tornado quickly intensified in both strength and size as it crossed
Oklahoma State Highway 92, attaining F4 strength about east-northeast of Amber. It quickly became a wedge tornado, varying between in width at various points throughout the track. Damage consistent with this rating was sustained over the following of the path before striking
Bridge Creek. There, it attained the highest-possible rating on the Fujita Scale, F5. A
mobile Doppler weather radar recorded winds of within the tornado at Bridge Creek, the highest
wind speed
In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer.
Wind speed ...
ever recorded on Earth. Since the record for maximum winds are reported from only non-tornadic events, however, the wind gust from
Cyclone Olivia
Severe Tropical Cyclone Olivia was a powerful cyclone, the 13th named storm of the 1995–96 Australian region cyclone season, which formed on 3 April 1996 to the north of Australia's Northern Territory. The storm moved generally to the southwes ...
in 1996 retained the title.
Damage in Bridge Creek was extreme, as many homes were swept away completely, leaving only concrete slabs where the structures once stood. Damage surveyors noted that the remaining structural debris from some of the homes in this area was finely granulated into small fragments, and that trees and shrubs were completely debarked. A few of these homes were bolted to their foundations. Approximately 200 houses and mobile homes were destroyed, and hundreds of other structures were damaged. The Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Bridge Creek was also destroyed in the process. Extensive ground scouring occurred, and vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards from where they originated, including a mangled pickup truck that was found wrapped around a telephone pole. About of
asphalt
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...
was scoured off one road.
About twelve people died in Bridge Creek, nine of whom were in
mobile homes; all fatalities and the majority of injuries were concentrated in the Willow Lake and Southern Hills Additions and Bridge Creek Estates, consisting mostly of mobile homes. Over 39 people were injured in the area as well.
Continuing northeastward, the tornado briefly weakened to F4 status before re-strengthening to F5 intensity as it neared the Grady-
McClain County line, where a car was thrown roughly in the air, and a well-built home with anchor bolts was reduced to a bare slab.
At this time, it had attained a width of , having grown to its largest width after crossing the
South Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .[KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Independent station (North America), independent station KAUT-TV (channel ...]
, reported during the station's live coverage of the storm that the tornado was at least one mile wide, and was embedded (or "rain-wrapped") in the precipitation core associated with the main circulation, making it difficult to see.
As it was becoming clear that a particularly violent tornado was moving into some of the most densely populated areas of central Oklahoma, around 6:57 p.m. CDT, NWS Norman issued the first-ever
tornado emergency
A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences in highly populated areas. Although it is not a new warning ...
for southern portions of the
Oklahoma City metropolitan area
The Oklahoma City metropolitan area is an urban region in the Southern United States. It is the largest metropolitan area in the state of Oklahoma and contains the state capital and principal city, Oklahoma City. It is often known as the Okla ...
. David Andra, a meteorologist at the NWS Norman office, said that, in drafting the enhanced warning, he wanted to "paint the picture
o residents in the areas that were to be affected by the stormthat a rare and deadly tornado was imminent in the metro area." For its initial usage, the enhanced wording was released as part of a standalone Severe Weather Statement (NWS code: SVS), which were (and still are) normally meant to update the public on an existing tornado warning or severe thunderstorm warning. For tornado warnings, the SVS provides updated information on the approximate location of the storm's base-level rotation or, if it occurred after the initial warning was issued, a tornado reported by the public, civil defense personnel or storm spotters, or with the later advent of
dual-polarization radar in the early 2010s, verified by radar-detected
debris signatures. (In future issuances, tornado emergencies were issued within either the initial tornado warning issuance or an SVS providing updated information on a tornado warning already in effect.) Two minutes later, at 6:59 p.m. CDT, the SPC issued a
Particularly Dangerous Situation tornado watch for much of the central third of Oklahoma, effective from 7:15 p.m. until midnight CDT on the early morning of May 4; the SPC watch product discussion noted that the extreme instability compensated for "somewhat marginal" wind shear to enhance the threat of strong to violent tornadoes.
![Bridgecreek](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Bridgecreek.PNG)
Paralleling
Interstate 44
Interstate 44 (I-44) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Fal ...
, the tornado moved into McClain County, where it crossed the highway twice at F4 intensity, killing a woman who was blown out from an underpass where she was attempting to seek shelter after being dragged down the embankment by the intense channeling winds; her 11-year-old son − with whom the woman vacated their stalled car nearby − survived, staying held tight onto the steel
girder
A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizing ...
s of the overpass. A man who helped the mother and son up the overpass suffered severe injuries to his leg, which was partially sliced by a highway sign thrown by the winds.
At 7:10 p.m. CDT, a
satellite tornado
A satellite tornado is a tornado that revolves around a larger, primary tornado and interacts with the same mesocyclone. Satellite tornadoes occur apart from the primary tornado and are not considered subvortices; the primary tornado and satellit ...
touched down over an open field north of
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
; it was rated as an F0 due to lack of damage. In McClain County, 38 homes and two businesses were destroyed and 40 homes, some of which were leveled at F4 intensity, were flattened; seventeen people were injured.
After crossing the
Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .[Cleveland County
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...]
and weakened to F2 intensity. By this time, it had entered the south side of Oklahoma City. Several minutes after entering the county, it re-attained F4 status, and then moved directly into the city of
Moore, reaching F5 intensity for a third time. Some of the most severe damage took place in Cleveland County, mainly in Moore, where eleven people were killed and 293 others were injured. The tornado caused an estimated $450 million in damage across the county. The first area impacted in Moore was the Country Place Estates
subdivision, where 50 homes were destroyed and one was swept cleanly from its foundation at F5 intensity. Several vehicles were picked up and tossed nearly away from their previous location. According to local police, an airplane wing, believed to have been from an airport in Grady County (possibly lofted into the storm's updraft when the supercell's sixth tornado hit Chickasha Municipal Airport), was found near Country Place Estates. Then, the powerful tornado struck the densely populated Greenbriar Eastlake Estates at F5 intensity, killing three people and reducing entire rows of homes to rubble. In one instance, four adjacent homes were completely destroyed, with only concrete slabs remaining, warranting an F5 rating at that location. Three other homes in this housing division also received F5 damage, with the remaining destruction rated high-end F4. Severe debarking of trees was noted in this area. At the Emerald Springs Apartments, three more people were killed and a two-story apartment building was mostly flattened.
![1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak supercell tracks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/1999_Oklahoma_tornado_outbreak_supercell_tracks.png)
As the tornado entered Cleveland County, NWS Norman activated emergency procedures, preparing to evacuate staff and others present at the facility in the event that the supercell should turn right, placing areas surrounding the Norman campus in the tornado's path (under NOAA protocol in situations posing a danger to personnel at local Weather Forecast Offices and related guidance centers, responsibility over the issuance of warnings and statements on the unfolding outbreak would have been transferred to the nearest NWS Forecast Office, based in
Tulsa
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
, while the SPC's forecasting responsibilities would be turned over to the
557th Weather Wing at
Offutt Air Force Base). The supercell, however, continued on a northeastward track, sparing the Norman area.
Safety precautions were also enacted elsewhere in and near the storm's path; council members and citizens at Moore City Hall − where a council meeting was scheduled to be held that evening − sheltered in place in the building's first-floor restrooms, away from the multiple large-pane windows at its facade. In
downtown Oklahoma City
Downtown Oklahoma City is located at the geographic center of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and contains the principal, central business district of the region. The CBD has over 51,000 workers and over of leasable office space to-date. Down ...
, spectators attending sporting events held that evening involving two of the city's
minor league teams – a regular season
Pacific Coast League baseball game between the
Oklahoma RedHawks
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
and the
Memphis Redbirds
The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbir ...
(which was suspended during the second inning) and Game 2 of the
Ray Miron President's Cup
The Ray Miron President's Cup is a trophy that was awarded to the playoff champion of the Central Hockey League (CHL) from 2002 until 2014, when the remaining CHL teams joined the ECHL. The trophy was known as The William "Bill" Levins Memorial Cup ...
series between the
Central Hockey League
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...
's
Oklahoma City Blazers and
Huntsville Channel Cats
The Huntsville Channel Cats was a professional ice hockey team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The franchise was a member of several different leagues, the Southern Hockey League (1995–1996), the Central Hockey League (1996–2001) and the Sou ...
– were also evacuated to shelter in an underground storage area connected to the
Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark and
Myriad Convention Center
Prairie Surf Studios (originally Myriad Convention Center and later Cox Convention Center) is a film production complex located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was formerly a convention center and the home of several minor league teams.
...
amid concerns that the storm would jog northward and place Oklahoma City itself in the tornado's path. Flights were grounded at
Will Rogers World Airport
Will Rogers World Airport , Will Rogers Airport or simply Will Rogers, is a passenger airport located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, about 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the city's downtown area. It is a civil-military airport ...
as the northern edge of the supercell (containing hail up to , straight-line wind gusts up to , and moderate to heavy rain) approached the area; the tornado turned right, away from southwestern parts of the city proper located within
Oklahoma County
Oklahoma County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 718,633, making it the most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Oklahoma City, the state capital and largest ci ...
, shortly before airport officials began evacuating employees and visitors at the terminals. Traffic on
Interstate 35
Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican border ...
in south Oklahoma City and north Moore became backed up for several miles, as drivers evacuated from their vehicles to seek shelter under an overpass overlooking South Shields Boulevard.
Just outside the Eastlake Estates, an honors ceremony was being held at Westmoore High School at the time of the tornado. Adequate warning time allowed those at the school to seek shelter, however, and more than 400 adults and students attending the awards ceremony at the school's auditorium were moved to the main building, sheltering in reinforced hallways and bathrooms. Ultimately, Westmoore High sustained heavy damage and dozens of cars that were in the school's parking lot were tossed around, some of which were completely destroyed or thrown into nearby homes. No injuries took place at the school, though a horse was found dead between a couple of destroyed cars in this area. The tornado proceeded through additional densely populated areas of Moore shortly thereafter, where several large groups of homes were flattened in residential areas, with a mixture of high-end F4 and low-end F5 damage noted in the survey. Near Janeway Avenue, four people were killed in an area where multiple homes were completely destroyed. A woman, who took shelter with her husband and two children, was also killed when she was blown out from under the Shields overpass on Interstate 35. The tornado weakened somewhat as it moved through the Highland Park neighborhood of Moore, but still caused widespread F3 and F4 damage.
![FEMA - 3733 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 05-04-1999 in Oklahoma](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/FEMA_-_3733_-_Photograph_by_Andrea_Booher_taken_on_05-04-1999_in_Oklahoma.jpg)
The tornado entered Oklahoma County and struck the southeast fringes of Oklahoma City, where it re-intensified to high-end F4 strength; two people were killed in this area as a building housing a trucking company was completely destroyed. Shortly before it tracked into the county, patrons and employees at
Crossroads Mall were evacuated to storage areas in the basement of the building.
Numerous industrial buildings were leveled in this area of the city. A freight railroad car, weighing was thrown . The car bounced as it traveled, remaining airborne for at a time. Multiple homes were also completely destroyed in southeast Oklahoma City, and one woman was killed in that area. Crossing Southeast 44th Street into
Del City
Del City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 21,822 at the United States Census, 2020.
Del City is located near two major interstate highways, both of wh ...
, the tornado moved through the highly populated Del Aire housing addition, killing six people and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, with many sustaining F3 to F4 damage.
Seven people were killed as a direct result of the tornado in Del City, and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed.
The tornado then crossed Sooner Road, and subsequently damaged an entry gate and several buildings at
Tinker Air Force Base
Tinker Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, surrounded by Del City, Oklahoma City, and Midwest City.
The base, origina ...
; it then crossed 29th Street into
Midwest City
Midwest City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,371, making it the eighth largest city in the state.
The city was developed in r ...
, destroying one building at the
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
Complex and damaging two others. Widespread F3/F4 damage continued as the tornado moved across
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
, affecting a large business district. Approximately 800 vehicles at Hudiburg Auto Group were damaged, located just south of Interstate 40. Hundreds of vehicles at the dealership were moved from their original location on the lot, and dozens of vehicles (including 30 awaiting tune-ups or repairs at Morris' Auto Machine and Supply, and an unoccupied Mid-Del School District bus) were picked up and tossed northward across the interstate into several motels, being carried a distance of approximately two-tenths of a mile. Numerous motels and other businesses, including
Hampton Inn
Hampton by Hilton, formerly known (and still commonly referred to) as Hampton Inn or Hampton Inn & Suites, is an American chain of hotels trademarked by Hilton Worldwide. The Hampton hotel brand is a chain of moderately priced, budget to midscale ...
,
Comfort Inn
Comfort (or being comfortable'')'' is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort c ...
, Inn Suites, Clarion Inn,
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., doing business as simply Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company was founded by Dan Evins in 1969. Its first store was in Lebanon, ...
, and portions of
Rose State College
Rose State College is a public community college in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
History
Rose State College was originally named Oscar Rose Junior CollegeBritton, Terry D.,Rose State College" Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture' (accessed M ...
, were destroyed. While some of the damage through this area was rated high-end F4, low-end F5 was considered. The tornado then continued into another residential area located between Southeast 15th and Reno Avenue, where three fatalities occurred. Damage consistent with high-end F4 wind speeds was inflicted to four homes in this area. Two of these homes were located between Southeast 11th and 12th Streets, near Buena Vista, and the other two homes were located on Will Rogers Road, just south of Southeast 15th. Damage then diminished rapidly to F0/F1 strength as the tornado crossed Reno Avenue, before dissipating three blocks north of Reno, between Sooner Road and Air Depot Boulevard (south of the Midwest City–Oklahoma City line). Throughout Oklahoma County, twelve people were killed and 234 others were injured while losses amounted to $450 million.
Impact and casualties
![Oklahoma City tornado 1999-05-03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Oklahoma_City_tornado_1999-05-03.jpg)
Thirty-six people were killed as a direct result of the storm and five more died of indirect causes in the hours following it; most of the indirect deaths were due to heart attacks or injuries suffered while trying to seek shelter. One survivor was uninjured but died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an apparent reaction to losing his home in the tornado. According to the Oklahoma Department of Health, an estimated 583 people were injured by the tornado, accounting for those who did not go to the hospital or were unaccounted for.
A total of 8,132 homes, 1,041 apartments, 260 businesses, eleven public buildings, and seven churches were damaged or destroyed. Estimated damage costs totaled $1.2 billion, making it the first recorded tornado to exceed $1 billion in total estimated damages. The Bridge Creek−Moore tornado produced an estimated of debris from the buildings that were destroyed.
This was the deadliest tornado recorded in Oklahoma since a long-track
F5 tornado killed 107 people in
Woodward on April 9, 1947. It was also the deadliest tornado ever recorded in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area; the previous record was held by an F4 tornado that affected southwestern portions of the city on June 12, 1942, which killed 31 people and caused $500,000 in damage ($ million in ( USD) when adjusted for inflation). It was the costliest tornado in U.S. history until it was surpassed by an
EF4 tornado
The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia.
The Enhanced Fujita scale repla ...
that hit
Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...
and northern portions of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, on April 27, 2011, causing an estimated $2.45 billion in damage (, the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado is the fourth-costliest tornado, having also been surpassed by the EF5 tornadoes that hit
Joplin on May 22, 2011, and areas of
Moore near the 1999 storm track on May 20, 2013).
In addition, this was the 50th and final tornado in the United States to be rated F5 on the original Fujita-Scale before the current Enhanced Fujita-Scale was implemented on February 1, 2007.
NWS researchers estimated that the death toll from the storm would likely have exceeded 600 had it not been for the advanced warning through local television and radio stations and proper safety precautions being exercised by area residents. Because Oklahoma has historically been
climatologically prone to tornadic activity, Oklahoma City-area television stations KFOR-TV (channel 4),
KOCO-TV
KOCO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. Its studios and transmitter are located on East Britton Road (Historic Route 66)—between North Kelley ...
(channel 5) and
KWTV
KWTV-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship broadcast property of locally based Griffin Media, and is co-owned with MyNe ...
(channel 9) – each of which provided continuous coverage of the outbreak that spawned the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado and its ensuing aftermath from the event's start on the afternoon of May 3 through the evening of May 4 – have long relied on state-of-the-art radar technology and visual confirmation from news helicopters and in-house
storm chasing fleets to cover severe weather events. The three network-affiliated stations, other local media outlets and the NWS also routinely conduct various
tornado preparedness
The term "tornado preparedness" refers to safety precautions made before the arrival of and during a tornado. Historically, the steps taken have varied greatly, depending on location, or time remaining before a tornado was expected. For example, i ...
symposiums to ensure residents undertake precautions in the event a tornado or other severe weather affects their area.
Aftermath
![FEMA - 3782 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 05-04-1999 in Oklahoma](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/FEMA_-_3782_-_Photograph_by_Andrea_Booher_taken_on_05-04-1999_in_Oklahoma.jpg)
Following the destructive and widespread tornado outbreak,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
signed a major disaster declaration for eleven Oklahoma counties (including the four that were affected by the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, Cleveland, McClain, Grady and Oklahoma) on May 4. In a press statement by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...
(FEMA), then-director
James Lee Witt
James Lee Witt (born January 6, 1944) is a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during the tenure of U.S. President Bill Clinton and is often credited with raising the agency's level of professionalism and ability to ...
stated that, "The President is deeply concerned about the tragic loss of life and destruction caused by these devastating storms." The
American Red Cross opened ten shelters overnight across central Oklahoma, housing 1,600 people immediately following the disaster. By May 5, this number had lowered to 500. Throughout May 5, several post-disaster teams from FEMA were deployed to the region, including emergency response and preliminary damage assessment units. The
U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
deployed the
249th Engineering Battalion and placed the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
on standby for assistance. Medical and mortuary teams were also sent by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By May 6, donation centers and
phone banks were being established to create funds for victims of the tornadoes.
Continuing search and rescue efforts for thirteen people who were listed as missing through May 7 were assisted by urban search and rescue dogs from across the country. Nearly 1,000 members of the Oklahoma
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
were deployed throughout the affected region. The American Red Cross had set up ten mobile feeding stations by this time and stated that 30 more were en route. On May 8, a disaster recovery center was opened in Moore for individuals recovering from the tornadoes. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, roughly 500,000 cubic yards (382,277 cubic meters) of debris was left behind and would likely take weeks to clear. Within the first few days of the disaster declaration, relief funds began being sent to families who requested aid. By May 9, roughly $180,000 had been approved by FEMA for disaster housing assistance.
![FEMA - 3822 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 05-01-1999 in Oklahoma](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/FEMA_-_3822_-_Photograph_by_Andrea_Booher_taken_on_05-01-1999_in_Oklahoma.jpg)
Debris removal finally began on May 12 as seven cleanup teams were sent to the region, more were expected to join over the following days. That day, FEMA also declared that seven counties − Canadian, Craig, Grady,
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
,
Logan,
Noble
A noble is a member of the nobility.
Noble may also refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Noble Glacier, King George Island
* Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land
* Noble Peak, Wiencke Island
* Noble Rocks, Graham Land
Australia
* Noble Island, Gr ...
and Oklahoma − were eligible for federal financial assistance. By May 13, roughly $1.6 million in disaster funds had been approved for housing and businesses loans. This quickly rose to more than $5.9 million over the following five days. By May 21, more than 3,000 volunteers from across the country traveled to Oklahoma to help residents recover; 1,000 of these volunteers were sent to Bridge Creek to clean up debris, cut trees, sort donations and cook meals. With a $452,199 grant from FEMA, a 60-day outreach program for victims suffering tornado-related stress was set up to help them cope with trauma.
Applications for federal aid continued through June, with state approvals reaching $54 million on June 3. By this date, the Army Corps of Engineers reported that 964,170 cubic yards (737,160 cubic meters), roughly 58%, of the 1.65 million cubic yards (1.26 million cubic meters) of debris had been removed. Assistance for farmers and ranchers who suffered severe losses from the tornadoes was also available by June 3. After more than a month of being open, emergency shelters were set to be closed on June 18. On June 21, an educational road show made by FEMA visited the hardest hit areas in Oklahoma to urge residents to build
storm cellar
A storm shelter or storm cellar is a type of underground bunker designed to protect the occupants from violent severe weather, particularly tornadoes. They are most frequently seen in the Midwest ("Tornado Alley") and Southeastern United States ( ...
s. According to FEMA, more than 9,500 residents applied for federal aid during the allocated period in the wake of the tornadoes. Most of the applicants lived in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties, 3,800 and 3,757 persons respectively. In all, disaster recovery aid for the tornadoes amounted to roughly $67.8 million by the end of July 2.
Over the following four years, a $12 million project to construct storm shelters for residents across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area was enacted. The goal was to create a safer community in a tornado-prone region. By May 2003, a total of 6,016 safe rooms were constructed. On May 9, 2003, the new initiative was put to the test as a
tornado outbreak
__NOTOC__
A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least two rotational l ...
in the region spawned an F4 tornado, which took a path similar to that of the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. Due to the higher standards for public safety, no one was killed by the 2003 tornado, a substantial improvement in just four years. On May 20, 2013, an
EF5 tornado
The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia.
The Enhanced Fujita scale repl ...
impacted some of the same areas affected by the 1999 storm, tracking through the heart of Moore. Throughout the city, 24 people were killed (along with one additional person who died as an indirect result of the tornado) and more than 230 were injured.
Highway overpass misconception
![1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado overpass image](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/1999_Bridge_Creek-Moore_tornado_overpass_image.jpg)
From a meteorological and safety standpoint, the tornado also brought into question the use of highway overpasses as shelters. Prior to the events on May 3, 1999, videos of people taking shelter in overpasses during tornadoes in the past – most notably one filmed near
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
, during the
April 26, 1991 tornado outbreak
From April 26–27, 1991, multiple supercells across Oklahoma and Kansas led to a regional tornado outbreak. Forced by a potent trough and focused along a dryline, these distinct thunderstorms moved northeast through a moist and highly unstable ...
involving a television news crew from Wichita
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
KSNW
KSNW (channel 3) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC and Telemundo. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on North Main Street in northwest Wichita (near downtown); its tran ...
(channel 3), who decided to shelter under an overpass on the
Kansas Turnpike
The Kansas Turnpike is a , freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely within the US state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas cities, ...
alongside other bystanders who found themselves in the path of the tornado – gave the public misunderstanding that overpasses provided shelter from tornadoes. For nearly twenty years, meteorologists had questioned the safety of these structures; however, they lacked incidents involving loss of life. In the aforementioned 1991 footage, the subjects were able to safely ride out the tornado due to an unlikely combination of events: the storm in question was a weak tornado, the tornado did not directly strike the overpass, and the overpass itself was of a unique design.
Indeed, the May 1999 tornado outbreak proved concerns that highway overpasses were dangerous places to seek shelter during a tornado, as three overpasses were directly struck by tornadoes, with a fatality taking place at each one. Two of these were from the F5 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado while the third was from a comparatively less intense F2, which struck a rural area in
Payne County
Payne County is located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,350. Its county seat is Stillwater. The county was created in 1890 as part of Oklahoma Territory and is named for Capt. David L. Payne, a lead ...
, north-northeast of Oklahoma City; many other serious to life-threatening injuries also occurred at these locations. The casualties at the three overpasses are attributed to the
Venturi effect
The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section (or choke) of a pipe. The Venturi effect is named after its discoverer, the 18th century Italian physicist, Giovanni Battista ...
, as tornadic winds were accelerated in the confined space of each of the overpasses that the tornadoes passed through, increasing the chances that those riding out the tornado would be blown out at high speeds even if they tried to anchor themselves to the girders. According to a study by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA), seeking shelter in an overpass "is to become a stationary target for flying debris."
Engineering flaws
Preliminary damage surveys conducted by a group of structural engineers from
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...
determined that many of the frame homes that were destroyed by the Bridge Creek−Moore tornado were constructed below minimal residential building code standards, discovering some structural deficiencies that violated codes, which were considered to be inadequate for regions prone to tornadic activity (under federal building code standards, frame homes that were properly strapped and bolted would have withstood winds between 152 and 157 miles per hour (245 and 253 km/h), equivalent to an F2 tornado). The team, led by meteorological researcher
Charles Doswell and storm damage engineer/meteorologist Tim Marshall, determined that nails attached to a plywood roof deck in one damaged home were not properly anchored to the rafters; several homes in rural areas that were swept nearly from their original location did not have
anchor bolts that secured the frame to their foundations, as was the case at Country Place Estates, where the homes − which left a trail of debris strewn away from their location − were attached to the concrete foundations by tapered cut nails that extended only a half-inch to the bases; many homes that were left at least partially standing also had their garage doors (mainly those made from aluminum material) collapse inward, allowing the tornado's destructive winds to enter the houses.
Marshall discovered other building and vehicle remains that became debris missiles, including a twisted steel beam, a steel leg broken off of a lawn chair that was impaled into a post by the violent winds and a section of a sewer pipe that was blown into the interior hallway of one house through the front door. The team's findings also revealed that several homes were obliterated before they experienced the full impact of the vortex's peak wind velocities, with some disintegrating as the external winds surrounding the parent tornado reached speeds of F2 intensity. Three months later, as homes were being built in the damage path, Marshall found their construction to be scarcely superior to that of the homes destroyed in the May 3 storm.
The FEMA corroborated with Doswell and Marshall's findings in its Building Performance Assessment Team Report on the May 3 outbreak, noting that much of the structural damage resulted from strong winds generated by the tornado and associated windborne debris that often "produced forces on buildings not designed to withstand such forces" and in some cases, were due to improper construction techniques and "poor selection" of materials used in their construction. The report acknowledged that federal construction code requirements needed to be revised above the then-current minimum standards to allow newer buildings to better withstand higher wind speeds consistent with tornadoes of lesser intensity than the one that devastated Bridge Creek and Moore, thereby lessening the degree of damage, fatalities and injuries that are probable in buildings of typically less reinforced construction.
In popular culture
The events and survivor accounts of the tornado were profiled in an episode of
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
's ''
Critical Rescue
''Critical Rescue'' is an American docudrama television series that is produced by New Dominion Pictures and ran on the Discovery Channel from February 2, 2003 to August 24, 2003.
The series is streaming on Tubi TV, Pluto TV and Amazon Prime Vi ...
'' (produced by
New Dominion Pictures
New Dominion Pictures, LLC. (also registered as New Dominion Pictures Virginia Beach or New Dominion Pictures Virginia) is an American television production company based in Suffolk, Virginia and mainly specialized on producing documentary, realit ...
), aired in 2003 and
NHNZ
NHNZ, formerly Natural History New Zealand, is a New Zealand-based television production house.
It works and co-produces with multiple major global broadcasters: Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, A&E Television Networks, Na ...
's ''
Ultimate Disaster'' (''Mega Disaster'') on
National Geographic Channel in 2006.
See also
*
List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
These are some notable tornadoes, tornado outbreaks, and tornado outbreak sequences that have occurred in North America.
#''The listing is U.S.-centric, with greater and more consistent information available for U.S. tornadoes. Some North Americ ...
**
List of tornadoes with confirmed satellite tornadoes
This article is a list of tornadoes that had at least one confirmed satellite tornado. A satellite tornado is one that revolves around a larger, primary tornado and interacts with the same mesocyclone. Satellite tornadoes occur apart from the prima ...
*
List of tornadoes in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak
From May 2 to 8, 1999, a 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, large tornado outbreak took place across much of the Central United States, Central and parts of the Eastern United States, as well as southern Canada. During this week-long event, 152 ...
− a chronological list of the tornadoes (as compiled in National Weather Service damage surveys and local storm reports) that occurred over the seven-day period of the outbreak from May 2 to 8, 1999
*
2003 Moore–Choctaw tornado − a weaker tornado of peak F4 intensity that followed a similar path four years later
*
2013 Moore tornado − a similarly destructive, but less deadly EF5 tornado that affected nearby areas fourteen years later
*
2013 El Reno tornado – the widest tornado on record that impacted nearby areas fourteen years later
*
List of Cleveland County, Oklahoma tornadoes
This is a list of tornadoes reported in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, Oklahoma. Cleveland County is located in Tornado Alley and experiences tornadoes frequently. The city of Moore, Oklahoma, Moore is located within the county and ...
Notes
References
External links
Doppler radar animation of the tornado(via
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
)
The Great Plains Tornado Outbreak of May 3–4, 1999− a meteorological outline of the outbreak by the National Weather Service forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma
FEMA: Oklahoma Tornadoes, Severe Storms, and Flooding
{{DEFAULTSORT:1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado
B
B
Bridge Creek -Moore tornado
Bridge Creek-Moore tornado
Bridge Creek-Moore tornado
Bridge Creek-Moore tornado
Satellite tornadoes