The fact that this nader threw a 10 TON TANK over a MILE(!!!!!!!) I can’t even fathom that.. imagine getting swooped up by winds that strong

10 years to the day. I have a feeling that this video will be very well received on your channel. I'm going to make a cup of tea and watch this on the big screen. Peace✌️ 🇬🇧🕊️ 🇺🇸

I once heard Tim Marshall say (In reference to the exponential power of tornadic wind)- that 200mph wind is actually more like 4 times more powerful than 100mph wind, and 300mph wind is more like 9 times as powerful. That's terrifying to contemplate.

10 years ago to the day I remember this like it was yesterday……however we’ll never know when we’ll get the next ef5

My grandparents, my aunt, and cousins were in that house with F4 damage sandwiched between the F5s. All made it out nearly unscathed. My grandfather rode the 2012 and 1999 F5s out inside the house both times. Words cannot describe the damge I personally saw that day. My dad and I were among some of the first people at that 7-11. Digging through the rubble pile thatvwas the freezer hoping to find the woman with her baby will forever be burned into my memory. Great video.

Never thought I'd find someone else who finds the damage side of tornadoes interesting. I started work on a video essay about a history of tornado forensics but it seems like you already have that covered. Looking forward to the next one, Amazing work!

I live on 19th street in Moore. Thank God I didn’t live here at the time. My neighbors did, but they survived and have some amazing stories. Neighbor across the street had 2 children at Briarwood Elementary when this f5 hit.

I cant believe this happened 10 years ago already. I remember it hitting about a mile south of where I lived. I remember being able to look at the sky from the south, and it was pitch black

Yeah, tornado damage is frightening. I've personally witnessed EF4 and EF5 damage and it's shocking. Cars wrapped around trees, concrete sidewalks thrown into houses, housing complexes and brick buildings completely wiped from their foundations... it stays with you.

On this day my sons teacher and baby passed away in the 7-11, she helped him in so many ways and all this time later the skills she gave him helped him be one of her most successful moments in her career

I barely remember it but I saw the aftermath and I still remember seeing the cars tossed everywhere . I fell like this was the tornado that made me love weather and look at storms differently. Great video as always and R.I.P the victims of this tragic event

Wow already 10 years huh? I remember hearing about this when I was like in 3rd grade. RIP all those who were lost.

Moore - 24 fatalities. While even one is one too many, and every fatality is it's own personal tragedy, other single tornadoes in recent years beat Moore in terms of fatalities. Tuscaloosa, 2011 Super Outbreak, 44 deaths. Hackleburg-Phil Campbell, Alabama, also an EF-5 of similar intensity, with winds at 210 mph, and SEVENTY-TWO fatalities, beats Moore's count by 48 people. Joplin, 160 deaths. This tornado was only on the ground for 13 miles, but unfortunately, just happened to intensify while going through Moore. Hackleburg-Phil Campbell was a very long-tracked tornado and lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes, whereas Moore lasted 39 minutes. By the way, the previous day, May 19, 2013, had tornadoes. OKC's eastern suburbs got hit. Shawnee in Pottawatomie County, about 37 miles east of OKC got hit by an EF-4, and these storms probably put out outflow boundaries that enhanced the lift for the storms that spawned the 2013 Moore tornado. I do think that May 3, 1999, overall was worse, as it was a big outbreak, and not a single tornado.

I lived in Moore when this storm hit. I was out of town but my wife and son were home this day. They hid in the bathtub of our central bathroom with a crib mattress on top of them. The tornado missed us by less than a mile. The guy who bought our house (i was moving to Atlanta to get my Mechanical Engineering degree LOL) wasn't so lucky. We put our house on the market on a Friday in July and we had an agreed contract (what we asked plus some) the Monday following! My son was born at that hospital this monster wiped off the map (it had to get torn down due to the level of destruction it sustained)! We were blessed!

I can’t imagine EF 5. I’ve seen EF 4 in person and it’s surreal. To see that something stripped gravel roads down to their base and took pavement and it’s gravel base off the roads is unreal. The power is unimaginable.

Hey man, your channel is criminally underrated. The amount of work you put into your videos definitely shows. Keep up the amazing work!

So the Lubbock F5, joplin, greensburg, elreno, may 3rd. Multiple violent tornadoes have made that left turning corkscrew turn. It’s just something to think about chasing. We see it time and time again it may be revolving around the meso. The moore tornado you can see a merger and a 70kt jet streak +/-20kts. Right as it was entering. But also it could be the centrifugal force / debris throwing the tornado out of balance that causes that cork screw turn. If you look at damage paths. The cork screw turn happens when the meso starts shrinking. Usually the hook gets clogged up with a merger or something and the meso expands to cope with the inflow disruption. But when the hook clears, the meso shrinks rapidly (back to its original size). It’s almost like squeezing a water bottle or bulb syringe. It really funnels a lot of energy to the ground when the meso shrinks. It’s almost like it collapses all of that energy into the core of the tornado.

Tornado updrafts are really something. They scour pavement off of roads, completely wipe away structures, debark trees, throw cars hundreds of yards away, tearing limbs off of people (yes, it has happened). It's crazy.

I remember watching Michael Lynn's footage of this storm and you see how quickly it starts to widen after touchdown, highly recommend watching if you haven't seen it

I’ve been expecting someone to put out a video on this on this 10 year anniversary, glad it was you, I love your videos.

My dad tells me the story of when we lived in Naperville Illinois when I was a small child and an EF5 Tornado hit Plainfield Illinois which was about 10 miles from where we lived. A man he worked with was on his way to the Unileaver plant in Joliet Illinois when he stopped on the side of a highway because the rain and wind were to strong to continue. 5 minutes later a fence post went streight through the drivers side door and out the passengers side door leaving a hole about the size of a soccer ball. If he had stayed in the car he would've been skewered alive. In the aftermath of that storm 29 people were killed and over 300 were injured. They were pulling bodies out of cornfields up to two miles away from the town. Tornadoes are pretty to look at but one of mother natures most deadly phenominons. I have heard people say that being near a tornado like that sounds like being next to a freighy train or fighter jet taking off.

PERFECT I cannot wait

Another great video. I love these, because it adds that scientific aspect that we don't often think of for these damage indicators, and the perspective of an engineer really helps to explain some of this. Though I'm sure we've been close a time or two since 2013, I'm glad we haven't had an EF5 since a decade ago.

This is probably the most in-depth analysis of damage indicators I have ever seen. Very well done! But what's truly on my mind is, after 2 of the most devastating tornadoes in history, why would anyone ever rebuild in Moore, OK? Why anyone would live in tornado alley is beyond me but who would ever want to live in Moore again? Tornado insurance alone must be outrageous! I just can't fathom risking your life and the life of your loved ones, to live there.

I remember watching a documentery called "Oklahoma Tornado Target" from The Weather Channel a few years ago and this was the first thing it showed before Moore 99 and El Reno

In 2011 I formed an opinion that It’s way easier to get a EF5 rating in tornado alley / Oklahoma 15-35mph vs Dixie alley 55-75mph. So take jarrell where the tornado was creeping 1-8mph at times. Or the cork screw turns produce DOD 10 on a FR12. The Dixie alley tornadoes were moving 55-73mph; so the core of the tornado that usually produces the DOD 10. It’s not over a location for very long moving those speeds. Sometimes less than 3 seconds -- also in 2011 I learned about the politics surrounding the Scale. The Hackelburg or smithville had those been moving 5mph I don’t even wanna think about what would’ve happened.

Please, keep up the great work! Loving these video’s!

People do not forget tornados, especially large tornados in cities where no one is expecting them. We had one in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1987. It was Friday, July 31 when Edmonton was hit by a large, rain wrapped wedge, tornado that was rated as Ef4 in places, with a maximum wind speed just 1 mph below an Ef5. That day is now known as Black Friday and not one person who was there will ever forget exactly where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. 27 people lost their lives - a number of whom drove their cars straight into the rain wrapped wedge, which looked nothing like the long ropey tornados they’d seen on tv. All they could see was rain and a sky as black as pitch, although nightfall was still a long 5 hours away. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to live in tornado alley, knowing the risk you are exposed to every year in tornado season. I wonder if people are constantly on the look out for those sea green clouds that seem to foretell incoming tornados. How many stay to rebuild after their towns and cities have been ripped to shreds? How many are so traumatized, they have to leave everything behind and move outside tornado alley?

Another superb addition to the series. Great work 👍

My west Moore home was wiped down to the slab. Right off of 4th street. I had just moved in that morning. Can't believe its been 10 years.

I'll never forget this day. Living so close, it was a scary day for sure

You are a pure soul. What you say at the end makes me cry. ❤ Thank you for the work you did, I from Italy and I don’t know nothing about tornado, you and your colleagues are an important resource for me. ❤

This is a very intellectual analysis of a major tornado event. For us technical nerds, it was a riveting watch. Very well done! BRAVO! I could watch it 100 times and gain a little further understanding and fascination each time. FWIW: I personally witnessed this tornado, but not until about the last few minutes of its life. Of hundreds of tornadoes I have witnessed in my life, this was one of the most audible. I could hear it clearly from a surprising distance. Others have reported the same. Curious why. Thank you for high quality content on KZfaq!

Once again, a phenomenal review of a tornado event. I personally do not remember this happening because I was young and a couple hundred miles away.

Excellent analysis, Ethan. There seems to be something lost in the midst of the discussions regarding classification of the class of tornado that hits cities, towns, locales. And that is EXACTLY what you touch on. You can have an EF3 destroy a house/place if the quality if buildings is not good. The damage indicators can resemble those of a higher intensity funnels, when in fact it's the quality of materials/construction that is at the root of the destruction. I think NIST looks into these often overlooked (by newsmedia and storm analysts), and this is of paramount importance to understand who or what is responsible for tragic events. Good videos, Ethan. Good service.

Great analysis. It’s not only the ferocious wind but what comes with it… the debris smashing into everything making any tornado that much devastating.

Kudos to you for your sensitivity and sensibilities when it comes to the damage and the human impact. However, I think that an EF3 would almost be worse to view the damage of, because with an EF5, stuff is so ground up into little bits that not much is really recognizable. An EF3 will shred a house, but you can mostly tell it's still a house, ya know? Just my 2 cents on it. Both are heartbreaking and the fact that anyone lives through these things is a blessing from God and a testimony to the vigilance of the NWS. Thanks for all that you do. As an engineer myself (computer not mechanical or structural) your analysis method and math skills make me smile. Excellent work, as always!

Rest in peace to the 24 who passed

I remember this day. I got home from High School, and decided to turn on the Weather Channel. I got to watch this Tornado from shortly after touchdown to rope out. My Dad has a saying that Today's news is tomorrow's history. It applies to weather too, and I got to see this beast make history. Haven't watched the video, but I remember saying to myself this is an EF4, but apparently it was an EF5.

After looking at the damage and strength of the tornado it still shocking that more folks weren’t injured and killed. Absolutely crazy

Yay can’t wait to watch! Thank you for the premium content you continue to bring us!

The INTRO? Everything is so good here

I can't wait until you do a video on Smithville, imo one of the strongest tornadoes to ever impact the US.

Excellent video. Ive watched the live news cast of that day several times. This is an excellent video. Nice work

Does anyone know why F-4 to F5 tornadoes 🌪 in particular have evil looking faces in them? Some very disturbing images the tornadic clouds! Any reasonable answer I would like to hear.

I loved it, well represented and very informative, the math still puzzles me ahaha, but I have one question, when it comes to tornadoes I know they're capable of trenching and I wanted to know what it would take to pull a slab out of the ground or shift it, if possible?

Great analysis...and also terrifying 😢

The damage to the train track bridge we’re across the river was pretty phenomenal.. they still kept part of it up which I think is kind of need to be honest, considering how horrific this was to be around

I was in a multi story office when that occurred, less than 10 miles away the building was new. Afterwards our management asked the city (who owns the building) what tornado rating the building was built to withstand. The OKC response was it was built to code. Needless to say we are told to work from home during days when severe weather is expected to produce tornados One thing I disagree with the poster of this video. We were expecting extremely severe weather with a week advance notice. We had F3's and F4's they day before, but we were still expecting it to get bad on that day.

Very well done. I always appreciate this type of content. ☕

I just found this channel! Excellent work my friend!❤

a day i will never forget remember seeing it on the weather channel

10 years since the last ef5. Crazy. And joplin’s anniversary is in a couple days. It’s crazy when disaster dates line up like that.

Wonderful channel, thank you for all your insight. I have a question for you. Of all the issues with the EF scale, one that I never hear talked about its the fact that there seems to be no accounting for the duration of winds over a damage indicator. As you point out in this video, the area where the storm cycled (or whatever it was that happened) yielded a greater concentration of EF-5 indicators in part because that's where the storm was going the slowest. The Jarrell event is probably the most famous example of this issue. The EF scale is supposed to measure wind speed. Doesn't the presence of a time component more or less undermine the whole thing? Over geologic time, an ant blowing on a house could probably slab it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

29:29 and that is the main flaw of the scale. The DI system relies on more data to be more accurate and with Tornadoes that's not a good thing. We could have a 2 mile wide 320mph+ beast cut through a field and rate it an EF3 cause it only clipped a single house. I think its also worth considering that the old scale had F4's go into the mid 200's and F5's were 250+. Having the EF5 tolerance right at 200 is clearly a problem. When its hard to differentiate a 190mph DI from a 210mph DI you will have this. Its also clear if you study F5's that had mindblowing levels of destruction (5/3/99, Jarrell, Candlestick, Lubbock, Xenia, 4/3/74, 4/4/77, 5/31/85) you can get a better idea of what true F5 damage looks like.

I am completely fascinated with tornados and weather. I constantly watch videos about tornados and extreme weather and my wife hates it. She grew up in Moore and survived both the 99 and 2013 tornadoes. She does not like tornadoes, so every time we get supercells rolling over us she goes directly to the closet when the sirens go off. I’ll be watching radar like the meso is literally a half mile south of us we’re fine.

Which website are you using and can you please link it

A lot of homes in the main neighborhoods hit had no walls left standing after the tornado passed through, especially homes in/near the center of the path. I wonder why they weren’t labeled with E-F5 indicators. Is it because the foundations and pavement wasn’t swept clean? Or is it because the house frames were not anchored well enough?

I’d love to see Smithville.

i see a lot of people talk about the plaza towers, but see almost none mention the family that was swept into the oklahoma river because they sought shelter in a concrete tunnel. five people died in the tunnel alone, and four of them were children. they are buried by my sister and i think they deserve to be remembered as well. concrete tunnels are not good places to seek shelter! you will be swept away by flood water and will drown.

Sweet video man very professional

Very well done!

I remember the day while living near Lawton, ok. I remember in our part of the statewe had some clouds, a bit windy, but overall, not bad. Around noonish, maybe around 1, we (folks at work) noticed this... dark, almost black mass in the horizon, looking NE towards OKC. It was ominous, and it looked nasty. A few hours later, we got the news that there was a massive tornado around okc. Some people who volunteered to help in moore described the damage as war like and hellish. Crazy!

How the hell do you not have more subscribers

Yet another great video.

As of today, April 4th 2024, I have a bad feeling about there being another EF5 tornado this year. I don't really watch tornado videos, but I'd say in the past 48 hours I've heard it mentioned about 5 different times from various places (TV, radio, etc) how the May 20th 2013 was the 'last' EF5 tornado. I'm telling you, when things like this happen to me it's like a weird premonition of things to come. I hope this doesn't come to fruition, but I'm telling you it's weird enough I took noticed that I heard about this tornado several times within hours of each other when I never hear about it otherwise.

I’ll never understand using damage as a criteria for assigning a rating. There’s too many variables that you touched on including quality of construction. Hurricanes are rated based solely on wind speed, why not tornadoes?

Although not as violent and intensity as the Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado of 1999 its slower speed made it more distructive I think its among the slowest F5/EF5 tornado with Jarrell TX being the most notable. Its also surprising how this barely got an EF5 rating it may have received a High-end EF4 with how stringent the damage survey.

What are the odds of Moore having the last officially rated F5 (1999) before the EF scale was implemented in 2007 and, as of 30 June 2023, the last officially rated EF5 (2013) in the US?

That Tornado Had Completely Vaporized Everything

It would seem that an EF 4 going through a field would not compare with an EF4 going through a residential area, I would think an EF 4 going through the area that can fill it's hands with battering rams would make it appear more powerful when it wasn't.

June 1st have anything to do with the June 1 Springfield MA tornado?

I was watching the storms the other night through Oklahoma and Bridge Creek, Moore, and whole OKC metro was under the gun all night. Luckily they caught a break.

two things. 1: If its been 10 years since moore, Then its gonna be 10 years from El Reno on the 31st. At some point the El Reno needs evaluating. 2: Completely unrelated to these events, I think you should look at the The Katie / Wynnewood EF4 of May 9, 2016. Pecos Hank has a brilliant video of this event, and you can see the storm literally pull a roof off a house in one piece. Than needs some studying!!!

My home was in the path. I lived right next to plaza towers and also went to that school as a child. I will say 90% of those homes in that neighborhood weren’t built after 99. The 99 F5 didn’t hit this neighborhood, most of all those homes were built in the 70’s. Including mine.

Amazing video. Please do Joplin next!!!!

your channel is making me think of how these houses are built and that people will go cheap I think there should be investigations into these companies that build these homes what is the point of a city puting codes and requirements if no one abides by them and putting the life of American citizens at risk and yes I know an EF5 tornado is a hard thing to survive maybe with this channel people will start to see this travesty and start pushing for the political will for leaders to hold these companies accountable anyways love your channel keep up the work

Thank you for expressing the importance of the human impact. Is there any way wind blown debris affects your calculations? I realize that is a hard variable to account for. Just a random thought.

Are you willing to look at the Ellie Manitoba EF5 damage indicator?

I remember that day. I watched it on tv and with storms in the ft worth tx area too. We were aware that tornadoes were possible that day. I remember the storm in ft worth that afternoon it was erie and green. Thinking we were going to have a tornado it was actually the moore Oklahoma tornado. It was so intense. I still can't believe it to this day. We were fortunate to be missed by the tornado but that sky was never forgotten.

I hope friends dig out for the following week, and it was so overwhelming

That first propane tank definitely looks like a repurposed tank from a railroad tank car given the rivet construction and dome shape. In addition to what look like witness marks where tank straps would have held it to a rail car frame. Probably pre 1950 build date

Remember sitting at the dinner table watching it live on a laptop as it was going through moore

what website is he using

You made an excellent appeal to change the rating criteria, maybe not to replace the Enhanced Fujita scale, but to be used in concert with it to capture the human impact. Does the total destruction of a well built modern barn with EF-5 damage indicators really merit a ranking equal to Moore 2013? Found you on the blue bird app, was not disappointed. Thank you for this, and God Bless these victims and their families. The width of that EF0 damage field at the beginning of the track, wow.

Just remember that THIS was not the worst tornado damage at that time. The most EXTREME damage ever recorded was the jarrell F-5 with Est. Of 260 MPH and moved a slow, painfull 2-3 MPH and Jarrell even had more Confirmed deaths. 27, Because it was so slow it left absolutely NOTHING left in its path it barely dodged the main part of Jarrell but unfortunately hit The double creek estates area where the worst of the worst damage would occur. Houses ripped off of their foundations, All large debris that would be there. Absent. Bodies parts torn so violently investigators had no clue to who the bodies belonged to. R.I.P to all the people who died in Jarrell and moore

May 2013 was definitely insane for Oklahoma, specially OKC general area. 11 days later you'd have El Reno

Damn! Just how scary that must’ve been living in the path of the monster!

And from the ashes a new Moore will be born!

I wish they’d put Joplin on the DAT. I actually emailed NWS to ask why it’s not on there and they said it was because it’s only been in widespread use for the last 8-10 years and entries before then are few and far between, and I’m like…ok but nearly every other major 2011 tornado is on there?? Oh well

Life long Missouri resident here. I’ve seen a tornado in person. Relax, you look like you’re focusing on dropping a massive log; angrily.

The 1999 was also on Monday…

where did you get the map things

Could the loop be a failed occlusion, much like El Reno 2013? 🤔

The loop is likely a failed occlusion. Cameron Nixon talked about this recently in his talk about deviant motion tornadoes.

MAY 3RD 1999 and MAY 20TH 2013 F5 TORNADOES 🌪 IN MOORE OKLAHOMA 1999 REGISTERED 318 MPH: THE HIGHEST WIND SPEED EVER RECORDED ON PLANET EARTH 🌎 2013 F5-210 MPH. MAY 31ST 2013 F5-NEAR 300MPH IN EL RENO OKLAHOMA. If I lived in Oklahoma in particular and definitely in the town of El Reno and Moore…I would absolutely have a shelter built into the ground about 15-20ft deep minimum!!! 🌪🌪🌪😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😬😬😬🤐🤐🤐😳😳😳😵😵😵

Sounds like to me the difference between an F4 tornado IE mayfield/ rolling fork tornado vs F5 Moore is speed of the tornado going across the ground. The mayfield tornado averaged 55 mph. Going 60 mph most of the time. I saw slabbed buildings in Cayce ky with no debris from the buildings that used to be there and after leaving Cayce it sucked up topsoil up to 18 inches deep in spots The slower the tornado the more damage it will cause.

I live in moore & have been in (2) tornado's.. 2013 i seen it as it was moving down sw 149th.. Moore has 63,000 people

I'm an engineer too and very familiar with all your equations presented. But 209 mph winds picking up a 10 Ton tank and throwing it 1 mile is BS. Put it in a wind tunnel and see what happens. The truth is the tank levitated (which meteorologist continue to ignore). And once in the air, it simply moves along with the tornado. Furthermore, at its most Fundamental Level, a Tornado is an Electrical phenomenon (try explaining a playing card stuck half way in a tree). Until we change our way of thinking, we'll continue to be stuck in the Dark Ages. Otherwise, I did enjoy your presentation. It was well thought thru. Good job!

10 years. Next 5/3 will be 25 years since the 1999 storm. Goodness, how time flies.