Can i say this as a european i cannot even comprehand from video how big this was this shit is crazy i didnt know about all this went looking for big tornado's on youtube found this i am fucking horrified im gonne say it again its hard for me to comprehand how big this was 2.6 miles is 4.2 KM thats like the distance i travel when i go to work on my bike like WOW !!!!! REALLY!!!!!! Im like you have to see this in real life to comprehand it

Dude...I noticed that as well. Awful....

Some of the vehicles were throw like 100 meters

Maybe visible maybe not

It didn't show any green dots approaching the wreckage.

I would hazard a guess that there where more chasers on this day than what you would have on other days/storms.. seeing as this was not your typical run of the mill storm but a super cell of mega portions makes sense that more chasers headed out.

Its been a realization that has crept up on me recently with tornadoes slowly dominating an increasing percentage of my autistic obsessions free time. I'll probably try to see one at some point. But oh my god now I have to be concerned with potential gridlock at the same time.

Biggest tornado in recorded history. Normal EF5s tend to be no more than 1000m wide; El Reno was nearly 4200m wide.

@@DTfan43Ef5s have no size limit

@@Netzachfromlorany tornado has no size limit

I just found this video and I agree.

Indeed

Yes, yes it is.

Agreed

Imagine if this thing hit OKC. Would’ve made Joplin look like child’s play.

Yep

Samaras and who else?

Mike Bettes.

How come the other red dots continue after being hit?

Because those storm chasers were still able to drive their vehicles. The different color is just a way to tell the four groups of chasers this video discusses apart from all the other chasers. It doesn't indicate who didn't make it out of the tornado. Some of those green dots had chasers who were injured or had vehicles disabled by the tornado too. I didn't (and can't) go into detail for all of them.

He used to be my local meteorologist for the news and nearly drowned during a flash flood when reporting on it. I'm convinced he's an adrenaline junkie.

@@ericarichards8350 he's a reckless idiot.

I'm just happy that Mike Bettes decided that he's better off in the studio than in the field after nearly getting killed by the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado. That being said there's a bit of gallows humor that if Jim Cantore shows up in your town; bad weather is bound to happen.

Hard to believe that in May of this year it will have been a decade since this beast of a tornado occurred. I can't imagine the amount of grief and sorrow Kathy Samaras experienced because she not only had to bury her husband but also her son. Though to some it's truly amazing Kathy hasn't gone completely insane from grief.

Surprised Tim wasn't like "F*ck it, lets back out of this" because he would always be the guy who'd back out first if the situation was way too dangerous. I'm guessing they didn't know the entire circulation was much larger.

.... Watching dans video, it's VERY CLEAR that this had nothing to do with "bad luck" and everything to do with being irresponsible, and wanting to get close to the tornado... Lets be real, and stop denying the elephant in the room here.. Are they scientists in a sense? Yes, are they also adrenaline junkies, who get a rush, from chasing something FAR greater than they are, and can kill them in a split second? Also yes. Dan, and presumably, from what we know, Carl had time to get out of the way, their poor decisions that day just led to the death of them unfortunately, the only Luck that happened that day was Dan being able to put his peddle to the floor, and not crash, and barely got out of it's circulation. I was there that day chasing this same storm. I see people say "nobody could have predicted what that storm was going to do" which no you can't predict nature, even as the most AMATEUR of all chasers, even I know how to read a radar, and could keep track very well of where it was heading, and I was never in danger, nor was I ever in it's path, and it had nothing to do with luck, I was just watching it's course, and watching how it was developing, and made concise, decisions, not lethargic, mindless decisions, because of the sheer size of that tornado. If you look at the map when this video is first starting, you can clearly see that the overwhelming majority of chasers as myself, was positioned South-East of the tornado, this isn't by mistake, this isn't a Coincidence, this is being smart, and understanding how deadly these storms are.

Safety? They chased in a little tin can car.......

Reed Timer lost the hood to dom 3 on power cables and said the tornado ripped it of the car 🤣🤣🤣

The people that died were all in one dot though.

@@mar__k There were more deaths than just the three

@@nepspartan-7597 There were 8 people killed in total, 4 of which were chasers. At least a minimum of 10 other chasing cars were lucky not to, after being impacted.

@@nepspartan-7597 everyone always forgets the 4th death because he wasn't "famous". Makes me sad.

Why say “Not gonna lie”? I doubt anyone would think you were lying about that.

+Soonerfrk11 Me too. We all do in the chase /spotter world. I'm a newbie to it and won't get that close if I can keep from it.

THANK you. For fuck's sake, I watched the guy breathlessly calling out his live-shots on TWC and thinking to myself "This dipshit is going to core punch on an HP and get himself killed on national TV, and everybody's going to call it a tragedy." I didn't hate the man before El Reno, but I sure as shit hate him now. He can't even own up to his mistake like a man.

Not to mention the fact that he called out so-called "irresponsible chasers" on a live on-air segment not more than a few weeks beforehand.

this comment is still my favorite. couldn't have said it better myself

Yes. When he blamed the NE hook I thought "what? You think we all don't know that's bullshit?" I couldn't believe someone who was considered an expert drove right into it!! Of course, as we found out, he really didn't have that much experience.

Tim Samaris should have taught bettis and crew how to be more safe

Me too. Was completely dumbfounded when I saw Bettes keep rolling south through the core. I was literally watching a distracted, inexperienced chaser doing a core punch on an EF5 tornado right before my eyes. He's lucky he's alive, and I'm amazed more people haven't spoken out about how stupid that was.

Feck Eric-Schmidt I too remember thinking that very same thing as I watched the weather channel's live coverage. I even remember there being a point where Greg Forbes who was tracking it on radar became very alarmed at Bettes position and he commented on it.

Bettes is a fucking idiot. He belonged back in Atlanta with his $600k a year gig as a "national weatherman" for The Waste-of-time Channel. He was way out of his element, way out of his experience, and one of his employees suffered as a result. He's the Jay Leno of meteorologists, and I genuinely don't think he cares.

@@Gj23jk2 It seemed many were out of their element, including experienced chasers.

While this may be correct, I find it completely unnecessary for all those chasers (dots) to be conjesting the roads further and inhibiting the locals and each other from escaping - just for the "perfect shot." Far too many hobbyists vs scientists imho.

LocaButt The chasers weren't the ones who congested the roads and put lives at risk. The roads, mostly back roads were fairly clear, the congestion didn't happen until drivers reached the turnpikes and the areas became parking lots from all of the people trying to leave Oklahoma City. The southern areas were the worst because of the outflows and smaller tornados that never touched down but were ripping trees and small buildings near the turnpikes. The number of chasers were minor compared to the over all volume of traffic. BTW, in 40 years of storm chasing only 4 chasers have ever died ...all 4 were in 2013.

LocaButt Samaras was a SCIENTIST not a cowboy.

If i lived in the states Id be out there with them

Tim Samaras and all in Twistex were trying to save lives! Tim recorded the largest pressure change inside a tornado with a ground pod. He was the most cautious chaser (also Carl and Paul) and their passing was an absolute shock. For the meteorology community (and of course his family and friends) this event was incalculable...

Was checking to see if anyone else actually knew their shit.

You can see Tim Samaras' car right behind Dan's in the video I post below, I know Dan didn't want to post it, however he inadvertently did. If you fast forward to 4:45 in the video you can see Tim's head lights in Dan's right side passenger mirror (looking backwards view)...

Oh when jonas died Right?

@@herisuryadi6885 Only difference is that Jonas died being a total dumbfuck. It was a 2 mile-wide tornado.. but it had a perfectly visible funnel. Tim Samaras death was completely different since they had absolutely no idea just how inconceivable of an event the El Reno tornado would be. Not only was the thing 2.7 miles wide and hard to see.. but what most people don't know is that with the El Reno tornado.. it's almost as if the entire damn Mesocyclone became the tornado itself. It fooled everyone with the subvortices in the middle making everyone unaware that EF3-level winds were circling within the entire supercell's wall cloud. It wasn't really even a single tornado anymore.. but a giant, rotating mass of air with a hellish blender of subvortices in the middle. Basically as Pecos Hank described it, it had the literal worst possible conditions for stormchasers safety.

Chances are that a lot of storm chasers have been inspired by "Twister" or they simply thought Helen Hunt was sexy.

@@michaellovely6601 I’m more of a Philip Seymour Hoffman guy myself. Someday I’ll own my very own school-bus DOW…

​@@michaellovely6601 Helen Hunt's face is way out of proportion though

RC Jones Thanks for the comments, RC. What crossroad were you on or near when you stopped facing west and do you happen to have the time?

***** I'll describe my movements for you. Be advised, I'm not a storm chaser, but a photographer with a fair understanding of weather phenomenon and descriptive vocabulary. That said, I started out from Yukon at the crossroads of 15th and Mustang at about 5:40 south of Yukon. At that time, the south edge of the cell appeared to have a rather stable arcus or "wall cloud" shape that lasted a good 10-15 minutes as I continued moving closer on 15th west. News reports predicted the storm cell was moving northeast, so like many others, I believed I was in a good position on 15th to video the storm moving parallel and away from me. However, as I continued west, this "wall cloud" suddenly began what I can only describe as a large circular "flanking maneuver," as it began swinging southeast and showing signs of dramatically slow rotation (I so wish I caught it on video). I passed reformatory Rd just before 6:00pm and was looking for a particular hilltop location in the roadway that I had used before under similar circumstances as a vantage point for shooting images. I just reached the crest of the hill near Airport Rd, when I saw what I believed was a developing mesocyclone, not realizing it had just given birth to a tornado behind a wall of rain maybe 2 or 3 miles away. There was no other traffic on 15th at this time and I could see headlights of traffic moving south and sticking to the paved roads. I came to an immediate stop and paused to assess a "stay" or "no stay" decision (about 6:05), scanning the darker bands of rain for the smaller typical vortices as you described. There was no rain where I was stopped. I continued looking for small tornadoes or funnel clouds. It was then that I glanced upward and saw the dramatic cyclonic movement just above my vehicle, and that I mistook as mesocyclone movement. Things began to happen quickly and visibility was worsening for the purposes of photography, so I decided to turn back. I saw no vortices on the horizon and was not thinking of being in any danger at that moment. However, as seconds past and I put the truck into gear for the J turn, I took one last look to the northwest of El Reno airport, and - for just a few intermittent seconds obscured behind the sweeping bands of rain in the distance - I spotted what appeared to be a large spinning "V" shaped vortex. Very surreal. Though alarmed by what I saw, I was not 100% sure I was looking at a wide tornado or if the rain had played tricks with my vision. Still, I decided to go with my gut. I hurriedly performed the J turn and hit the gas pedal. At that time, I still didn't realize the full gravity of my situation until about a minute later when the radio announced that doppler and eye witnesses confirmed a tornado on the ground in El Reno. I suddenly had that "oh shit" feeling that a tornado was on my tail. From the J turn point all the way past Rt 81 towards south Yukon, I experienced side-wind gusts heavily buffeting my truck, flying tree limbs, road debris, increased heavy rain, and some light hail causing poor visibility. (Edit: And now thinking more about it, I believe I turned off 15th around Manning and picked up 29th or 44th, but still experienced pretty dicey driving conditions. At any rate, I returned to Mustang Rd, and got the second radio report that a tornado was spotted on the ground east of Mustang and moving east towards OKC Airport. I turned south believing my best escape route was towards Tuttle. Flash flooding along Mustang Rd was significant, and I spotted quite a bit of debris laying in the road. Once I reached the south side of Mustang, rain began to subside and the storm cell could be seen moving far off to the northeast. Sorry for the verbose explanation. That's about as accurate as I can get (as memory serves). It appears I must have been behind you on 15th, and though I don't recall turning south earlier, then east, I may have ended up further south on Mustang. I DID get a bit rattled when the winds started buffeting my truck and began doubting the veracity of radio reports. As I said, I'm not a storm chaser per se' but do free lance photography and shoot dramatic weather events. In the future, I'll remember to track and document my time and movement better. Actually, up until I saw your post I had no idea anyone was plotting and illustrating storms in this detail. Awesome! Also, you provided a very objective explanation of events. Again, exceptional job! Hope my account helps.

RC Jones Thanks for the info. I was curious because we passed a truck on 15th and Country Club at about 6:14 that was stopped and facing the tornado. I believe this was one the amateur chaser fatalities on the storm as a fatality was reported at that location and we surveyed a wreck of the same make and model. I'm not sure what happened there but I'd guess the chaser was inexperienced and not aware of what he was looking at or the immediate danger it posed. He was about 90 seconds from impact as we passed him while we were escaping east. Scary stuff.

***** Regrettable the loss of life - and lessons to be hammered into the heads of those of us who follow weather phenomenon. Eight deaths is eight too many. Your video made me realize how close I may have come to meeting my maker. Normally, I rarely get that close as I'm basically looking for anvil or wall shots where the sun serves as back lighting. It still amazes me how fast the tables turned and I suddenly found myself too close. Like you, I lingered too long. So, question. At 14:30, were you aware you were looking at a funnel? Obviously in fast motion, it looks like a tornado funnel in the video, but at normal speed doesn't it appear more as bands of rain following a shifting cell? From my pov just moments earlier, I thought I was seeing the entire cell making a large swing to the north east. It was only on a hunch that I feared a funnel was hiding behind the rain bands. Also, last question - mobile radio communication. Among most all storm chasers I've seen, I've rarely seen antennas on vehicles and have seen only a hand full using CB or LMR radio rigs. Even more disturbing, I saw nearly everyone using cell phones! I worked in combat comm in the military and rest assured relying on cell phones is a bad idea. I can't help but wonder how many chasers out there may have spotted the funnel and could have helped ALL chasers by reporting its whereabouts in real time. A lot can happen between doppler sweep updates, and eyes on the ground reporting funnel behavior real time (and tracked via scanner or dedicated channel) is absolutely indispensable. The RF air waves should have been filled with the chatter of funnel reports so anyone with a scanner could plot the storm. Why aren't chasers organized and communicating on radios?

***** - Disregard my previous question in determining a tornado in a rain-wrapped situation. You covered this topic quite well in several other videos. However, I still believe there is simply not enough use of ground-to-ground mobile comm passing knowledge shared between chasers on a shared "guard frequency" that would have thwarted the deaths of experienced chasers. Since my last msg to you, I've looked at a lot of videos. I found only one chaser tracking HAM radio operators and using a CB to report his position and provide eyes-on storm development. I suspect this comment will get lost amid all the others, but I served in combat comm in the military and know what I'm talking about. If the doomed chasers had received real time updates from other teams like Sullivan/Wright and Farrar/Demco crews (not to mention others watching from unknown vantage points), they would have received valuable supplemental knowledge that their position was compromised and to get out of the rain-wrapped bear's cage by turning north. Without a shared radio frequency for chasers/trackers to plot, you are all flying blind and doomed for this to happen again. A lot can happen between the sweeps of a dopplar radar. My 2 cents.

I agree--it seems a little backwards when property damage shouldn't be the overriding factor. This tornado made that abundantly clear.

Rubbish is a better word for EF scale than okay. It is one of the most nonsensical ways to measure a weather phenomenon that has ever been conceived and only exists because of the difficulty back then of taking any real quantitative measurements of tornados. Now that we have accurate RADAR, pressure, windspeed etc measurement capability the physical characteristics should dictate how its rated, not the completely arbitrary estimation based on damage caused.

We actually don't have accurate radar, pressure, and windspeed measurement capabilities. Only a handful of tornadoes have been sampled by radar, and then only aloft. So we still don't know what's happening at the surface where all damage and human impact occurs. Even fewer have been sampled by some kind of in situ probe, and most of those attempts had limited usefulness. Radar and probes help us understand the tornado process, but they're not yet useful ways for categorizing and comparing all tornadoes. When someone devises a reliable means to directly observe tornadic strength, the system will certainly be revised. Until then, after the fact damage analysis is the only method we have for nearly all tornadoes, and thus it remains the best we can currently do when gauging relative tornado strength.

Remember, Greensburg '07 put an End to the Fujita system. That's why the Enhanced Fujita system was created. That F5 Kansas Tornado wiped 95% of that town of the map.

Well, it's been 9 years now, are you still storm chasing?

I could go for some revised fajitas. They are actually also working on revising the Fujita scale to include radar measurements.

@Skip Talbot Storm Chasing thank you. First I heard of this. LOVE FAJITAS