5 Jun 2013

Deadly El Reno tornado widest ever recorded in US

Weather Presenter

The devastating tornado that hit the suburbs of El Reno, Oklahoma last Friday was 2.6 miles wide – the widest ever recorded in the US, according to the National Weather Service.

El Reno Tornado

With winds estimated at around 295mph, the tornado rated as an EF5 on the Enhance Fujita Scale, which is the strongest category possible.

The tornado, along with the storms and flash flooding that accompanied it, killed 19 people, including three experienced storm chasers.

Despite the tornado carving out a 16.2 mile path of destruction, it travelled through a rural area, missing the central area of El Reno, which has a population of 17,200.

Doug Speheger, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said: “It missed. It’s very fortunate that it happened – missing El Reno.”

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin called Friday’s storms a “nightmare” situation of cars clogging the highways. She said some people got in their cars because they were fearful of a repeat of the devastating Moore tornado.

The powerful twister followed another EF5 tornado on 20 May that flattened whole communities in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people.

According to the weather service, it was the first time in Oklahoma’s history that two such powerful tornadoes struck within such a short period of time.

Five tornadoes are confirmed to have touched down on Friday night in the Oklahoma City area. The National Weather Service said that it will be confirming more twisters as meteorologists are able to document and investigate reported they have received.