Wednesday is the anniversary of the May 1999 tornado outbreak that maxed out the Fujita scale. Do you remember where you were?
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This storm system produced a supercell thunderstorm including the tornado with the strongest winds ever measured. At around 7:00 P.M., a mobile Doppler radar detected winds of up to 318 mph inside a tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Tornado_Outbreak"Thirty-six people were killed in this tornado. More than 10,500 buildings and 47 businesses were destroyed. This tornado caused $1.1 billion in damage, making it the costliest single tornado in U.S. history. This was the deadliest tornado since the April 10, 1979 Wichita Falls, Texas Tornado which also killed 42. However, early warning saved many lives. Warnings were issued well in advance of the tornado's arrival, and the Oklahoma City broadcast media interrupted programming to follow the storms on radar and even by helicopter. The death toll would have been much higher if people had not been warned so far in advance. Following the storm, three of the local television stations in Oklahoma City: KOCO-TV, KWTV and KFOR-TV continued coverage of the damaging and deadly tornadoes throughout the day on May 4th.
In addition to the devastating F5 tornado that hit the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, there were numerous other significant tornadoes in the outbreak. An F3 tornado hit the town of Stroud, in-between Oklahoma City and Tulsa on Interstate 44, destroying the Tanger Outlet Mall. The mall has not been rebuilt.
Another F4 hit the town of Mulhall, north of Guthrie, destroying most of the town and even toppling the city's water tower.
One of the final tornadoes in the outbreak almost hit the studios of ABC affiliate KTUL-TV in Tulsa, located on Turkey Mountain, a few miles west of the city itself, in the early morning hours of May 4th around 12:15am CDT. Then Chief Meteorologist Travis Meyer advised his co-workers to take shelter while still on the air reporting on the approaching tornado. It weakened before reaching the station."
