Wow! And we thought the Moore, Oklahoma tornado the week before was big!http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2426
Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 9:54 PM GMT on June 04, 2013
The largest tornado in recorded history was Friday's May 31, 2013 EF-5 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma, the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma announced on Tuesday. The EF-5 re-classification was based upon Doppler radar data taken by Oklahoma University's mobile RaXPol radar. According to comments made by tornado researcher Rick Smith at a press conference today, the mobile radar was positioned on top of an overpass, and recorded winds close to the surface of up to 295 mph in satellite suction vorticies that orbited the large, main vortex. The large, main vortex had EF-4 winds of 185 mph, and the satellite suction vortices moved across the fields at that speed, and rotated on their own at speeds of up to 110 mph, giving a combined wind speed of up to 295 mph in some of the satellite vortices. It's no wonder that so many storm chasers got in trouble with this tornado, since these suction vortices moved as speeds of up to 185 mph towards them as the tornado rapidly expanded into the largest on record. The tornado killed tornado scientist Tim Samaras and his two chase partners, Paul Samaras and Carl Young, and also killed an amateur storm chaser, Richard Charles Henderson. The 295 mph winds of the El Reno tornado rank second only to the world-record 302 mph (130 m/s) winds recorded in the Moore, Oklahoma tornado of May 3, 1999. However, the Moore tornado's winds were measured at an altitude of 105 feet (32 meters), so the winds near the surface may have been higher in the El Reno tornado.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130531
Central Oklahoma Tornadoes and Flash Flooding - May 31, 2013
Note: We are continuing to collect and analyze more information and data regarding this event. Refer back to this page frequently for the most up to date information.
From the chart at this link:
Location : El Reno
Preliminary Rating : EF-5
Path length : 16.2 miles
Maximum width : 2.6 miles
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130520
The Tornado Outbreak of May 20, 2013
Note: The NWS survey conducted by several teams on May 21, 2013 has now rated the Newcastle-Moore tornado as EF-5. The damage survey teams have also determined that the tornado began 4.4 miles west of Newcastle and ended 4.8 miles east of Moore, yielding an approximate tornado path length of 17 miles. The preliminary maximum damage path width is 1.3 miles. Crews will continue to sort through damage for a final intensity rating.
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