May 24 Oklahoma Tornado Upgraded to EF-5

The National Weather Service has upgraded a tornado that tore through central Oklahoma on May 24 to EF-5, the highest rating given to tornadoes.

The weather service in Norman said the tornado that started in Binger and traveled 75 miles to Guthrie had winds in excess of 210 mph in some parts.

Nine people died in the storm, which traveled across four counties.

Meteorologists from the weather service had been investigating the storm and its damage path for the past week, said Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service in Norman.

It was data from a University of Oklahoma mobile Doppler radar that convinced officials the twister reached an EF-5 level.

“The data that they gathered indicates that over an extended period of time — several minutes — there were winds in the tornado that exceeded that 200 mph threshold for an EF-5,” Smith said.

He said the data was gathered near what is believed to be the peak of the storm, near Interstate 40 and the exit for Calumet.

Five people were killed in that area because of the twister, Smith said.

No houses were in the immediate vicinity, but other damage led officials to believe the area might be where the twister reached its peak, he said. Several vehicles were tossed hundreds of yards, a fully functional oil rig was blown over and trees were stripped of their bark.

Although the tornado has been rated EF-5, Smith said the tornado did not sustain that intensity the whole time.

Two other tornadoes were rated EF-4, one was an EF-3, another an EF-2 and the other an EF-1. One twister is unrated.

This is the fifth EF-5 tornado in the United States this year. Three EF-5 twisters hit the South during an April outbreak and a tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., also was rated EF-5.

Before April, the last time an EF-5 tornado occurred in the United States was in 2008 in Parkersburg, Iowa.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Oklahoma