The Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak is the May 3, 1999 tornado event that killed 46 people. This tornado event ranks right up there with The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak. Sixty-six tornadoes broke out in Oklahoma and Kansas.
The beautiful May morning turned into raging dark skies in the afternoon. In the late evening, tornadoes broke out across Oklahoma on this day like no other. This storm system produced a supercell thunderstorm that included the tornado with the strongest winds ever produced on the face of the Earth. At around 7:00 P.M., a Doppler radar that was near a tornado that hit near Moore, Oklahoma detected winds of up to 318 mph; the top edge of the dreaded Fujita scale F5 rating. (The old record was a 286 mph wind detection from a Doppler radar near Red Rock, Oklahoma). The tornado later hit Newcastle, Bridge Creek, Midwest City, and Del City.
Thirty-eight were killed in this tornado. More than 10,500 buildings and 47 businesses were destroyed. This tornado caused $1.24 billion in damage, making it the costliest single tornado in U.S. history. Up to this point this was the first tornado to kill almost 40 people since the April 10, 1979 Wichita Falls, Texas tornado which killed 45. Why such a low death toll? Early warning systems saved several lives. People knew this event was coming two hours in advance. The death toll would have been much higher if people were not warned so far in advance.
The May 3 tornado event was actually a 3-day event that included tornadoes in Kansas and Texas. The event killed 1 person in Texas on Tuesday, May 4 and then killed four in Tennessee on Wednesday and Thursday.
