The most intense severe weather activity was expected to come across the southern Great Plains, specifically Central Oklahoma, during the afternoon hours on that Monday. The National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma had warned as early as May 15 that there would be a possibility of severe weather on May 20. Outflow remnants from the previous night and the early day convection across the Ozarks and the middle Mississippi Valley were a factor in severe weather development with the most aggressive heating and destabilization on the western edge of this activity across the southern Great Plains and just ahead of a cold front. These were present ahead of a cold front extending from a surface low in the eastern Dakotas, southwestward to near the Kansas City area and western Oklahoma, and ahead of a dry line extending from southwest Oklahoma southward into northwestern and west-central Texas. Deep-layer wind shear speeds of 40 to 50 knots (46 to 58 mph) enhanced storm structure and intensity. Įvidence of an unstable air mass included temperatures in the low to mid 80s ☏ (27–30 ☌), dewpoints that ranged in the upper 60s ☏ (20 ☌) to the lower 70s ☏ (20–22 ☌), and CAPE values ranging from 3500 to 5000 J/kg. With the influence of moderately strong cyclonic flow aloft, the air mass was expected to become unstable across much of the southern Great Plains, Ozarks, and middle Mississippi Valley by the afternoon hours. A Southern stream shortwave trough and a moderately strong polar jet moved east northeastward over the southern Rockies to the southern Great Plains and Ozarks area, with severe thunderstorms forming during the peak hours of heating. On May 20, 2013, a prominent central upper trough moved eastward toward the Central United States, with a lead upper low pivoting over the Dakotas and Upper Midwest region. Ĭomparison between the preliminary tornado track (red), the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado (green), and the 2003 Moore–Choctaw tornado (blue) graphic produced by the National Weather Service Norman, Oklahoma. Īs of 2023, this is the most recent tornado to be rated EF5. It followed a roughly similar track to the deadlier 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, which was smaller in size but just as severe however, very few homes and neither of the stricken schools in the area had purpose-built storm shelters in the intervening years since the earlier tornado struck Moore. The tornado was 1.08 miles (1.74 km) wide at its peak. CDT (19:46 UTC), and stayed on the ground for 39 minutes over a 17-mile (27 km) path, crossing through a heavily populated section of Moore. The tornado touched down just northwest of Newcastle at 2:56 p.m. The tornado was part of a larger weather system that had produced several other tornadoes across the Great Plains over the previous two days, including five that struck portions of Central Oklahoma the day prior on May 19. On the afternoon of May 20, 2013, a large and extremely violent EF5 tornado ravaged through Moore, Oklahoma, and adjacent areas, with peak winds estimated at 210 mph (340 km/h), killing 24 people (plus two indirect fatalities) and injuring 212 others. Part of the Tornado outbreak of May 18–21, 2013 and Tornadoes of 2013 McClain and Cleveland counties in Oklahoma particularly the city of Moore The tornado as it was approaching the city of Moore.
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