National Weather Center Hosts May 3 Tornado Event

Ten years after a record-setting tornado outbreak devastated communities across the state, May 3, 1999 remains a seminal day for Oklahoma meteorologists and emergency managers.

Friday, May 1st 2009, 1:31 pm

By: News 9


By Alex Cameron, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Ten years after a record-setting tornado outbreak devastated communities across the state, May 3, 1999 remains a seminal day for Oklahoma meteorologists and emergency managers.

They are among those gathered Friday at the National Weather Center in Norman for an event commemorating that dark, and most stormy, day. 

"We were making preparations to have the Tulsa office take over our warning responsibilities cause we were afraid we were gonna lose at least power and communications," David Andra with the National Weather Service said.

As it turned out, the tornado that briefly threatened north Norman held a northeast track and tore through Moore, south Oklahoma City, Del City and Midwest City.

"The central Oklahoma tornado tracked for 38 miles and was a mile wide, F-5 tornado, they don't get much bigger than that," Andra said.

Andra was one of many to speak at Friday's anniversary event putting May 3 in historical perspective, looking at how the science of storm prediction has evolved since then, and just reminding those who are in the business of forecasting and responding to severe storms that it could happen again.

"We tend, in many cases, to be a little bit short on the memory side, and I think it's important we remember large-scale events and not just have lessons observed, but have true lessons learned," Oklahoma County Emergency Management Director David Barnes said.

One person in attendance was recently crowned Miss Oklahoma International, Caitlin Taylor. She is a meteorology major at the University of Oklahoma.

"My goal as Miss Oklahoma is to get all the universities in the state of Oklahoma to be storm ready," Taylor said.

"Storm Ready" is, in fact, her platform, and she believes one of the lessons of May 3 should be that our post-secondary schools do more to make campuses weather-safe, and realize that many students aren't from Oklahoma.

"They don't understand what to do during a tornado and I think it's really important that the schools educate them," Taylor said.

It's also important that we remember the May 3 tornadoes did take lives, more than 40, although the number almost certainly would have been higher if not for the excellent work of all the meteorologists and storm trackers that day.

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