Tornadoes of 1990-1999

1. Bridge Creek-Moore, OK Tornado

Date: May 3, 1999; Rating: F5

Part of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This monster tornado, one of 71 confirmed on May 3rd, devastated the Oklahoma City suburbs of Bridge Creek and Moore. 36 people were killed, the most by one tornado since 1979. A nearby Doppler On Wheels (DOW) measured winds at a record setting 318mph. Much of this torando was carried live by local Oklahoma news channels. Besides the fatalities, over 8,000 homes were badly damaged or destroyed, and the tornado caused 1.1 billion dollars in damage (adjusted for inflation), making it the costliest tornado in American history. Excellent advance warnings likely saved many lives.

There were other notable tornadoes in the outbreak. Later in the evening of May 3, a monster tornado, one of the widest ever observed, hit the town of Mulhall hard, killing two and acheiving an F4 rating. Another F4 hit the city of Haysville, Kansas on May 3, killing six people. The entire May 3-6 outbreak saw 140 tornadoes and 50 fatalities. The Bridge Creek-Moore tornado was the lone F5 rated tornado in the outbreak, and is widely considered one of the most intense, or strongest tornadoes on record. Five other tornadoes in the outbreak were rated F4.

Other Websites

2. Jarrell, TX Tornado

Date: May 27, 1997; Rating: F5

Part of the 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak. Very unusual tornado. Supercell tracked southwest (most travel northeast). The Jarrell tornado went from a narrow rope tornado to a 3/4 mile wide monster and tracked just under eight miles and killed 27 people in Jarrell. Double Creek Estates, both mobile homes and regular homes, suffered immense devastation from this very slow moving tornado which literally sit over certain areas, grinding them in excess.

Grass and dirt in nearby fields was ripped out to depths of 18 inches. 500 feet of asphalt was peeled off of a road. In many cases, only slab foundations were left where homes once stood. Two other tornadoes, rated F4 (Lake Travis) and F3 (Cedar Park), killed one person each. The damage from the Jarrell tornado is about as extreme as has been seen. Some think the F5 rating is high and the extreme damage was caused by the time the tornado spent over the town, not by "top end" strength winds. Bottom line, the Fujita Scale is a DAMAGE scale, and the damage from Jarrell was about as severe as is imaginable.

Other Websites

3. Andover, KS Tornado

Date: April 26, 1991; Rating: F5

On April 26, 1991 a major tornado outbreak of 55 tornadoes took place, mainly over Kansas and Oklahoma. 24 people were killed in the outbreak, with 17 killed by the most severe and highest rated tornado of the outbreak, the Andover tornado. It began as a narrow tornado doing F2-F3 damage, but began to widen as it passed McConnell Air Force Base (great video) and continued getting bigger and stronger, destroying many homes and devistating the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park, where most of the fatalities occured. Numerous videos document this event due to Andover being a city of reasonable size, and the tornado hitting in the evening hours while there was ample light.

There were other severe tornadoes in this outbreak. The "Red Rock (Oklahoma) tornado" was rated F4, but stayed mostly over country, away from homes. It is also documented on numerous videos, and had a then record high wind recording around 260 mph (surpassed in May 3, 1999 event). This tornado tracked 66 miles, the furthest of any tornado in the outbreak, and reached a width of one mile at times.

The El Dorado Lake tornado (see below far right picture) was rated at just F2 and killed nobody, but it's video of a news crew and a young family taking cover under an overpass became famous, and has perhaps wrongly led others to take shelter under overpasses, which is in fact a very bad idea (again, see May 3, 1999 tornado). Numerous other F2-F4 tornadoes were responsible for significant damage and additional fatalities, though no one tornado killed more than one person aside from Andover.

Other Websites

4. Plainfield, IL Tornado

Date: August 28, 1990; Rating: F5

This violent tornado, part of a rare August outbreak (12 tornadoes), killed 29 people and injured 350. It is the only F5 rated tornado ever to occur in August, and the only F5 tornado near the Chicago area. The tornado came from a supercell storm moving southeast across the state, and touched down around 3:30pm and traveled 16 miles in just eight minutes causing immense damage. Among the places hit, was Plainfield High School, where some students and faculty were on hand getting ready for the start of school just one day later (which surely would have been more catostrophic). Three were killed at the school (none were students), and four others were killed elsewhere in Plainfield.

As the storm progressed into Joliet, several others were killed and several major structures sustained major damage. Next up was the town of Crest Hill, where eight more were killed in an apartment complex and two more died in a car. One of the criticisms from this storm was a lack of warning from a then-overworked Chicago office of the National Weather Service. There are also episodes of Storm Stories and It Could Happen Tomorrow that focus on the Plainfield tornado.

Other Websites

5. Birmingham, AL Tornado

Date: April 8, 1998; Rating: F5

Another brutal tornado in a decade that saw several notable events, this one killed 32 people. The tornado, easily the most damaging of a four day outbreak, touched down about 7:30pm (thus, few pictures of the tornado that I can find) and tracked for 31 miles, at times up to 3/4 of a mile wide, plowing through nine suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama.

The suburb of Oak Grove saw some of the heaviest damage, including a high school destroyed. Near Rock Creek, several cars were blown hundreds of feet into a ravine. Interestingly, had the tornado stayed on the ground just a few miles further, downtown sections of Birmingham would have been hit, as well as the airport. The outbreak saw 34 people killed in Alabama, as well as seven in Georgia from tornadoes rating as high as F3. Birmingham has also seen major killer tornadoes in 1977 and 1956.

Other Websites