Posted on 05/18/2010 6:09:05 AM PDT by Star Traveler
By RICKY MARANON World Staff Writer
Published: 5/18/2010 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 5/18/2010 5:15 AM
Now that the skies have cleared in Tulsa, meteorologists are saying at least seven tornadoes touched down during Thursday's rash of storms.
That number could rise depending on the outcome of ongoing investigations of the lingering storm damage.
One to two meteorological teams are studying damage to get a final tornado count, said Mark Plate, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tulsa.
"They're studying the damage to see if they can find other damage paths that could have been caused by another tornado," Plate said.
"If this path appears to be separate from another damage path, the team could confirm the track as being from another tornado."
Most of the tornadoes that have been confirmed to have touched down within about 50 miles of Tulsa city limits have been classified as EF2s on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, he said.
Plate said five tornadoes were classified on the lower to middle ends of the scale that measures the severity of tornadoes. The scale has a ranking of EF0 for the least damage and wind speeds up to EF5 for the most devastating.
From Thursday's storms, Tulsa had five tornadoes classified as EF2, one EF1 and one EF0.
"Just because a tornado has a rating of EF2 doesn't mean it was that strong the entire time the tornado was on the ground," Plate said.
Meteorologists are not the only ones studying last week's damage.
State officials are compiling data to be used in disaster relief requests to the federal government, Paul Sund, the communications director for Gov. Brad Henry, said in an e-mail.
The data are coming from the same damage being analyzed by meteorologists.
"Because there were so many tornadoes and the damage was so widespread, it is taking longer than usual to make all of the damage assessments," Sund said.
The state is expected to complete its assessments and send a detailed request to the White House by the end of the week, he said.
Jim Lyall, a coordinator for the 211 Helpline, said his organization is working with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management to help residents in the cleanup efforts.
"Our staff is always ready and working during things like this," Lyall said. "We are working closely to provide people with the most up-to-date information on state and federal aid available to them."
Lyall said 211 will be ready to help people receive information on financial resources if funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is approved.
Other community services and programs offered by 211 have not been affected by resources being used to deal with storm damage, Lyall said.
Plate said Oklahomans are not out of the woods when it comes to severe weather. He noted that tornado season traditionally runs from mid-May to mid-July.
"This is not unusual for this time of year," Plate said. "We are in the middle of tornado season."
Lyall said that if future storms hit the area, 211 will be ready.
"If we receive any damage from a storm, people can always know that we are here and ready to help," he said.
"We have other places we can work out of if our main operating center is damaged."
Never count on a tornado showing up on time for a date! LOL! They’ll stagger in at five in the morning after boozing it up all night just when you least expect it!
Who’s fault is it? AGW! Get Al Gore on the phone quick!
"I blahblahblahblahblah, I blahblahblahblahblah, I blahblahblah." :)
Who’s fault is it? AGW! Get Al Gore on the phone quick!
Well, we do have to be fair to Al Gore and say ... Tulsa Oklahoma and Miami, Florida ... those are two really "hot spots" for tornadoes. I saw a frequency map of the U.S. and those were the two hottest spots...
SO WHAT in 1976 In central Iowa I saw 6 tornadoes w/in 2 hours. In the area known as “Tornado Alley” we expect them.
... and I told you heathen Freeper non-believers we need
to be concerned about Global Warming ...
Never count on a tornado showing up on time for a date! LOL! They’ll stagger in at five in the morning after boozing it up all night just when you least expect it!
The city set off the sirens that morning, activating them all -- clear across the city -- which they don't do for a single tornado. It's not that they identified multiple tornadoes (or even "one" ... LOL ...) but they had "straight-line winds" in excess of 80 MPH that morning, and that was the trigger point for setting off all the sirens.
But, from what I hear from other people... many never heard them (I guess being 5 AM and being asleep) -- and it was likewise for me. Now, I did wake up and went out to get the newspaper that morning, but I thought I was just waking up on my own, and didn't realize the sirens had gone off and didn't realize that the tornado passed with just a few blocks of our house ... hoo-boy!
Anyway, this is the first news that I've seen that there were 7 of them (that's within a radius of 50 miles from the city), but most of them (except for one) were right there in the city area.
It wasn't until I went to the corner drugstore, later that morning that I heard some woman say that her power was still off... and I didn't know what she was talking about and I didn't think too much about it. And then I heard the news that a tornado passed by within blocks of us ... and that's when we got out and drove around and saw the damage.
Ummm... Tulsa has been having these kinds of tornadoes — even when Time magazine was talking about the coming Ice Age... a few decades ago ....
So, for Tulsa, no matter whether it’s Global Warming or Global Cooling or the next Ice Age — “we’ve got tornadoes” ... LOL ...
One would think that given the history and timing of tornados, that springtime in Oklahoma would be sufficient warning. ;-)
One of the tornadoes had winds in excess of 319 MPH, which caused discussions on whether to create another category on the Fujita scale and up it to F6 (not in existence), as it exceeded winds known to occur, at that time ... :-)
You’ve got that right ... it’s a “continuous warning” ... :-)
Hey Vendome, remember that tornado last week? Well, there was more than we thought ... :-)
For all-o’-y’all on that Tulsa tornado thread last week ... :-)
But, as you can see, there are other areas in high danger, too ...
I had to stay up past midnight to watch 24....I wasn’t a happy camper about that. Especially when all twister activity was 100 miles from me........
The city of Moore has been damaged by significant tornadoes on October 4, 1998, May 3, 1999, and May 9, 2003. The May 3, 1999 tornado that hit Moore was rated an F5 on the Fujita scale, and was the strongest and most destructive tornado ever recorded in history. The tornado, which occurred during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, had an approximate recorded wind speed of 318 mph (512 km/h), the highest MPH on the first F-Scale, left a swath of destruction over a mile wide at times, and 38 miles (61 km) long. It killed a total of 36 people in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. This was the deadliest F5 tornado recorded since the Delhi, Louisiana tornado in 1971.
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