2013 Moore Tornado

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Coordinates: 35 ° 20 ′ 46 "  N , 97 ° 29 ′ 13.2"  W.

2013 Moore Tornado
The tornado near Moore on May 20, 2013
The tornado near Moore on May 20, 2013
EF-5 Extended Fujita Scale
Data
Beginning May 20, 2013, 2:56 p.m. (local time)
The End May 20, 2013, 3:36 p.m. (local time)
consequences
affected areas Moore , Newcastle , Southern Oklahoma City
Victim 24 dead, 377 injured

The 2013 Moore Tornado was a natural disaster on Monday, May 20, 2013, in Oklahoma , USA. At least 24 people were killed and 377 injured in the tornado in Moore , Newcastle , Southern Oklahoma City and adjacent areas. The tornado was part of a larger weather system that produced numerous other tornadoes in the two days before and the day after. The nearly 2 kilometer wide tornado reached the ground at 14:56 local time (19:56 UTC ) and held contact with the ground for around 40 minutes and around 27 km. The touchdown point of the tornado was west of Newcastle, Oklahoma. The cyclone passed through a densely populated area of ​​bogs and, at its height, formed a path of destruction about two miles wide.

Meteorological connection

Radar images of the tornado. The hook echo of the thunderstorm cell and the debris ball can be seen as a bright circle at the "tip" of the hook, which represents the cloud of debris that is thrown up by the tornado.

On May 20, a weather-determining high altitude trough moved eastwards, a controlling high altitude low lay over the Dakota states and the region of the upper Midwest . A south-flowing short-wave trough and a moderately strong polar jet stream moved east-northeast over the southern Rocky Mountains into the southern Great Plains and over the Ozark Plateau . Severe thunderstorms formed at the time of the maximum daily temperatures. Under the influence of a moderately strong cyclonic current at altitude, meteorologists expected the air masses over the southern Great Plains, the Ozark Plateau and the central valley of the Mississippi River to become unstable in the course of the afternoon.

Although the tornado did not reach the EF-5 tornado of May 3, 1999 (484 km / h) with up to 340 km / h, it is considered one of the strongest cyclones in US history and reached EF-5 again in Moore, had an eddy 2.1 kilometers wide and maintained contact with the ground for 27 kilometers. The air heated up to 28–30 ° C, so that at around 1:10 p.m. local time a first tornado watch (TOA) was issued, which an hour and a half later was upgraded to a tornado warning (TOR), whereupon the sirens sounded. The first contact with the ground occurred sixteen minutes later, at 2:56 p.m. local time. At up to six kilometers, the debris cloud was much wider than the vortex itself and the debris was scattered up to 160 kilometers.

Effects

Victim

At least 377 people were injured and 24 dead were reported by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner . At first there was talk of 91 deaths.

Moore is located on Tornado Alley , an area in the American Midwest where tornadoes are particularly likely. Moore was hit by tornadoes in 1999, 2003 and 2010. In 1999, a tornado struck the region where the moors are located, killing 46 people and destroying around 8,000 buildings. After the tornado in 2010, there was a brief demand that in future only houses with basements that could offer protection from tornadoes should be built in moors. Since Moore is a poorer city, these demands were not implemented. Even schools have no basements or shelters until 2013. Seven children died in the collapse of Moore Elementary School.

According to experts, basements and underground shelters offer the only effective protection against tornadoes. Moore's Mayor Lewis demanded after the tornado that new apartment buildings must have a shelter in the future. So far, only about ten percent of the houses in Moore have a basement.

consequences

Rubble of a school
Preliminary trace of the tornado from the National Weather Service
  • Entire districts of Moore (a total of 12,000 houses) were destroyed in the path of the tornado.
  • Two schools were directly in the path of the tornado and were badly damaged or destroyed:
    • Briarwood Elementary School
    • Plaza Towers Elementary School which hosted 75 people. At least seven school children died here.
  • Sections of Interstate 35 ( US Highway 77 ) were closed because tornado debris fell onto the pavement.
  • Over 38,000 households lost their electricity supply.
  • The National Weather Service's office in Norman , Oklahoma, tentatively classified the storm as EF-4 on the extended Fujita scale , but believes EF-5 is also possible.
  • The Moore Medical Center was badly damaged and 30 patients had to be transferred to other hospitals.
  • The city's drinking water supply was cut off.

Reactions

The FEMA sent USAR teams in the areas hit by the tornado and placed Incident Command staff available. The Oklahoma National Guard was stationed and qualified first responders were called to participate in the relief effort.

See also

Web links

Commons : Moore-Tornado 2013  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Josh Levs: Students, teachers from tornado-leveled school say goodbye . CNN. May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  2. a b Oklahoma City tornado: Get the latest developments in this disaster ( English ) In: CNN . May 20, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  3. Erin McClam: Massive tornado rips through Oklahoma City suburbs ( English ) BBC. May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  4. Erin McClam: At least 51 killed, including 20 children, as tornado tears through Oklahoma ( English ) In: NBC News . May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  5. a b Nick Valencia: Oklahoma tornado tears massive path of death, destruction ( English ) In: CNN US . May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  6. a b Hyndman, Donald; Hyndman, David, Natural Hazards and Disasters , Boston 2016, p. 293.
  7. Axel Bojanowski : Death came at 300 kilometers per hour . Focus . May 21, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
  8. Vast Oklahoma Tornado Kills at Least 91 ( English ) In: The New York Times . May 21, 2013. Retrieved May 21, 2013.
  9. At least 91 killed in Moore tornado, hundreds injured . In: KFOR-TV , May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 21, 2013. 
  10. ^ Oklahoma City: Powerless in the Face of the Force of Nature aueddeutsche.de, May 21, 2013, accessed August 27, 2016. - 2 pages.
  11. http://www.derwesten.de/panorama/debatte-ueber-schutzraeume-nach-tornado-in-oklahoma-id7982263.html
  12. a b c d Doyle Rice, et al .: Monster Oklahoma tornado kills 51 ( English ) In: USA Today . May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  13. ^ Oklahoma City tornado: Reports of 75 children in devastated grade school . In: The Province . May 20, 2013. Archived from the original on June 12, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 20, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theprovince.com
  14. SPC Storm Reports for 05/20/13 ( English ) In: Storm Prediction Center . May 20, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  15. ^ FEMA, Federal Partners Support Response to Severe Storms in Oklahoma. In: Federal Emergency Management Agency , May 20, 2013.
  16. ^ Oklahoma governor calls out National Guard . In: khou.com . Archived from the original on June 20, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 21, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.khou.com