15 years ago years ago today, Joplin, MO was devastated by an EF5 tornado, becoming the worst tornado of the 21st century. The story, meteorology, engineering, and social science that combines to create the worst-case tornado scenario.

Audio recording of NOAA Weather Radio warning the town of Greensburg, Kansas of an impending EF5 tornado, at this time in 2007. In the next half hour, 95% of Greensburg would be destroyed.

At 6:57 p.m. on May 3, 1999, an F5 tornado was on final approach, about to raze parts of the southern Oklahoma City metro area. As it barreled up the H. E. Bailey Turnpike, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma knew what was about to happen. Dozens would perish, and that entire neighborhoods would be obliterated. The warning meteorologist on duty knew a run-of-the-mill tornado warning wouldn't cut it. Shortly before 7 p.m., the office did something that hadn't been done before – they issued a "tornado emergency." It was the first time that phrasing had ever been used. The spur-of-the-moment decision proved fateful. We've included photos of the radar at the time, what the tornado looked like on the ground AND what was going on behind the scenes that dreaded evening at the National Weather Center – where the alert originated. Here's the text from the first-ever tornado emergency: ...TORNADO EMERGENCY IN SOUTH OKLAHOMA CITY METRO AREA... AT 657 PM CDT...A LARGE TORNADO WAS MOVING ALONG INTERSTATE 44 WEST OF NEWCASTLE. ON ITS PRESENT PATH...THIS LARGE DAMAGING TORNADO WILL ENTER SOUTHWEST SECTIONS OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY METRO AREA BETWEEN 715 PM AND 730 PM. PERSONS IN MOORE AND SOUTH OKLAHOMA CITY SHOULD TAKE IMMEDIATE TORNADO PRECAUTIONS! THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND LIFE THREATENING SITUATION. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS LARGE AND DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO...TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY. Since then, there have been 314 tornado emergencies issued nationwide. The pioneered phrasing is now reserved only for the most significant events with the highest fatality potential. On May 20, 2013, another tornado emergency was issued in Moore, Oklahoma as Another EF5 tornado barreled into the beleaguered community.

For a summary of the event and hail reports, please see the Public Information Statement here: mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx….... If you have any photos of hail 4 inches or greater and are willing to let us use them in our post-event materials, please send them our way!

Hearing a lot of “the warnings were trigger happy” for this record severe season in the KC area. The data shows the warnings have been justified, with 2026 having the highest storm reports of the past 20 years. The problem IMO is the warning zones are too large. They allow for wiggle room for where the core of the storm may go, but this leaves many people within the severe box that do not experience severe weather. This leaves an assumption that the storm was a “cry wolf.” What we have today is far better than the old county-based warnings, but there’s still a high “false alarm” area.

The Y'all Squad showed up in St. Louis today and handed out 1,000 NOAA weather radios drive-thru style. We want to make sure everybody has a way to get warnings before these big storms hit. Thank y'all for making this possible.

It happened 15 years ago today.  It was a day in weather history that simply can’t be compared to any other day.  In fact, it was our nation’s biggest Tornado Super Outbreak of all time.  Unfortunately, Alabama was Ground Zero.  By far, the hardest hit state – with 62 tornadoes and 252 deaths.  Nationally, on that day, there were 218 tornadoes and 317 deaths.  Even surpassing 1974, the previous benchmark. But, it’s not just the number of tornadoes.  It’s the prolific number of violent tornadoes.  On that day, there was an unprecedented 4 EF-5’s.  An EF-5 is very rare indeed.   There were 11 EF-4’s, and 19 EF-3’s.  That’s more “significant” tornadoes than any other day in history. #alwx richthomasweathernetwork.com…