On This Day in 1999: The Powerful Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado Struck
On May 3, 1999, one of the most infamous tornadoes in U.S. history rampaged central Oklahoma. The tornado was an F5, and it tore through the cities of Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore, and parts of the south side of Oklahoma City.
The tornado was part of a prolific early May tornado outbreak, which featured a vigorous upper-level low pressure system that moved into the Central and Southern Plains during the morning of May 3. Surface analysis indicated a dryline was located from Gage to Childress, Texas. By late morning, low clouds over northern Texas into Oklahoma started to dissipate as the dryline began to approach. A mix of sun and clouds took shape, which allowed the atmosphere to destabilize. The combination of sunshine and surface heating, and plentiful low-level moisture, led to a very unstable air mass. In addition, strong directional wind shear and cooling temperatures in the upper atmosphere indicated the atmosphere was primed for the development of tornado supercells.
Thunderstorms began developing in the late-afternoon hours as CAPE values over the southern Plains had reached nearly 6,000 J/kg. Large supercell thunderstorms formed too, and during the late afternoon to the mid-evening hours of May 3, tornadoes started to touch down across Oklahoma.
The powerful Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado was the 9th out of 14 tornadoes produced by a supercell thunderstorm during the tornado outbreak. It formed around 5:26 pm CST, about 2 miles south-southwest of Amber, Okla., and grew rapidly as it headed northeast, paralleling Interstate 44. It moved across Bridge Creek and rural parts of northwest Newcastle, producing continuous F4 and sporadic F5 damage. The tornado was estimated to be a mile in diameter at this time.
From there, the tornado moved through southern sections of Oklahoma City, to the northern sections of Moore, through Oklahoma City again, to Del City, and on into Midwest City. The twister claimed 36 lives, destroyed 1,800 homes, and damaged another 2,500, according to the National Weather Service. In fact, a Doppler on Wheels research radar measured a wind speed of 301 mph about 100 feet above the ground in that tornado, which was up to three-quarters of a mile wide.
In the aftermath, this single tornado was the most damaging tornado of the outbreak and was the first F5 tornado on record to hit the Oklahoma City metro area. It was responsible for an estimated $1 billion damage or about $1.8 billion in today’s dollars.
Sources, weather.gov, spc.noaa.gov
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Story Image: Tornado near the Bridge Creek, Oklahoma area on May 3, 1999. (Photo taken by NWS Norman general forecaster Erin Maxwell)