Oklahoma Tornadoes

  • Credit

    Robert Simmon, Goddard DAAC

Tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas on May 3, 1999, killed at least 40 people and caused over 500 million dollars in damages. One of the tornadoes was an F-5, the largest and most powerful classification. Although no direct measurement of windspeed is possible in such powerful storms, winds in an F-5 tornado are capable of topping 300 miles per hour.

The GOES-East weather satellite produces images of most of the United States every 30 minutes in visible and infra-red wavelengths. This image was taken May 3, 1999 at 7:32 PM, CDST.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    GOES/GOES

  • Visualization Date

    1999-05-04