El Reno Tornado (Blog Update #4)

In the evening of Friday, May 31, 2013, a powerful tornado occurred in central Oklahoma. This rain-wrapped, multi-vortex tornado would become known as the widest tornado ever recorded with a peak width of 2.6 miles.

The tornado did not hit very many structures, but data from mobile weather radars had winds inside the vortex of the tornado of up to 302 mph which are the highest observed wind speeds in our planets history.

Photo of the El Reno Tornado. Courtesy: Tornado Junkies

This tornado took the lives of eight people, most notably killing four storm chasers, Many storm chasers were caught off guard as the tornado rapidly grew in size and made erratic movements.

The El Reno tornado has been referred to as "the most dangerous tornado in storm observing history" by the national Weather Service.

Path and Width of El Reno tornado. Courtesy: NWS Norman