1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado

The 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado was a very violent F5 tornado that hit the Bridge Creek and Moore areas of Oklahoma on the evening of May 3, 1999. It had the highest wind speed ever recorded at 301 miles per hour (484 km/h).^[6] It killed at least 36 people and injured 583 others.^[5] It caused $1 billion in damage.^[7] The tornado's strength led to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Norman issuing the first-ever tornado emergency.^[8] In 2013, Moore was again hit by an EF5 tornado, but fewer people were killed even though there was more damage.

1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado

F5 tornado
Formed	May 3, 1999, 6:23 p.m. CDT (UTC−05:00)
Duration	1 hour, 25 minutes
Dissipated	May 3, 1999, 7:48 pm. CDT (UTC−05:00)
Highest winds	301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h) (as measured by mobile Doppler radar)[1][a][3][4]
Max. rating1	F5 tornado
Casualties	36 fatalities (+5 indirect), 583 injuries[5]
Damage	$1 billion (1999 USD) $1.6 billion (2025 USD)
Areas affected	Grady, McClain, Cleveland and Oklahoma counties in Oklahoma; with the worst impacts occurring in the towns/cities of Bridge Creek, Moore, Oklahoma City, Del City, and Midwest City
Part of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak 1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

Damage caused by the tornado.

Notes

1. It is officially accepted that the rating for this tornado is F5; however, the ±20 mph (32 km/h) wind speed ambiguity has occasionally led some people to suggest that this tornado may have briefly been an F6 tornado. On the original Fujita Scale, F6 was a theoretical classification for an "inconceivable tornado", with a wind speed in excess of 318 mph (512 km/h), but no tornado ever produced winds officially at or above 319 mph (513 km/h). The United States National Weather Service has officially maintained that the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado is an F5 tornado, and will not be reclassified F6.^[2]