Minco, Oklahoma Tornado - May 3, 1999

[buzz385]

Jim makes great videos but he doesn't get the sound of the storm. All you get to hear is him.

[Mallgenttt]

Jeez man, how did you keep calm when that thing passed the road up ahead in front of you? I probably would have been like "shit, shit, shit, oh shit."

[DudeMyWeiner]

today marks the 12 year anniversary </3

god bless those people whose lives were taken :[

[jmeier37]

Great footage, at 0:47 you can really see the rotation associated with this tornado. I believe this one occured after the Moore F5?

[amandar68]

That was the worse day of my life. My friend lost her house that day!

[AJTwister97]

it went from deformed multiple vortex type tornado to a cone down to a stovepipe b4 it lifted. goes to show how much tornadoes can change in there lifetime

[monsterhead13]

GOD THIS IS INCREDIBLE!

[grillman7170]

Chuch Norris just farted

[shssoccerbabe2010]

it looks like a large, weak tornado... it didnt really even pick up those trees and throw em around did it..?

[Sooner9601]

@shssoccerbabe2010 it was weak at this time, then it got HUGE.

[ryan199811]

cool i sub to u add me as a friend love it car in front should stop.

[Torn80cj]

Awesome twister.

[torn80s]

This outbreak had some good tornadoes to film. This is an excellent video. Camera work is good. I've been thru Minco several times myself. I figure sooner or later I'll catch a tornado around Minco or Union City. I live in El Reno Oklahoma which isn't too far from Union City and Minco. Seems like that area gets some of the best looking tornadoes to film. Good vid, this storm chaser gives you 5 stars.

[OktoberForceAirsoft]

Jim, was watching a marathon of all of the footage you sent me (16 hours) ths is honestly one of your best. incredible motion, ans the tornado genesis that close to you is as you said "like a dream"

[1moe7]

awesome footage dude

[ExtremeChasingFury]

I never seen such rapid motion! I think this is one of your best tornado captures, but I love all of your footage. This one just stuns me on how incredible the footage is and the tornado.

[dillonrockband]

i like how at 1:47 you can see it like, not even a mile up the road from u guys!

[Emjai75]

Excellent Video!!!

Steady hand, no yelling and screaming. I also like the fact that you can hear it roar! :)

If there was a higher mark than A+ you would have it! Good job! :D

[liquidstl]

lol, I only recently realized that that was the roar of the tornado.... I always assumed it was the sound of the wind going by the car... LOL

[owerfull]

Good job !! Awesome !!! I love tornadoes !!!

[serpentisma]

nice. i've lived here in oklahoma my whole life and i never lose interest in these storms. going through the may 3rd incident will be both a positive and negative pinnacle of memories for the rest of my life. thanks so much for the footage!

[Mikeyburger3]

looks about 100 meters wide at the base of the funnell, but at the top more like 500 meters pritty awesome!

[Mikeyburger3]

oh sorry i see its just 1 of the tornadoes in that outbreak

[Mikeyburger3]

is that an F5?

[cyclonejimcom]

This particlar tornado didn't hit any structures so there was no F- rating given. If I were to give a rating I would say it was probably an F-2. It appeared to me like a relatively weak tornado.

[Mikeyburger3]

ye it didnt look amazingly powerful... very immpressive footage btw

[steven85buster]

yea....F2 mos definatley

[dragonridley]

@cyclonejimcom

I manged to look this tornado up.

Apparently it was rated F1.

[Sooner9601]

@dragonridley no it wasn't, it a FLIPPIN' F-5!

[dragonridley]

@Sooner9601

There was an F5 on that day, but there were also more than 70 other tornadoes on that same day that were given other ratings ranging from F0 to F4.

[Sooner9601]

@dragonridley oh,ok

[Sooner9601]

@cyclonejimcom ok, thats what you think, they ranked it a F-5 becuase it killed 42 people!!! and destroyed part of the city of Moore.

[Sooner9601]

@cyclonejimcom oh, i forgot they ranked it that becuase of 350 mph winds.

[rocksteadytattoo]

@Mikeyburger3 technically was a f-6 due to the wind speeds... i was there and personally it was lifechanging

[Sooner9601]

@Mikeyburger3 yes, it was a flippin' huge F-5.

[speedyg2582]

@Mikeyburger3 since the fujita scale doesn't read higher then an F-5 some weather experts where calling this an f-6 because the winds where 316mph higher then f-5 winds.

[reymatt76]

@Mikeyburger3 It was actually an F1, although an hour before this one, an F5 beginning near Chickasha, OK, to the SE and ending in the SE suburbs of OKC had just finished off 36 people, injured nearly 600 more and caused $100 million in damage. I guess you don't have to look too far to find a new apt in OK, since anything over 10 years old is destroyed by a tornado.

[uploadJ]

Good bit of work being set up for the tornado that appears a short bit after the 3:01 point on the vid.

[maccKaron]

I can destroy all tornados and hurricanes...

and want to make my discovering in practice...

[wondapets7]

omg i live in minco and i remember this it was horrible thanks for keeping us for wormed jim

[tylermannison]

What was the Fujita rating on this monster? Great footage, Jim.

[Heyde1979]

Jim is a legend in storm chasing he is one of the best storm chasers out there

[liquidstl]

Hey Jim, Good Luck Today.... lets hope for some awesome new footage to drool ovre :)

[cyclonejimcom]

I saw at least 7 that day. Except for the first tornado of the day I witnessed near Elgin,Ok. which was with storm (A), the next 4 were associated with storm (B) which where the Minco tornado was associated with. I saw two more well after dark was with storm (C).

[superman8580]

hey jim i am a chaser over inmuskogee i chase for kjrh channe, 2 in tulsa and yeah i was just woundering how many twisters you see that day

[cyclonejimcom]

This tornado was occuring near the end of the Moore tornado's life cycle. The Moore tornado was near Tinker AFB around this time.

[hfkjehgufihgiufewi]

was this tornado before or after the Moore tornado?

[burtonfan2]

it was during it

[69HemiGTX]

Ahh, the voice of Gary England. If he's on the radio, you know there's some bad weather out there. Makes me homesick. I've only heard thunder twice here in Iraq. This place sucks!

[poodfeets]

i remember may 3rd i was but a mere child...haha 9. but anyways that tramatized me for a good 2 years.

[Jamiesyme999]

its intense how fast that one was. excellent vid

[cyclonejimcom]

This tornado wasn't too intense compared to some of the others that day. I would guess not more than F-2 during most of its existance. The tornado was mostly disorganized during the time it was south of HWY-152 then intensified some for a short time while just to the north of the hwy.

[Weatherdriver7]

Jim, always enjoy your videos, and all of your work. Can't wait to move to Oklahoma.

[4tylers777]

I was at Tinker AFB at the time on the side of the base that got hit! I was almost blown away!

[gqtexan]

I remember seeing a tornado in the same town (Minco) back in the summer of 1984. I remember seeing it with my sister and baby brother at the time. First tornado (and definitely not the last) I ever encountered. Good shots.

[coolybell123]

I was Five and my parents took me to go see it. we were VERY close and i was freaking out the whole time. some cop had to come and tell us to get out of the area. we were closer then they are in the video. it was wild and very scary.

[cyclonejimcom]

I know Reed Timmer real well, he and his chaser friends really know their stuff, great chasers..

[blackattackchump]

That's the fastest tornado I've ever seen. How do you feel about Reed Timmer and Tornadpvideosdotnet?

[joesmoe71]

Jim as always your videos are breath taking! I've been a fan of your stuff since first seeing you on "I-Witness Video" back in the 90's and I'm glad to see you've now discovered Youtube! Keep up the good work!

[rb676]

I'm from Oklahoma but live in the DFW area now. You'd think a Metroplex with over 6M ppl, the 4th biggest in the country, could at LEAST get a meteorologist as good as Gary England's afterbirth...but you'd be wrong. :(

[Tyrannulet2k]

I actually got to meet Gary once, and he was just about the nicest and most modest person you could ever meet. A real class act.

[amaglioc]

great stuff, Jim

[zethcarn]

awesome video!

[bwlfp]

Holy smokes

[ColonelAngus75]

Cool, Jim Leonard now has a channel on YouTube! You do great work! Your videos are awesome.

[vmax135]

What a CLASSIC... on such an unforgettable day!!!

[liquidstl]

I remember that day......... from the news

I was only 10 at the time, so obviously i couldnt go chasing :(

anyway, great video

1. question though: 1 chaser witnessed the strongest tornado in recorded history. windspeeds are said to have been in excess of 300 miles per hour. Was this an actual measurment, or an estimation??? I ask because with the new 'EF' scale, would that change the estimated windspeed in that tornado, or was it actually recorded @ 301 - 318 mph???

[vmax135]

Hi Chris - The record was an actual DOW (Doppler On Wheels) measurement. In the devastating Moore, OK tornado (on the same day as this video, you can hear Jim mention it in his Ft. Cobb clip) the DOW measured a wind speed of 301mph (+/- 20mph) at a height of about 30m. This broke the previous record of ~260mph in the Red Rock, OK tornado of 4/26/91. As the record windspeed was measured at about 100ft above the ground, it is possible that winds were slightly less at ground level.

[liquidstl]

Thanks for clearing that Up Michael;

Now here's another question ( for anyone that knows)

Y did they redo the F scale and move F5 from 260+ down to 200+. ( I believe that one of the weather channel metiorologists stated that 1 reason the F scale was redone was becuase of "over rating windspeeds in tornados F3 and Higher")

However, if that tornao was actually clocked in excess of 300 miles per hour, then why redo the F scale and say that windspeeds were probably overestimated if they wern't??