The Mulhall tornado of May 3rd, 1999

[Jeremiah Temple]

Hi everybody,

I know I just joined here but I've been on the Discord for several weeks now, already met some of you at the Severe Storms Seminar in DuPage this last weekend! I'm a small YouTuber and I've been interested in weather for many, many years. Although I may be a relative novice still, I tried to take a look at what should be the largest tornado ever, but for some reason is not recognized as such. The Mulhall, Oklahoma tornado of May 3rd, 1999.

Would anyone be able to get me more information on this tornado and why the DOW's recorded size of more than four miles wide is not recognized, and thus why El Reno is recognized as the largest tornado on record? I feel like Mulhall is simply forgotten among the stupor of the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado.

 

[Brandon Skalniak]

I read somewhere that it had to do with it being "quantitatively" the largest. El Reno had sustained winds of EF-1 or greater for the full extent, while, from what I understand, the Mulhal storm had a debris field and peak gusts of 96 mph that extended for the 4.3 mile radius. I believe that they were able to find examples of the El Reno storm having EF-1 damage for the full 2.6 miles, while it was only on radar that the Mulhal storm was recorded at that size.

In terms of strength, it was likely that it was probably close to, if not at, a strength similar to that of the Bridge Creek-Moore storm.

 

[James Mclaire]

It was a monster to be sure. Huge Vrot was recorded well before super resolution data were available at KTLX.