The Beginning of the El Reno Tornado

On May 31, 2013, multiple famous storm chasers, Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras (Son of Tim), and Carl Young, a team known as TWISTEX was doing research on the El Reno tornado at the time. The tornado’s touchdown time was at 6:03pm, and dissipated at 6:43, with a duration time of 40 minutes, traveling across 16.2 miles on the ground with a wind speed of 155mph, being just shy of an ef4 and being classified as as ef3, but during its highest point, it was classified as an ef5 until its dissipation time, it was only classified as an ef3 because the damage wasn’t capable of being an ef5.

The Middle of the Tornado

At 6:24pm, the tornado reaches its max capability, reaching wind speeds of up to 313mph, capable of flattening homes, debarking trees, and lifting/throwing vehicles. Unfortunately, the tornado has many tricks that it uses, such as illusions of making it seem like it’s not moving, when in reality, it’s heading straight to you. Oh, and fun fact, it’s actually a common myth that tornadoes can’t go uphill, but they actually can, and they’re called skipping tornadoes. Anyways, back to my story, this tornado was in an open field during most of its lifetime, causing damage to fields, de-barking trees, and even destroying powerlines. 

The End of The Tornado, & team TWISTEX’s unfortunate death.

During the high point of the tornado, on U.S. Interstate highway 81, TWISTEX was following behind Dan Robinson, which later on, Mike Bettes would soon follow behind TWISTEX before turning around and leaving the area up North. Fortunately, this saved the life of Mike, but soon, disaster would strike. After Mike Bettes left the area of the tornado, Dan Robinson would record the final moments of team TWISTEX. Unfortunately, TWISTEX disappeared from the rear camera of Dan Robinson’s car, while Dominator Team, commanded by Reed Timmer got stuck due to collapsed power lines. Near Reed Timmer, was a man named Richard Henderson, someone who wasn’t a storm chaser, but wanted to see the fun in it, unfortunately, he would be found dead. All of team TWISTEX was discovered to be dead, with Tim Samaras found inside the passenger side of the vehicle, while his son, Paul Samaras and researcher Carl Young were discovered 3⁄4 ‘s of a mile away from the vehicle, this tornado unfortunately marked the first ever storm chaser death in history. This tornado would end up taking the lives of 8 people, half of them being storm chasers, and injuring 151 people, as of today, people visit U.S. interstate 81 to honor the lives of team TWISTEX.