Select Oklahoma Tornado statistics by Year for the period 1950 to the present year from the menus below. - State emergency managers and the National Weather Service were surveying damage Sunday from severe storms that spawned as many as four. Over 20 years, Tulsa has seen the likes of tornadoes, heatwaves, wildfires, hail and severe wind events, droughts, floods, and blizzards.Oklahoma hit with as many as 4 tornadoes. Though Tulsa was not always the eye of the storm, the unusually high number of damaging weather events indicates that the county lies on an unrelenting and varied storm path. Tornado Alley is a nickname given to an area in the southern plains of the central United States that consistently experiences a high frequency of tornadoes each year.Since 1996, more than 30 of the U.S.’s most expensive weather disasters have hit Tulsa. The heart of Tornado Alley includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and South Dakota.The May 2015 floods shut down highways, inundated farms, and closed down numerous businesses. Once the dry spell officially broke in May 2015, the weather rebounded powerfully with widespread heavy rains, which caused major flooding throughout the remainder of the month. For example, from July 2012 to May 2015 Tulsa experienced 24 months of exceptional (D4), extreme (D3), or severe (D2) drought. Often times, these storm types can intersect in disastrous ways going from one extreme to the next. NewsChannel 4’s Chief Meteorologist Mike Morgan, along with the 4Warn. Tuesday was a busy day across Oklahoma as severe storms, including tornadoes, ripped across the state.After the storm subsided, the public outrage grew, and resulted in a $140 million flood prevention project to ensure this flood severity never occurred again.How can city leaders convince the public that it’s a good idea to spend money on resilience before an emergency occurs? This is the multi-billion dollar question all Americans should be asking in the wake of the devastating 2017 hurricane season. Intense floods spread across the city, damaging thousands of homes and businesses, killing 14 people, and ultimately cost between $150-180 million. A severe storm brought 24 hours of nonstop rain that averaged 9.35 inches, with some areas measuring up to 14 inches. The heavy winter rains broke a daily rainfall record and caused Tulsa to have its second wettest December ever recorded—only a few months after the county was plagued by prolonged drought.However, the most notorious flooding event in Tulsa occurred Memorial Day weekend 1984.
And as Jolliff warned us, complacency can be immensely detrimental to preparedness as individuals hedge their bets against the risks. “What’s in the middle? Tulsa.”Unfortunately, such myths can create a false sense of security, which then can lead to complacency. “Draw a straight line between Moore, Oklahoma and Joplin, Missouri ,” Piltz pointed out. Steven Piltz, the meteorologist in charge at the Tulsa National Weather Service, told us that he is certain a major tornado could hit Tulsa, and is concerned that these stories could leave the public unprepared. One time we had a tornado warning for 45 minutes in Tulsa and two local TV stations followed the storm recording it, but still, it never touched down.” Jolliff noted that people also generally think tornadoes can’t hit cities with tall buildings.Despite what looks like circumstantial evidence, there is no weight to these myths. There is no question that the technology and science behind weather prediction has improved drastically in recent years, but the hard truth is that there is still much scientists don’t know about complex storm systems. What’s in the middle? Tulsa.”The second harmful narrative—that tornadoes can be predicted with perfect accuracy—can also stoke a false sense of security. “We have hundreds.”“Draw a straight line between Moore, Oklahoma and Joplin, Missouri. When the winds escalated above 58 mph, Jolliff issued an extreme thunderstorm warning to Tulsa, and then began to wait and watch.Unfortunately, the tornado developed out of the thunderstorm before anyone caught it on the radar. Early in the evening, all information pointed to an extreme thunderstorm, not unusual for the area and time of year. From the very beginning of the storm, Jolliff kept his eye on the radar and remained in frequent contact with Tulsa’s network of emergency managers, national weather service experts, and meteorologists. Our standard is still that we want to be able to warn for every tornado, but the public needs to be aware that it doesn’t always happen.”Why is the public’s demand for perfection so detrimental? For one, unrealistic expectation can degrade trust in experts even when they do everything in their power to predict accurately. That will happen, but it comes with the territory. And we will miss some altogether. “We will miss the beginning minutes of some tornadoes. “Yes, it will happen again,” Piltz warned. The funnel did significant damage, including to a 20 story building, but fortunately there were no fatalities.Steven Piltz, a longtime internationally recognized expert on tornado prediction, noted that the conditions that formed this particular tornado hurt his team’s ability to predict. Irs form 8824 simple worksheetIt’s healthy, and it’s how we get better. “As an emergency manager, you need to make that split second decision. “It’s a tough call, but it goes with the territory,” Jolliff explained. That 70s show free“Everyone seems to trust everyone else enough that they may.not like what you did, but think you are telling.the truth.” Piltz added, “In that way, Tulsa stays under control. Jolliff told us that one Tulsan who called him earlier in the day to express her anger and resentment for the lack of warning called him back after seeing the briefing to tell him she now understood why he made his decision.Steven Piltz also agreed that even though it appeared that Tulsans demanded perfection when it came to the sirens, they also accept the truth when experts are upfront with them.
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