Out of Control Weather Events , Cyclones and Tornados

Cyclones and tornadoes have the power to take lives, wipe out crops, kill livestock, change weather patterns and shift the climate. Some extreme weather changes cause intense snowfall, while others simply destroy entire counties , robbing them of people and property. In this article, you will encounter destructive weather events that took place in 1993 and 1999 in the United States.

The Cyclonic Storm of 1993

Off of the East Coast of the U.S., a cyclonic storm formed between March 12 and 13 of 1993. The size was so massive that it triggered several different waves of severe weather conditions. It is quite rare that a single storm system has the power to cause blizzards so widespread, but the effects were felt along the U.S.-Canadian border , all the way down to Birmingham, Alabama. In one day and night, 12 to 16 inches of snow fell in Birmingham. Wind gusts resembling the same strength as a hurricane were also felt across the country. In the Florida panhandle, residents dealt with tornados that formed in the middle of the blizzard. Five people died as a result.

The snowfall associated with the storm touched the Appalachians of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. The received nearly 4 feet of snow with drifts that reached up to 35 feet. The eastern half of the country was hit with freezing temperatures that took the lives of 300 people who did not have electrical power because of downed trees. The wind gusts traveled all the way to Havana, Cuba, where speeds clocked in at 100 mph.

The Bridge Creek Tornado of 1999

For three days, a tornado outbreak took the residents of a region in Oklahoma by surprise when a F5 level disaster formed around 7:12 pm on May 3, 1999. The tornado would become the most powerful windstorm ever recorded on earth , reaching speeds of 318 mph. As the tornado moved its way northeast, it killed 36 people from Amber, Oklahoma through Bridge Creek, and then onto a southern suburb of Oklahoma City called Moore.

Luckily, the tornado did not move north into the city or it would have probably caused more carnage than any other tornado in history.

In its path, the tornado took with it 8,000 homes, as it shredded large vehicles with the debris it carried along. Telephone phones were hits by a combination of wheel hubs and wooden boards. Everything was being turned upside down. Local weather stations dared not send any correspondents out into the field and the event became the first time that news was reported over the radio. Residents were warned to go underground in a secure area to avoid being killed. This was a tornado where you couldn’t expect to live by just hiding under a mattress, inside a bathtub, in a ditch or under a highway overpass.