Deadly Oklahoma Tornado Captured on Video By Evergreen Park Storm Chaser

Parked on the outskirts of Newcastle, OK, on Monday afternoon, south-suburban storm chaser Danny Neal and his friends knew immediately where the massive twister blowing up in front of them was headed.

“I knew almost immediately where it was going,” Neal said. “A mile-and-a-half wide tornado doesn’t dissipate in two seconds. We knew it was going to Moore.”

Watch Danny Neal's video of the Moore, OK, tornado (warning graphic language).

Since May 3, 1999, the Oklahoma City-suburb of Moore has found itself at the epicenter of “Tornado Alley.” Five massive tornados have hit the town in 14 years, two of them EF-5’s, including Monday’s mega-twister.

The EF-5 tornado that ravaged the town in May 1999, clocked the highest winds ever recorded on earth.

“A lot of people say that the 1999 tornado was a generational event,” the Evergreen Park-based storm chaser said. “It happened again 14 years later and I’d say this one was worse.”

Although Monday’s EF-5 tornado did not produce the 318mph winds of the 1999 tornado, winds speeds of over 200mph were recorded in Monday’s storm.

“It’s kind of eerie how in the last 14 years that area has been getting nuked,” Neal said. “Basically it has been the same general two-mile area.”

Moore with a population of 56,000 is the closest suburb to Oklahoma City, comparable to the size of Oak Lawn or Orland Park, Neal said.

“On May 3, 1999, the tornado went from the southwest to the northeast on a diagonal,” he said. “Monday’s tornado started on the west side of town and went horizontally across to the east side.”

Neal and his friends captured five tornadoes on video during last weekend’s storm chasing expedition, including the Moore tornado. Even standing a mile away from it, the Chicago-suburban storm chasers could hear it's angry roar.

As seen on Neal’s video from his website, Northern Illinois Storm Chasers, rain wrapped around the violently spinning vortex, until moments later the tornado’s left edge became visible again.

“We saw it for about five to ten minutes,” Neal said,

After the tornado roped off and dissipated back into the bruised sky, Neal and his storm-chasing partners headed to Moore to help in the recovery.

“It was so chaotic,” he said. “We waited around but after awhile they said they had more help than they could use. We assembled some local charities and threw them out on our Facebook page.”

Follow Danny Neal's storm chasing adventures on his Facebook page.

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