As thunderstorm season is approaching, the storm chasers are getting ready to catch something big. Orion usually gets pretty lucky with the good kind of thunderstorms, nothing too powerful, and they can be very cool to watch and relaxing. There have been several small storms in Orion which have blown around some debris, but nothing like the tornado that hit Oklahoma on May 31, 2013.

In spring of 2013, mother nature was brewing up the most dangerous tornado ever recorded in US history. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado was a whopping 2.6 miles wide. That means this tornado could completely engulf our whole town, scary thought, right? The tornado hitting El Reno was originally announced as being an EF-3 tornado and ended up being an EF-5. The total area this tornado affected was 16.2 miles long. The tornado was blowing winds at 200 miles an hour, which is crazy dangerous.

Eight people died in the supercell, all of which were in their vehicles. Three of them being highly respected storm chasers. This tornado was so dangerous because of the way the winds were changing direction so quickly, which caught people who weren’t prepared or in vehicles off guard.

So the next time you are hearing of a supercell approaching your town, do not go out and drive. More importantly, if you’re caught on the road, find a building to go into for safety.  If you want to investigate more about this storm, click here.