1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 484 ± 32 kilometers per hour (301 ± 20 mph). In meteorology, the term "May 3" is synonymous with the F5 tornado. The 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado was a large, long-lived, and exceptionally violent F5 tornado that produced the highest tornado wind speed ever recorded by doppler weather radar—321 miles per hour, measured by a Doppler on Wheels (DoW). One of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded to affect a metropolitan area, the tornado devastated southern portions of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as well as surrounding municipalities to the south and southwest of the city during the early evening of Monday, May 3, 1999. The tornado covered 38 miles during its 85-minute existence, destroying thousands of homes, killing 36 people (plus another five indirectly), and causing US$1 billion (1999 USD) in damage, ranking it as the fifth-costliest on record not accounting for inflation. Its severity prompted the first-ever use of the tornado emergency statement by the National Weather Service. The tornado first touched down at 6:23 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) in Grady County, roughly two miles (3.2 km) south-southwest of the town of Amber. It quickly intensified into a violent F4, and gradually reached F5 status after traveling 6.5 miles, at which time it struck the town of Bridge Creek, where parts of the community were rendered unrecognizable. The greatest impacts from this tornado occurred near peak intensity in the densely populated southern suburbs and exurbs of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. A total of 8,132 homes, 1,041 apartments, 260 businesses, eleven public buildings, and seven churches were damaged or destroyed.
