How Close Was The Tornado In Stillwater OK – May 24th, 2011?

The storm that produced the F5 tornado that went to the northwest side of Oklahoma City, through Piedmont, OK and Guthrie, OK eventually lifted from the ground just northwest of Guthrie on its way to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where I live.

Fortunately, it did lift up, but they sounded the tornado sirens in Stillwater.

I took my three boys to the storm cellar to ride out the storm. We stayed in the cellar a block from our house for about 45 minutes.

When we were in the cellar, we were getting reports from the radio of debris falling from the sky on the south side of Stillwater.

I had thought that the storm would pass on the west side of town, based on the tornado’s original track. But the original tornado had lifted about 20 miles away and dropped a new F1 tornado just south of town.

I was curious how close we had come, so I followed the news reports to find the tornado’s path across town.

Here is what I came up with:

Just one mile away…

Phew…. That was close…