Storm expert discussing tornado

Updated May 21, 2013 18:40:00

The twister was on the ground for 40 minutes. The US National Weather Service says it was both unusual and unlucky that an urban area was struck. Jonathan Kurtz is a meteorologist with the weather service in Norman, Oklahoma.

Source: PM | Duration: 2min 37sec

Topics: storm-disaster, cyclones, united-states


DAVID MARK: The US National Weather Service says it was both unusual and unlucky the twister struck an urban area.

Peter Lloyd is speaking to Jonathan Kurtz, a from the weather service in Norman, Oklahoma.

JONATHAN KURTZ: It looks like its width was about three city blocks wide, which given the city of Moore is probably about quarter of a mile to a mile wide at some points.

PETER LLOYD: Is that an unusual size of a tornado?

JONATHAN KURTZ: Not unusual for the southern plains of the United States. What's unusual I guess - if you want to call it unusual - is the fact that it hit an extremely heavily populated area.

PETER LLOYD: What's the forecast for tornado activity in the next 12 to 24 hours?

JONATHAN KURTZ: We're not looking at any tornadoes right now - more of a large hail and damaging wind threat with many of the storms that we have right now.

PETER LLOYD: And is the severity of this storm front, is this unusual for this point of the season?

JONATHAN KURTZ: No actually it's quite normal for this time of year. Usually the late May/early June portion of the year is extremely active for the southern plains of the United States.

PETER LLOYD: It's interesting that your description of the size of it is that it's not unusual but to us, at this distance, it seems extraordinary.

JONATHAN KURTZ: The advent of social media and Youtube and definitely all the 'storm chasers' as they're called here in the United States, that go out - the amount of video that is now shot over the past ten years and gets distributed around the world really opened the rest of the world up to what we deal with every year in the plains, and to some of us, that's the spring, but to a lot of people they can never really - they don't like it around here and they move away, and we understand.

PETER LLOYD: How much does it instil a permanent state of fear about this time of year?

JONATHAN KURTZ: There are quite a few people that have - we call it storm anxiety. They find ways to deal with it, but a lot of times that's why we have storm shelters and why everyone, we stress for everyone to have a plan and if they can get underground, that's they're best chance of survival, and if they have a storm shelter that's underground, that's the best thing they can possibly do and a lot of people do that.

So they feel pretty safe if they have that shelter.

PETER LLOYD: In the context of that very smart advice, how do you think it is possible that 50 people could have died in one area?

JONATHAN KURTZ: Unfortunately, some people either don't get the word - they're out deriving their car, they don't understand where it's at. Some people unfortunately in the central and the southern plains, alot of the houses do not have basements, and the some people do not have storm shelters and the best they can do is get into and interior room of their house, maybe a closet or a bathroom with no windows,



DAVID MARK: Jonathan Kurtz from the weather service in Norman, Oklahoma, and he was speaking to Peter Lloyd.