When it comes to massive weather events, I have always given them a special mention on here. I know it’s nothing to do with our industry, but at times of massive destruction, I feel that is has to commented on.

For those of you who were up late last night, and for everyone else waking up this morning, Oklahoma has been hit by an enormous tornado which has caused huge devastation and destruction.

The tornado hit ground in the middle of the day on Monday, just as kids were leaving school and people were starting to come home from work. Despite all the technology at our disposal, warnings really can only be given a maximum of 20 minutes in advance, so most remained in their buildings and bunkers hoping to ride it out.

There are varying reports, but the tornado that hit was between a staggering 1-2 miles wide and packed winds of 200mph. These are numbers which we in the UK will probably never be able to comprehend. As big as this storm was, it wasn’t the biggest. The same places in Oklahoma were hit in 1999 by an F5 tornado that was 3 miles wide and packed the strongest winds ever recorded on the surface of the Earth at 302mph.

Back then, 40 people were known to have died. This time around however, at the time of writing, there have been 91 fatalities and that number looks set to rise and search and rescue teams start to trawl their way through ton after ton of rubble.

There has been some amazing footage of the tornado captured by storm chasers Basehunters Chasing:

[youtube_video id=”xTpceWd8UE4″]

I know that all in the UK wishes the very best of luck to all those affected by this massive storm, and our condolences go out to those who have lost property, friends and family and hope that you will all be back on your feet as soon as possible!