Is This Really A Good Idea In The Name Of Being The Biggest?

There is a plan to build the tallest skyscraper in America, even exceeding the new One World Trade Center in New York City. You would think such a venture would occur in cities like Manhattan, Chicago or LA, but you would be wrong. My jaw almost dropped when I saw where it was supposed to be constructed––Oklahoma City. Why Oklahoma City?

Oklahoma City is not a major metropolis. In fact, the city itself has 700,000 inhabitants, and the metro area has 1.4 million people, making it the 20th largest city in America.

The planned project is to have a 5 million square feet area with several hotels and over 1000 residential units. There is, however, one minor concern. While Oklahoma City is 20th in population, it is first in something else; Oklahoma City is in the heart of Tornado Alley. The city holds the record for the number of times the metropolitan area has been struck by tornadoes since records have been kept. I have chased storms in and around Oklahoma. Each spring, severe storms spring up in the area because it is in the heart of the convergence of cooler, drier air coming off the Rockies with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico.

Below is a list from the U.S. National Weather Service of the number of times the Oklahoma City area has been struck by two or more tornadoes on the same day since 1890.

1. April 25, 1893 (2)

2. May 12, 1896 (2)

3. June 21, 1942 (2)

4. March 20, 1948 (2)

5. April 30, 1949 (2)

6. April 30, 1951 (2)

7. June 3, 1956 (2)

8. April 28, 1960 (3)

9. May 21, 1961 (2)

10. August 31, 1965 (3)

11. September 19, 1965 (2)

12. June 10, 1967 (2)

13. April 30, 1970 (2)

14. June 8, 1974 (5)

15. April 30, 1978 (3)

16. March 28, 1988 (2)

17. June 13, 1998 (4)

18. May 3, 1999 (4)

19. October 22, 2000 (2)

20. May 8, 2003 (2)

21. May 9, 2003 (3)

22. November 10, 2004 (2)

23. May 7, 2008 (2)

24. February 10, 2009 (2)

25. May 10, 2010 (4)

26. May 31, 2013 (5)

27. April 26, 2016 (2)

28. October 9, 2018 (5)

29. May 25, 2019 (4)

30. October 13, 2021 (3)

31. February 26, 2023 (4)

The Oklahoma City area has been struck by more than 150 tornadoes since 1890. On average, that's more than one a year.

The odds are that you could encounter a tornado if you spend some time in the Oklahoma City area in springtime. Now, there are tornadoes and tornadoes. An EF 0 or EF 1 on the Fujita strength scale will cause light to moderate damage. However, once you go up tthe wind speed scale, a tornado's damage and violence increase exponentially. At the top of the scale is the EF 5 tornado, though not as prevalent, which can have wind speeds up to 318 mph (508 kph). An EF 5 can throw cars, lift railway cars, devastate houses, and even lift foundations.

In fact, on May 3, 1999, a powerful EF 5 tornado struck the outskirts of Oklahoma City with the strongest winds ever recorded, averaging 318 mph.

Though EF 5 tornadoes are not all that common, 14 years later, another EF 5 struck just west of Oklahoma City near El Reno. The El Reno tornado on May 31 2013, had its own distinction; it was the widest ever at 2.6 miles (4.1 km) wide.

Meteorologist Mike Bettes regularly appeared on the Weather Channel but on this day was on assignment. went out to chase the storm with his team. They got caught in the outer band of it, and their vehicle was thrown over 200 yards but they survived.

Three other storm chasers weren’t so lucky. Well known storm chaser, engineer Tim Samaras, his son and a fellow chaser got caught in one of the outer vortices of the tornado and died that day.

So the question becomes, why build an almost 2,000 foot skyscraper in the heart of Tornado Alley? Can you imagine residing on the 90th floor of that building and seeing a large tornado bearing down on you? There’s no doubt that if an EF 5 tornado hit the building there would be damage. Whether or not it would devastate the building is an unknown at this time.

Hopefully they have contingency plans like a huge tornado shelter in the basement of the building, enough to house several thousand people. Better yet let’s hope that the architect of the structure is better than the architect of the Covid-19 jabs. What could go wrong?