The April 19 anniversary is bad enough around here, but three years ago tonight (almost to this hour), the largest and most ferocious tornadoes ever measured in the US blew through the Oklahoma City metro area. The biggest was an F5 bigger than the one seen in Maryland last weekend -- the biggest ever. It started south of here in Chickasha and moved northwest along I-44 right into OKC. I-44 turns more north, but the storm still tracked WNW, going through Moore, southwest OKC, and Midwest City (near Tinker AFB). 44 people died amid tens of millions of dollars in damage.

A separate funnel started here in town, but touched down only briefly about a mile from here, then skipped over most of El Reno and moved WNW. It eventually built up steam and eventually flattened much of Stroud, halfway between OKC and Tulsa. It destroyed an outlet mall that accounted for 20% of Stroud's jobs. The mall did not reopen. Most of the damage has been rebuilt now; you can't drive down I-35 and see the mile-wide storm swath easiliy anymore, but it was a day worth remembering.

It's a miracle of meteorology and storm warnings that hundreds of people didn't die that day.