Tornadoes Touch Down in Twister-Ravaged Okla. City

Here, a radar map showing the thunderstorms and tornadoes hitting the Oklahoma City metro area on Friday (May 31) night.
Here, a radar map showing the thunderstorms and tornadoes hitting the Oklahoma City metro area on Friday (May 31) night. (Image credit: National Weather Service, Norman)

A violent storm system passing through the central U.S. states Friday (May 31) is packing strong winds and spawning several tornadoes in the already twister-ravaged Oklahoma City metro area.

A tornado emergency was issued tonight in Oklahoma after at least two tornadoes touched down in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, according to National Weather Service (NWS) tweets.

The first tornado touched down southwest of Bethany, Okla., moving east-southeast, and the second north of Union City, Okla., moving east, according to NWS.

Another tornado was reported east of the Will Rogers Airport, according to a tweet by the National Weather Service, Norman.

Moore, Okla., still recovering from the EF5 tornado that ravaged the city on May 20, was included in the tornado warning, a declaration that means "a large, destructive tornado is moving into a densely populated area where widespread damage and fatalities could occur," CNN reports.

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Jeanna Bryner
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Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.