oklahoma

Monopods No Longer Allowed at OU Football Games Because of Lens Crushing Incident

Last weekend, Tulsa World photojournalist Mike Simons made headlines for all the wrong reasons when Oklahoma football player Sterling Shepard took a painful fall onto Simons' Canon telephoto lens, snapping it in half.

The incident prompted criticism from OU coach Bob Stoop, a public apology from Simons, and now, a new set of rules for photographers covering football games handed down by the powers that be at OU.

Man Sticks His Camera Out Storm Shelter Hole, Captures View of Tornado Up Close

When the 2013 Moore tornado struck Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013, Charles Gafford III took refuge in a storm shelter. Once inside, he noticed that there was a small gap in the shelter that he could stick his smartphone through. He did, and ended up capturing the footage above that shows what it's like to have an EF5 tornado -- the strongest strength rating assigned -- pass almost directly overhead.

What It Was Like to Capture the Aftermath of the Oklahoma Tornado

In Oklahoma, tornados are a common thing. Every spring they occur and every Oklahoman grows up knowing what they are and the damage they can cause. As a native Oklahoman, I've only seen two tornados in person after chasing them down. Most of the time they do little damage and dissipate fairly quickly. People are usually more worried about damage that comes from the gigantic-sized hail than from tornados.

Moore, OK Tornado via NASA

Satellite Photos Show What the Oklahoma Tornado Looked Like From Space

NASA has today released a series of images along with a video following Monday's devastating thunderstorms that produced an F-4 tornado (winds between 166 and 200 miles per hour) that touched down in Moore, Oklahoma. Several satellites were used to provide forecasters with the latest imagery.

NASA's Aqua satellite was responsible for a visible-light image which provided a high-resolution look at the storm. The NOAA GOES-13 satellite provided images of the storm every 15 minutes, and the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite observed lightning from the system.

A Time-Lapse and Footage of the Tornado That Struck Oklahoma

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, May 20, 2013. It was reportedly over 2 miles wide at one point, and covered 20 miles during the 40 minutes it was on the ground. The National Weather Service has classified it as at least an EF-4 tornado with winds of at least 166 miles per hour.

NBC affiliate station WMC-TV had a helicopter camera in the sky capturing the whole thing, and released the time-lapse video above showing the storm traveling across the land before finally disappearing back into the clouds.