On March 20, 1948, a destructive tornado rampaged through the Tinker Air Force Base, located southeast of Oklahoma City. At the time, the damage produced by the twister was the worst in state history, and it led to several fatalities. Photos of the base in the aftermath of the twister showed damaged planes, including some that had been hurled across the airfield like toys.
While thunderstorms had been predicted by the meteorologists working that day, a threat of tornadoes had not been in the forecast. That’s because the tornado watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service today didn’t exist across the United States’ weather enterprise. According to a recollection of the disaster compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a panel commissioned to investigate the March 20 disaster referred to it as “an act of God” and noted, “it was not forecastable given the present state of the art.”
