Draft:2003 Moore-Choctaw tornado

Four years after an F5 tornado caused incredible damage across much of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, another strong tornado affected the area. The storm responsible for the tornado developed across Grady County during the mid-afternoon hours and produced a weak tornado near Newcastle and west of Moore. Just after 5:00 pm, a new tornado touched down on the west side of Moore west of Interstate 35 and moved east northeast across the city; the tornado proceeded to cause damage across southeastern sections of Oklahoma City, including Tinker Air Force Base near Interstate 40, and also near Midwest City and Choctaw.^[5] Despite extensive damage along the path, no fatalities were caused by the tornado, although dozens of injuries were reported across Cleveland and Oklahoma Counties.

Within Moore city-limits, the peak damage caused near the center of the tornado was mostly rated as F2, although a few isolated locations received F3-rated damage; F3 damage in Moore was observed near 12th Street where several businesses, two hotels, an office building, a church, several restaurants, a child center and a Headstart Program building were either severely damaged or destroyed. The tornado also damaged numerous homes in the Highland Park subdivision which was mostly destroyed by the F5 tornado which passed just a few blocks north of the May 8, 2003, tornado. Other homes on the north side of the city also sustained significant damage before the tornado crossed the Cleveland-Oklahoma county line.^[5]