iStockphoto / ljphoto7
Oklahoma has been getting battered with tornadoes for over a week now with deadly storms hitting the Sooner State a week ago and then again on Monday north of Tulsa as Barnsdall and Bartlesville, Oklahoma were hit by powerful storm cells that damaged around 40 homes.
New footage has emerged showing the Bartlesville, Oklahoma tornado and it is chilling. The person was filming underneath the portico of a Hampton Inn motel as a tornado was rolling in and at two points in the clip the sky flashes electric blue creating a Sci-Fi effect as if aliens were invading or depicting a scene straight out of Stranger Things.
As conditions quickly go from bad to worse to ‘seek shelter immediately’ the person rushes inside the hotel to seek cover from the destructive storm as the hotel reportedly sustained a direct hit from the Bartlesville, Oklahoma tornado. This is some of the wildest first-person footage we have seen of a tornado hitting over the past week as Tornado Alley was repeatedly battered:
The damage from that direct hit was so bad there are literally wooden spikes sticking straight out the side of the Hampton Inn building as structures came loose and boards flew threw the air fast enough to become lodged in the side of the motel.
As for the sky turning blue, that is unclear. Typically the skies turn green right before tornadoes but the flashing blue light is likely due to electrical explosions under the city lights.
The same storm cell that produced this Bartlesville, Oklahoma tornado also produced tornados in nearby Barnsdall where aerial footage filmed using drones the next morning shows the scale of destruction left in the path of these powerful tornadoes:
#Tornado damage to Barnsdall, OK from drone after a strong tornado hit overnight. pic.twitter.com/3rBsUYXbIp
— WxChasing- Brandon Clement (@bclemms) May 7, 2024
That first video of the Hampton Inn being disintegrated is eerily reminiscent of this video from Nebraska that was shot on April 26th when an EF-3 tornado hit Lincoln. Someone sitting in their vehicle filmed as a whole building was there one moment and gone a few seconds later:
While the traditional ‘Tornado Alley’ has shifted about 450 miles eastward in the past 70 years, these storms over the past few weeks have hammered the region historically known as Tornado Alley. Hopefully, things will settle in the coming weeks as there has already been enough destruction for a lifetime for many.