An extremely large, powerful, and erratic tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing eight people and injuring more than 150 others.

The 2013 El Reno tornado was an extremely large, intense, and erratic tornado that occurred and hit a rural part of Central Oklahoma during the early evening of May 31, 2013. This rain-wrapped, multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded, peaking at 2.6 miles across. It was part of a larger weather system that produced dozens of tornadoes over the preceding days. The tornado initially formed at 6:03 p.m. CDT (23:03 UTC) about 8.3 miles (13.4 km) west-southwest of El Reno, rapidly growing in size and becoming more violent as it tracked through central Canadian County. Remaining over mostly open terrain, the tornado did not impact many structures; however, measurements from mobile weather radars revealed extreme instantaneous winds in excess of 313 mph (504 km/h) within sub-vortices. These are among the highest observed wind speeds on Earth, just slightly lower than the wind speeds of the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. As it crossed U.S. 81, it had grown to a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km), beating the previous width record set in 2004. Turning northeastward, the tornado soon weakened. Upon crossing Interstate 40, the tornado dissipated around 6:43 p.m. CDT (23:43 UTC), after tracking for 16.2 miles (26.1 km). It avoided affecting more densely populated areas near and within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.