A quiet roadside memorial near El Reno marks the 2013 tornado tragedy that shook Oklahoma

A small turnout south of El Reno, a large place in Oklahoma’s storm history

On a rural stretch of Canadian County roads south of El Reno, a modest roadside memorial sits near fields and gravel lanes. The site is not a formal park or public monument, but it has become a destination for visitors who stop to remember lives lost during the May 31, 2013 tornado near El Reno—one of the most closely studied tornado events in modern meteorology.

The memorial marks the area where three members of the TWISTEX research team—Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and colleague Carl Young—were killed while documenting the storm. Their deaths, along with other fatalities associated with the tornado, underscored both the unpredictability of violent tornadoes and the risks faced by professionals working near them.

What happened on May 31, 2013

The tornado developed in the late afternoon and tracked near, but largely south of, El Reno. It became exceptionally wide and followed a complex path that included abrupt changes in direction and speed. Weather officials later documented that the storm’s structure included intense sub-vortices and rapid motion that complicated efforts to anticipate where the most dangerous winds would be.

While the tornado did not deliver a direct strike to central El Reno, it affected rural areas, damaged homes and businesses, and produced life-threatening conditions for motorists and anyone caught in the open. The event remains significant because it combined extreme size with erratic movement—features that challenged long-standing assumptions about how tornadoes behave at ground level.

Why the TWISTEX loss became a statewide touchstone

TWISTEX was known for field research aimed at improving understanding of tornadoes and severe storms. The loss of the team in Oklahoma resonated far beyond the storm-chasing community, highlighting a painful truth: even experienced scientists with specialized equipment can be overtaken when a tornado’s track changes quickly.

In the years since, the roadside memorial has served as an informal gathering point where tokens, notes, and weather-related mementos are sometimes left by visitors. Its understated nature contrasts with the scale of the event it represents.

How the site fits into El Reno’s broader tornado history

El Reno’s location on the southern Plains places it in a region with recurring severe weather risk. The community has experienced multiple high-impact tornado events in recent decades, including violent storms in 2011 and later tornado damage episodes that affected nearby neighborhoods and transportation corridors. The 2013 tornado, however, remains distinctive for the combination of its documented width, its shifting path, and the public attention generated by the deaths of researchers and other victims.

• The memorial is located in rural Canadian County, south of El Reno, near roads that were within the tornado’s most dangerous period.

• It commemorates Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young, who were conducting storm research when they were killed.

• The 2013 El Reno tornado is widely cited in meteorological discussions for its unusual behavior and the challenges it posed to situational awareness near the circulation.

For many Oklahomans, the memorial’s power comes from its simplicity: a quiet marker in open country, pointing back to minutes when conditions turned catastrophic.