The first ‘tornado emergency’: Two decades ago, a worst-case scenario spawned 70 tornadoes that ravaged Oklahoma

May 3, 1999, started like so many other days in Oklahoma. Temperatures hovered in the mid-60s, low clouds and fog hung in the air, and a stiff southerly breeze continued to drag in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. It was a stark contrast to later that evening, when parts of central Oklahoma were forever…