Significant Tornado Events

[Western_KS_Wx]

Moore ‘13 is one of a very select few tornadoes that caused essentially incomprehensible devastation. There really was nothing left other than mud, pulverized structural debris, and mangled vehicles strewn all over the place. If Bridge Creek went through South OKC and Moore at its maximum intensity, that’s basically what Moore ‘13 was.


Here’s also a random photo from a neighborhood west of Plaza Towers. The description for an EF5 tornado states incredible phenomena will occur, wonder if that criteria also includes a tornado spearing a katana into the ground like a lawn dart.


Here’s some more photos that were taken around the Celestial Acres and Orr Family Farm area.
(Last one is pretty graphic)

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

This Reddit post has imagery from the celestial acres area. Extreme vehicle mangling and insane ground scouring is evident here. I’d say it’s at least on par with Joplin, but I’d wager it’s more intense than that.

Here’s additional photos of the incredible scouring and vegetation damage. In terms of sheer violence, I think Moore edges out Joplin.

 

[jiharris0220]

This photo right here without context looks like an area in Hiroshima after the bomb.

Regarding the topic, what separates violent tornadoes (Ef4) and exceptional tornadoes (high end Ef4+) in terms of ground scouring is that it will be very obvious scouring occurred.

Ambiguous hard to tell scouring like Xenia where people have to try and squint to find any, pretty much says this was on the lower end of the Ef5 spectrum, and definitely wouldn’t get that rating today considering structural issues.

And then you have tornadoes like matador, Moore (1999/2013), jarrell etc that even from far away it’s a no brainer for people that scouring occurred.

IMO a truly violent tornado will scour the ground regardless of soil type, because scouring and trench digging are two completely different phenomena and it’s clear which one is more impressive and consistent in determining tornado intensity.

 

[Tanner]

I'm literally flabbergasted by those Moore photos. That's most certainly the most violent damage I've seen in a large populated area ever.

 

[pohnpei]

Regarding the Mayfield tornado, I do believe true scouring occurred still, it just was not to an incredible degree like in certain EF5 or F5 events of the past. It may have also been harder to identify the “true” level of scouring due to the conditions of the soil and the time of year it occurred in. However, it definitely wasn’t anywhere close to tornadoes like Moore 2013 or Philadelphia in terms of ground damage.

Also, on a side note, I don’t particularly understand why some people view Moore as a lower end of the EF5 threshold, as that tornado did some absolutely ridiculous ground scouring. I would genuinely put it above Joplin in terms of intensity - the damage at Orr family farm and Celestial acres was comparable to the worst of the worst, imo.

There were more legit and intense grass scouring for Mayfield, but it's mainly on later part of its path rather than near Cayce.
This was near Princeton. There were quite amount of grass was scoured and piled up to nearby facilities which was quite impressive for a fast moving tornado imo.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

This photo right here without context looks like an area in Hiroshima after the bomb.

I'm literally flabbergasted by those Moore photos. That's most certainly the most violent damage I've seen in a large populated area ever.

Not wanting to blow up the thread with purely Moore photos, but I went and poked around in my folder and uncovered some more ground level shots I had from that same neighborhood.

All of these were from just east of Plaza Towers, with the last photo taken at the school. Once more just unreal devastation, keep in mind these streets were lined with densely packed brick homes.



In the worst affected areas like the ones pictured above, there genuinely was nothing left. Also not to be that guy poking fun at the EF-scale, but the fact that all of this damage was hit with an EF4 rating says a little something about the strictness of the scale, but that discussion is reserved for a different thread lol. But yeah, Moore was definitely in a league of its own when it comes to sheer violence and there really aren’t words to describe that level of destruction.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

There were more legit and intense grass scouring for Mayfield, but it's mainly on later part of its path rather than near Cayce.
This was near Princeton. There were quite amount of grass was scoured and piled up to nearby facilities which was quite impressive for a fast moving tornado imo.
View attachment 28443View attachment 28444

There also was some scouring near the candle factory and in Bremen, I don’t think it was quite to the level as it was in Princeton but still rather noticeable.

 

[jiharris0220]

There also was some scouring near the candle factory and in Bremen, I don’t think it was quite to the level as it was in Princeton but still rather noticeable.
View attachment 28459View attachment 28460View attachment 28461

This area of Bremen is the most impressive damage I’ve seen outside of matador in the 2020s era. Despite the lackluster construction, the contextual damage is Ef5 101.

Debris granulation especially from that slab on the far right had its cinder block foundation completely sheared off and reduced to bits.

And of course the classic clean sweep of foundations is a hallmark of only the most violent tornadoes. Tornadoes that destroy even exceedingly weak structures will typically leave behind a lot of debris.

Combine that with the fast forward motion makes it even all the more impressive what this tornado did in Bremen, I have no doubt in my that if a well built large home was present here this would’ve gotten an ef5 rating.

 

[slenker]

Incredible pictures, guys. I had no idea the scouring was so intense near Princeton, that picture of the windrowing and slabbed homes is absolutely absurd.

In the worst affected areas like the ones pictured above, there genuinely was nothing left. Also not to be that guy poking fun at the EF-scale, but the fact that all of this damage was hit with an EF4 rating says a little something about the strictness of the scale, but that discussion is reserved for a different thread lol. But yeah, Moore was definitely in a league of its own when it comes to sheer violence and there really aren’t words to describe that level of destruction.

I don’t want to derail this thread either, but I really feel that if you have found EF5 level damage to a home and you see an area with contextuals supporting an even stronger intensity than the area that had the EF5 damage indicator, then said area should just be given EF5 purely by virtue of benefit of the doubt. It’s pretty insane to me that this was given an EF4 rating.

Back on topic though, I haven’t even seen those Moore photos - genuinely ridiculous, I’d consider it on par with Parkersburg.

 

[pohnpei]

These pics were posted several times in this thread.Some of the scouring near Orr Farm area in Moore

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

These classic pics from Moore, second one the scouring in the background is on par with Jarrell:

 

[Maxis_s]

I was part of the crowd that thought that Moore 2013 was definitely a "low-end EF5". I now think this was as violent as the 1999 tornado at its peak. Holy cow.

 

[Brice W]

I was part of the crowd that thought that Moore 2013 was definitely a "low-end EF5". I now think this was as violent as the 1999 tornado at its peak. Holy cow.

I feel like had the ‘99 tornado not occurred, we would be debating which tornado was truly the strongest. You can throw in Moore ‘13, Jarrell, ‘11 El Reno, Hackelburg ‘91 Andover and a few others.

 

[locomusic01]

These pics were posted several times in this thread.Some of the scouring near Orr Farm area in MooreView attachment 28462

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm making light of how horrific Moore '13 was, but the sheer number of engines randomly strewn all over the ground always kinda makes me chuckle in disbelief. I probably have photos of at least a dozen different ones from various points along the path, and it's not even something I actively set out to find. They were just everywhere.

Also, while we're (sort of) on 5/20/13, it's worth mentioning the Shawnee EF4 from the day before. Obviously not nearly on the same level as Moore, but it was pretty nasty in its own right.

 

[HAwkmoon]

Is this Gorham or Griffin? Since i have seen one source saying its the former and another saying the latter.

 

[locomusic01]

Is this Gorham or Griffin? Since i have seen one source saying its the former and another saying the latter.
View attachment 28477

I think I have it under Gorham in my article since that's how it was labeled in whatever source I got it from back in the day, but it's Griffin.

 

[Aaron Rider]

Speaking of Griffin, Indiana, I may as well take opportunity to post this wonderful interview of Mrs. Evelyn Isbell-Stone. She lived her entire life in Griffin and, at the age of 9 or 10, survived the Tri State Tornado.

 

[pohnpei]

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm making light of how horrific Moore '13 was, but the sheer number of engines randomly strewn all over the ground always kinda makes me chuckle in disbelief. I probably have photos of at least a dozen different ones from various points along the path, and it's not even something I actively set out to find. They were just everywhere.

Also, while we're (sort of) on 5/20/13, it's worth mentioning the Shawnee EF4 from the day before. Obviously not nearly on the same level as Moore, but it was pretty nasty in its own right.

I always have a hard time to find more images of Shawnee tornado due to the big event one day after largely overshadowed it and I'm pretty sure some of these pics were from Shawnee. But I'm also a bit confused because I've also seen some of these pics were labeled as Moore in different website like thit one

May 22 2013 Moore Oklahoma - The 200+ mph winds of the EF5 tornado picked up an antique fire truck and tossed it approximately 200 meters. Credit: James Pratt / Alamy Live News Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: May 22 2013 Moore Oklahoma - The 200+ mph winds of the EF5 tornado picked up an antique fire truck and tossed it approximately 200 meters. Credit: James Pratt / Alamy Live News - D8B620 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations...

www.alamy.com

It matchd up with the fifth pic above and I can also see at least the pic fourth and seventh were from the same place.

 

[locomusic01]

I always have a hard time to find more images of Shawnee tornado due to the big event one day after largely overshadowed it and I'm pretty sure some of these pics were from Shawnee. But I'm also a bit confused because I've also seen some of these pics were labeled as Moore in different website like thit one

May 22 2013 Moore Oklahoma - The 200+ mph winds of the EF5 tornado picked up an antique fire truck and tossed it approximately 200 meters. Credit: James Pratt / Alamy Live News Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: May 22 2013 Moore Oklahoma - The 200+ mph winds of the EF5 tornado picked up an antique fire truck and tossed it approximately 200 meters. Credit: James Pratt / Alamy Live News - D8B620 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations...

www.alamy.com

It matchd up with the fifth pic above and I can also see at least the pic fourth and seventh were from the same place.

IIRC most of the photos I posted came from a disaster relief group (don't recall which off-hand - I apparently didn't label them). Anyway, I contacted them and they said they were all taken around Shawnee, but I can't be 100% certain. I'm gonna make a note to see if I can identify the location at some point though.

 

[pohnpei]

IIRC most of the photos I posted came from a disaster relief group (don't recall which off-hand - I apparently didn't label them). Anyway, I contacted them and they said they were all taken around Shawnee, but I can't be 100% certain. I'm gonna make a note to see if I can identify the location at some point though.

I'm also tend to think it's more likely from Shawnee because neither of these pics showed strong scouring which was pretty much a hallmark of all Moore tornado's pics.