Significant Tornado Events

[pohnpei]

Lately been researching weird things still standing while absolutely everything is obliterated around it.
Speaking of concrete, what happened here:
View attachment 30981
Apparently this foundation was cracked by Bridge Creek, but unsure of building quality.
Also the bank damage in Parkersburg was not “EF2”
View attachment 30982
Both Joplin, Parkersburg, and maybe more absolutely obliterated banks, yet the vault was still standing. Note the intense debris granulation in the foreground.
More extreme debris granulation:
View attachment 30983
Now for playgrounds, Even in the most violent EF5s (Moore 2013, Joplin) playgrounds are barely affected:

View attachment 30984
This is in Moore btw:
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Finally, insane vehicular damage (First is Joplin, second is Moore)

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View attachment 30987

Playground damage is interesting.
Some other angles of one in Joplin


one in Dawson Springs(not in center)

one in Moore(completely destroyed)

 

[HAwkmoon]

Lately been researching weird things still standing while absolutely everything is obliterated around it.
Speaking of concrete, what happened here:
View attachment 30981
Apparently this foundation was cracked by Bridge Creek, but unsure of building quality.
Also the bank damage in Parkersburg was not “EF2”
View attachment 30982
Both Joplin, Parkersburg, and maybe more absolutely obliterated banks, yet the vault was still standing. Note the intense debris granulation in the foreground.
More extreme debris granulation:
View attachment 30983
Now for playgrounds, Even in the most violent EF5s (Moore 2013, Joplin) playgrounds are barely affected:

View attachment 30984
This is in Moore btw:
View attachment 30985
Finally, insane vehicular damage (First is Joplin, second is Moore)

View attachment 30986
View attachment 30987

On this topic, Griffin Indiana is very interesting. The tornado at this point had three large distinct vortexes, two struck the southern end, sweeping away all 35 homes, and the Griffin Methodist Church, the Primative Baptist Church, and the Gymnasium Building. One struck the far northern end sweeping away 13 homes, the Griffin Christian Church, mostly destroying the Bethel Township school. The core struck the center of griffin, destroying all 5 homes, two grain elevators, the depot, and 13 businesses/industrial buildings. The north/middle area was the area least damaged; of 29 homes, 8 suffered light damage. The rest were significantly damaged, moderately damaged or wrecked but none were blown away. This is best highlighted in the photos. First is the southern end, second is the center of Griffin, third is the northern/middle section that did not get hit by a sub vortex. Final is the northern part. Fifth is the map of damage with the areas circled. Not all the dots are representative of a single home, some represent several.

 

[joshoctober16]

Playground damage is interesting.
Some other angles of one in Joplin
View attachment 30993
View attachment 30992
one in Dawson Springs(not in center)
View attachment 30994
one in Moore(completely destroyed)
View attachment 30995

while i do know one of the playground moore damage is from the EF4 damage area where is the joplin tornado image even located at? i cant seem to find that joplin playground (notice the tennis and basketball spot) i cant seem to find any area that matches that....

edit(found it, its in the EF4 damage area as well and close to the EF5 rated areas)

EF5 damage is on the other side of that road

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

its interesting to note that one of the more impressive car feats were from the smithville..... supercell ... but not smithville tornado , but the EF3 that just roped out before smithville touched down ... it threw a truck 1.7+ miles away without it touching the ground once , might be the furthest a vehicle was thrown without rolling or bouncing...

Pretty similar to what happened with the Greensburg Supercell. I managed to find a good-quality color photograph of the Chevy Blazer annihilated by the Hopewell EF3 — an absolutely incredible instance of vehicle damage to say the least. Thing was literally warped into a C shape and crumpled up in a way that it was only like a foot or two in width. Really the largest remaining piece of the vehicle was the steering wheel.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

For some reason, finding photos from Smithville in AL is way harder than inside Smthville. So far the only photo I have in Alabama is this:
View attachment 30968

From what I’ve seen the tornado was much more violent in Alabama than officially rated, and was probably at EF5 intensity for a section of its path there. Im curious if anyone has any photographs from the Alabama portion as well.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

From what I’ve seen the tornado was much more violent in Alabama than officially rated, and was probably at EF5 intensity for a section of its path there. Im curious if anyone has any photographs from the Alabama portion as well.

Heads up for annoying music:




This is from when Smithville was in the Hamilton, AL area. It was likely at EF4-EF5 strength around here, before weakening quite a bit by the time it reached Shottsville, AL. The TornadoTalk article on Smithville has a ton of pictures from this area but of course they're behind a paywall.
One interesting takeaway from the article that I recall was that surveyors thought it was at least EF4 (and maybe EF5 briefly) in this area but the issue was that the areas where the most intense damage likely was located were in a remote ravine/gorge/valley area and it was physically impossible to reach the area at the time, due to road blockages and such.

 

[HAwkmoon]

Heads up for annoying music:




This is from when Smithville was in the Hamilton, AL area. It was likely at EF4-EF5 strength around here, before weakening quite a bit by the time it reached Shottsville, AL. The TornadoTalk article on Smithville has a ton of pictures from this area but of course they're behind a paywall.
One interesting takeaway from the article that I recall was that surveyors thought it was at least EF4 (and maybe EF5 briefly) in this area but the issue was that the areas where the most intense damage likely was located were in a remote ravine/gorge/valley area and it was physically impossible to reach the area at the time, due to road blockages and such.

Interesting. Is there SAT imagery of that ravine here? I dont know the location but am curious now. https://geodesy.noaa.gov/storm_archive/storms/apr11_tornado/index.html

 

[Austin Dawg]

Many of the stories about the destruction in the Smithville tornado were told to me person to person by survivors of that storm. My brother's home was up the street from the Pickle Funeral Home, directly across from the graveyard. I don't know where it would rank against the other storms, but it was mighty.
That Phil Campbell tornado was the best representation of a tornado that may have mirrored the Tri-State tornado. I have never seen destruction like there was in Joplin, Missouri. I think the rankings are subjective when they contain that amount of destruction.

If you notice, I refer to all these as storms or tornadoes. When they have a loss of life involved, I don't think it is important what the ranking was. They're all horrible

 

[warneagle]

I still think El Reno/Piedmont was far more intense than any of the 4/27 tornadoes or Joplin. It's really fortunate that it spent most of its life over open fields; if it had hit a populated area it could've easily had a death toll comparable to Smithville/Rainsville if not worse.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I still think El Reno/Piedmont was far more intense than any of the 4/27 tornadoes or Joplin. It's really fortunate that it spent most of its life over open fields; if it had hit a populated area it could've easily had a death toll comparable to Smithville/Rainsville if not worse.

Out of all the 2011 EF5s I'd say El Reno/Piedmont and Smithville are neck and neck in terms of intensity. I've no doubt Smithville was a capable of toppling a 2-million pound oil rig if it encountered it.
Really, 2011 is the year of the tornado. So many EF5s, EF4s and lots of EF4s that should have been rated EF5.

 

[HAwkmoon]

From what I’ve seen the tornado was much more violent in Alabama than officially rated, and was probably at EF5 intensity for a section of its path there. Im curious if anyone has any photographs from the Alabama portion as well.

How's the Greensburg article and research going by the way? Haven't heard from you in a while.

 

[slenker]

I still think El Reno/Piedmont was far more intense than any of the 4/27 tornadoes or Joplin. It's really fortunate that it spent most of its life over open fields; if it had hit a populated area it could've easily had a death toll comparable to Smithville/Rainsville if not worse.

I’m not so sure that it was “far more intense” - but I could buy it being above some of the 4/27 tornadoes on a list. Personally, I’d put it just below Hackleburg, from what I’ve seen.

 

[HAwkmoon]

I’m not so sure that it was “far more intense” - but I could buy it being above some of the 4/27 tornadoes on a list. Personally, I’d put it just below Hackleburg, from what I’ve seen.

I don't think below hackleburg. Even excluding the damage at the Cactus-117 site, the contextual violence of Piedmont is rivaled really only by Jarrell and Bridge Creek in my opinion. But Hackleburg was extraordinarily violent and as Austin said, at this point I believe it quite pointless since any of these tornadoes are going to level anything in their path.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

How's the Greensburg article and research going by the way? Haven't heard from you in a while.

I’ve had to put it on hold for bit, had a whole jumble of college, work, and personal life craziness recently and haven’t had free time to do much of anything. However when I have had time to work on it it’s getting along well, just slower than I’d like which is pretty much the moral of the story.

Seems like just when I think I’m about done with research I find a story or information change/discrepancy that I have to go back and rewrite, or I uncover something new.
Just today actually I was on my way back from Wichita and stopped at the Big Well Museum, where I conversed with a local who emailed me some pretty awesome photographs.

Anyways, I hope to get some more free time and hopefully get back to working on it with my full-attention again in a few weeks.

 

[HAwkmoon]

I’ve had to put it on hold for bit, had a whole jumble of college, work, and personal life craziness recently and haven’t had free time to do much of anything. However when I have had time to work on it it’s getting along well, just slower than I’d like which is pretty much the moral of the story.

Seems like just when I think I’m about done with research I find a story or information change/discrepancy that I have to go back and rewrite, or I uncover something new.
Just today actually I was on my way back from Wichita and stopped at the Big Well Museum, where I conversed with a local who emailed me some pretty awesome photographs.

Anyways, I hope to get some more free time and hopefully get back to working on it with my full-attention again in a few weeks.

I know the sentiment well yeah. Life can get crazy sometimes. But I am looking forward to seeing your work.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I know the sentiment well yeah. Life can get crazy sometimes. But I am looking forward to seeing your work.

Tell me about it lol. Thank you though, I’m looking forward to the finished product too!

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

March 16th, 1942 Lacon, Illinois F5 tornado

The Pettett's family mansion before:

After:

 

[TornadoFan]

This has to be one of the craziest videos I've ever seen from May 3 1999.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

On this day in 2016, a damaging tornadic waterspout came ashore in the town of Manzanita, OR. Rated EF2 with winds of 125-130 mph, the storm caused $10 million in damage, was the most powerful tornado in Oregon since 2010, and was one of three EF2s to strike the PANW in the past decade.

 

[UK_EF4]

Mayfield's home in Bremen was not well-built enough to be rated EF5, straight nailed studs and unreinforced cmu, Greensburg, Parkersburg, Joplin, Moore 2013, Piedmont, Hackleburg and smithville would certainly get it.

The fact Vilonia's rating is how it is means any one of the tornadoes you listed very well may have been rated EF4 had they occurred in certain offices post 2013-2014.