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.
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Significant Tornado Events
- Thread starter locomusic01
- Start date
joshoctober16
Member
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
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Western_KS_Wx
Member
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.
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Western_KS_Wx
Member
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
Member
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
Member
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
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
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warneagle
Member
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
Member
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.
How's the Greensburg article and research going by the way? Haven't heard from you in a while.
slenker
Member
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
Member
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
Member
Tell me about it lol. Thank you though, I’m looking forward to the finished product too!
Ivanthetornadoenthusiast
Member
March 16th, 1942 Lacon, Illinois F5 tornado
The Pettett's family mansion before:
After:
The Pettett's family mansion before:
After:
TornadoFan
Member
This has to be one of the craziest videos I've ever seen from May 3 1999.
SpotlightForRareTornadoes
Member
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.
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.
joshoctober16
Member
yep and like i posted above i already have the logic they would of used.
note i added a few more famous ones to show the example
- Xenia:all homes were hit by debris thus EF4
- Andover: homes were hit by debris thus EF4
- Oakville:no ground scouring thus EF4
- Jarrell: homes were hit by debris, also every home except for 2 were not well built in todays standers thus EF4
- Moore 1999: trees standing within 100 yards, likely all homes were hit by debris from other homes thus EF4 (paper somewhere stated NWS would rate this tornado 200 mph EF4 in post 2013, cant re find it yet)
- greensburg: trees standing within 50 yards and debris from all the homes touched the EF5 damage thus EF4
- elie: no scouring and one F5 Di , trees standing close by thus F4 (old scale and Canada but i put it here since its post 2000)
- Parkersburg: 2 homes rated EF5 since they were alone and had major debris granulation no trees standing within 100 yards, and some ground scouring nearby thus EF5. (however all other areas were hit by debris thus the main parkersburg area has no EF5 rated area)
- Philadelphia: trees still standing close by and no true EF5 di found, thus EF4.
- Smithville: trees standing within 50 yards , most of the buildings were hit by debris form other homes thus EF4.
- Phil campbell: homes were hit by debris nearby for most areas, small shrubs and bushes are fine beside the so call EF5 damage, no ground scouring in most areas and trees standing close by ... thus EF4 (note tim marshall wanted this one to only be rated EF4)
- Rainsville: homes hit by debris in some areas , trees standing within 30 yards away thus EF4.
- Joplin: trees standing within 100 yards in some spots... every home were hit by debris thus EF4.
- el reno 2011: only one good area that could be found as EF5 damage... however not a official di and we can not rate a tornado EF5 base on one di... thus... EF4...
- Moore 2013: trees standing within 100 yards away.... homes all hit by debris , only EF0 damage beside some of the EF5 damage... thus EF4.. (home home did not suffer from debris impact however had trees standing close by)
like a huge truck crashing into a home is one thing ... but if its debris from the same building type.... then im sorry to say 95% of all tornado ratings will just be this:was hit by debris thus we rate it the lowest as possible....
it isn't helping they don't want to rate expected value of swept clean as EF5
