Significant Tornado Events

[NixboiHurb]

Also, I just discovered that there's apparently a huge trove of photo negatives from all around the Grand Valley/Orangeville area at Waterloo University, including a large collection of aerial shots. I reached out to them this morning but haven't heard back yet. Hopefully I don't have to be there in person and/or pay a ton of money to get my hands on them.

Did you ever get those photos from Grand Valley? I know exactly what you’re talking about because I reached out to them too over this summer and I was told I would have to wait 3 weeks for them to be sent to me which I couldn’t accept because I was moving around that same time. I don’t remember if they were able to digitize them or not but I remember being close to getting them. On a side note there are multiple archive websites like the university of Waterloo archive that has plenty of tornado damage photos that haven’t been digitized. Saskatchewan has one and they supposedly have photos from a tornado in July of 1935 which I got excited about because they could be of the Benson, Saskatchewan F4 (possibly F5) which doesn’t have any known photographs. These images could feed families if they were digitized but they don’t have a reason to do so unless they get paid for it which the Canadian government won’t do (not to get political). basically there are thousands of Canadian tornado damage photos out there that aren’t accessible unless you buy them

 

[Kds86z]

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

Was browsing through Newspapers.com and I found this gem from 1929
















This one from 1884 is equally as bad lol

1905


If y'all have requests for things I should look up feel free to let me know; I have access to their full catalog of 1.1 billion newspapers stretching back to 1690. Using this source I managed to find a photo of the 1974 First Tanner F5, which was previously believed to have no existing images.

 

[NixboiHurb]

Was browsing through Newspapers.com and I found this gem from 1929

View attachment 46888














This one from 1884 is equally as bad lol
View attachment 46889
1905
View attachment 46890

If y'all have requests for things I should look up feel free to let me know; I have access to their full catalog of 1.1 billion newspapers stretching back to 1690. Using this source I managed to find a photo of the 1974 First Tanner F5, which was previously believed to have no existing images.

If you could look for stuff from Benson, Saskatchewan July 1st, 1935 that would be amazing as I have been trying to find stuff from it but I don't have a newspapers.com subscription. Also could you share that photo of Tanner? I know there is a possible photo of the tornado captioned as being near Decatur if that is the one you're talking about

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

If you could look for stuff from Benson, Saskatchewan July 1st, 1935 that would be amazing as I have been trying to find stuff from it but I don't have a newspapers.com subscription. Also could you share that photo of Tanner? I know there is a possible photo of the tornado captioned as being near Decatur if that is the one you're talking about

Yes, it's on page 13 of "The Huntsville Times" edition from April 5, 1974 which I think verifies it.

As for your other request, here's what came back:
1. Page 15 of The Leader Post, July 2, 1935

Weirdly enough this is the only mention I can find of the tornado.

Marginally related, but it's interesting seeing past preliminary death tolls for historical tornadoes in newspapers - a paper (can't remember the name) initially reported that "at least 500" were dead in the Regina Cyclone (death toll ended up being 28); another reported that over 1,000 were dead in the Tri-State F5 (death to ended up being 695 officially).

 

[NixboiHurb]

Yes, it's on page 13 of "The Huntsville Times" edition from April 5, 1974 which I think verifies it.
View attachment 46891
As for your other request, here's what came back:
1. Page 15 of The Leader Post, July 2, 1935
View attachment 46892
Weirdly enough this is the only mention I can find of the tornado.

Dang it I have that newspaper clipping already. Thanks so much for looking for me though I really appreciate it. If there was another tornado I’d love for you to look for clippings of it would probably be for Lebret, Saskatchewan also July 1st but of 1944 which killed 4 people. Side note I kinda thought that image was of the Decatur, Illinois F3 for a while because the description made me think that by saying “the devastation started at Decatur” they meant the superoutbreak in general because the Decatur, Illinois F3 was one of the first intense tornadoes of the superoutbreak.

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

Side note I kinda thought that image was of the Decatur, Illinois F3 for a while because the description made me think that by saying “the devastation started at Decatur” they meant the superoutbreak in general because the Decatur, Illinois F3 was one of the first intense tornadoes of the superoutbreak.

The entire page is dedicated to damage in Tanner, Alabama, so I'm pretty sure it is in fact the Alabama F5.

 

[NixboiHurb]

The entire page is dedicated to damage in Tanner, Alabama, so I'm pretty sure it is in fact the Alabama F5.

Yeah it for sure makes sense but back then I didn’t have the context of where the image was found, only the image itself but it’s good to know it’s for sure of Tanner

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

If there was another tornado I’d love for you to look for clippings of it would probably be for Lebret, Saskatchewan also July 1st but of 1944 which killed 4 people.

Here's what came back for that event:

Ignore the slur in the second and fourth ones; racism ran rampant in the 1940s.

 

[NixboiHurb]

Here's what came back for that event:
View attachment 46893View attachment 46894View attachment 46895View attachment 46896
Ignore the slur in the second and fourth ones; racism ran rampant in the 1940s.

Thanks so much again for sharing these. And yes I am unfortunately fully aware of how Canada treated indigenous peoples back then and even still today, it is very sad

 

[N0mz]

View attachment 46866
Quite honestly never seen a tornadic environment as potent and extreme as the environment near Smithville on April 27, 2011.

Here's the infamous RUC sounding from right around the outflow boundary HPC rode. Maybe the greatest tornado sounding ever produced by a model.

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

This is apparently the first usage of the word "tornado" used to refer to an identifiable event in any recorded newspaper - January 22, 1740, The American Weekly Mercury. Apparently did pretty bad damage in the town of "Antigua, Massachusetts", which doesn't exist.

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

And this is probably the first event where we have location, size, direction and damage - March 17, 1752 in Calvert County, Maryland, moving southwest. "Blew down" buildings on a plantation with the collapse of a home, resulting in two deaths and two more injuries. Another tornado in the same county ten days later (mentioned at the bottom) "almost blew down" a strong brick-constructed building and cracked a gable.

 

[ColdFront]

Yes, it's on page 13 of "The Huntsville Times" edition from April 5, 1974 which I think verifies it.
View attachment 46891
As for your other request, here's what came back:
1. Page 15 of The Leader Post, July 2, 1935
View attachment 46892
Weirdly enough this is the only mention I can find of the tornado.

Marginally related, but it's interesting seeing past preliminary death tolls for historical tornadoes in newspapers - a paper (can't remember the name) initially reported that "at least 500" were dead in the Regina Cyclone (death toll ended up being 28); another reported that over 1,000 were dead in the Tri-State F5 (death to ended up being 695 officially).

I have never seen that photo of the Tanner tornado @Central Ohio Wx. Really cool find. Are there any other 4/3/74 pictures in those archives? I found some of the Mannsville, KY F4 tornado from that day in a newspaper I posted a few pages back on here.

 

[crosby]

Where'd you get these?

the 06/15/1995 issue of the Wheeler Times (Volume 62, Number 28). you can find it on a few TTU archives among other places

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

I have never seen that photo of the Tanner tornado @Central Ohio Wx. Really cool find. Are there any other 4/3/74 pictures in those archives? I found some of the Mannsville, KY F4 tornado from that day in a newspaper I posted a few pages back on here.

Yes, there are many relatively unknown photos of the event and several other events lost to time. I'm almost 100% sure there's a photo of a tornado thought to have no photos somewhere in the archive.

 

[SilentShadow87]

In light of the EF5 drought officially being over, I'm going to start a major project analyzing all violent tornadoes from May 21, 2013 to June 20, 2025 and giving my own take on their strength and what I would rate them as based on all available evidence (conventional and unconventional DIs, wind speed recordings, etc.)

I might also do a January 2010 to May 2013 analysis afterwards as well, since I feel like there were some pretty obviously underrated tornadoes in there too. This project is obviously going to take some time, but I thought I'd announce it ahead of time so people can keep their eyes open for it if they're interested!

 

[Atomz]

In light of the EF5 drought officially being over, I'm going to start a major project analyzing all violent tornadoes from May 21, 2013 to June 20, 2025 and giving my own take on their strength and what I would rate them as based on all available evidence (conventional and unconventional DIs, wind speed recordings, etc.)

I might also do a January 2010 to May 2013 analysis afterwards as well, since I feel like there were some pretty obviously underrated tornadoes in there too. This project is obviously going to take some time, but I thought I'd announce it ahead of time so people can keep their eyes open for it if they're interested!

I'm doing something similar, though I'm not just reviewing potential EF5 candidates. I'm also reviewing other tornadoes that I find interesting.

 

[SilentShadow87]

I'm doing something similar, though I'm not just reviewing potential EF5 candidates. I'm also reviewing other tornadoes that I find interesting.

Same, I'm reviewing all EF4+ tornadoes between 2013 and 2025 (whether I think their ratings should be upgraded, downgraded, or stay the same) and a number of EF3s which I think should have been rated EF4.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

downgraded

I'm pretty sure I know the one specific tornado you're probably thinking of and I agree, Newnan was in no way an EF4. On the plus side, its rating proves Ringgold would be EF5 if it happened nowadays.

Also, with regards to the list of good NWS offices, NWS Grand Forks just won a VIP seat lol