Significant Tornado Events

[speedbump305]

3/14/25 imo is the outbreak of the 2020s. It could be beaten unfortunately in the next few years we have of the decade but to see such a powerhouse of a jet directly nose into the warm sector, with orthogonal 80+ kt 300 mb flow, and extreme low level windfields + many discrete supercells too. And, had we no shear-parallel line on the 15th, many discrete supercells would've done the same things for hours on end instead of the 2-3 hours we got that day. Extraordinary.

We always manage to have a failure mode to dampen things a bit with most events, and even despite how wild this decade has been (4/12/20, 12/10/21, 3/31/23, 4/26 + 5/6 AND 5/25/24) we've had a lot of high ceiling misses. Remember 5/6/24. We didn't get off entirely but that was a day we dodged missiles on truly. We dodged 3/15. Unfortunately, one day, those dodges will run out in a particular area, whether the Plains or it's Dixie. You should know what I mean by that. Hopefully, when the worst case scenario truly comes to fruition, we will be prepared more than the previous times

I completely agree. 12/10/21 and 3/14/25 are the two craziest outbreaks of the decade in my opinion.

 

[eep]

Dunno where to put this, but this post is describing what is likely an undocumented significant tornado from north-central New Mexico.

 

[SouthFLwx]

I completely agree. 12/10/21 and 3/14/25 are the two craziest outbreaks of the decade in my opinion.

For me it's 12/10/21 simply due to the Western Kentucky tornado.

 

[UK_EF4]

For me it's 12/10/21 simply due to the Western Kentucky tornado.

Yes agreed. I think 12/10 stands almost in a separate league for tornado outbreaks in the 2020s. While the event didn't feature some of the absurdly high tornado counts like 3/31/23, 4/12/20, 12/15/21 etc the intensity of tornadoes was pretty ridiculous.

Of those tornadoes, you have 3 with 80+ mile tracks and two with 120+ mile tracks! How many other recent outbreaks boast similar?

Intensity wise, you have the two official EF4s which both produced high end damage. One of which, you can arguably say was the strongest of the decade and a prime EF5 candidate.

Then, you can make the case that at least 1-2, but some would say as many as 4 separate tornadoes have cases for violent ratings (Saloma KY, Defiance MO, Dresden TN and Bowling Green KY). I don't think all of these are slam-dunks, but enough a debate is to be had, and enough that I don't think people would be coomplaining if they had got EF4. They would have been rated F4 in the Fujita era, let's say.

So that's an event with (unofficially) 3-6 violent tornadoes, multiple of which were extremely long tracked. To be fair, 3/14 definitely comes close. That outbreak was completely absurd. It's crazy a similar area has seen such high magnitude outbreaks in a short time.

 

[buckeye05]

Yes agreed. I think 12/10 stands almost in a separate league for tornado outbreaks in the 2020s. While the event didn't feature some of the absurdly high tornado counts like 3/31/23, 4/12/20, 12/15/21 etc the intensity of tornadoes was pretty ridiculous.

Of those tornadoes, you have 3 with 80+ mile tracks and two with 120+ mile tracks! How many other recent outbreaks boast similar?

Intensity wise, you have the two official EF4s which both produced high end damage. One of which, you can arguably say was the strongest of the decade and a prime EF5 candidate.

Then, you can make the case that at least 1-2, but some would say as many as 4 separate tornadoes have cases for violent ratings (Saloma KY, Defiance MO, Dresden TN and Bowling Green KY). I don't think all of these are slam-dunks, but enough a debate is to be had, and enough that I don't think people would be coomplaining if they had got EF4. They would have been rated F4 in the Fujita era, let's say.

So that's an event with (unofficially) 3-6 violent tornadoes, multiple of which were extremely long tracked. To be fair, 3/14 definitely comes close. That outbreak was completely absurd. It's crazy a similar area has seen such high magnitude outbreaks in a short time.

Saloma and Bowling Green for sure. I don’t specifically recall there being any specific damage points from Dresden that deserved EF4, but it’s been a while since I’ve looked at that one. However, I can confidently say Defiance was absolutely EF3 tops though. Both of those houses weren’t bolted down: one was completely unanchored and the other was barely anchored. If they went EF4 in Defiance that would have crossed well into overrating territory.

 

[SouthFLwx]

Yes agreed. I think 12/10 stands almost in a separate league for tornado outbreaks in the 2020s. While the event didn't feature some of the absurdly high tornado counts like 3/31/23, 4/12/20, 12/15/21 etc the intensity of tornadoes was pretty ridiculous.

Of those tornadoes, you have 3 with 80+ mile tracks and two with 120+ mile tracks! How many other recent outbreaks boast similar?

Intensity wise, you have the two official EF4s which both produced high end damage. One of which, you can arguably say was the strongest of the decade and a prime EF5 candidate.

Then, you can make the case that at least 1-2, but some would say as many as 4 separate tornadoes have cases for violent ratings (Saloma KY, Defiance MO, Dresden TN and Bowling Green KY). I don't think all of these are slam-dunks, but enough a debate is to be had, and enough that I don't think people would be coomplaining if they had got EF4. They would have been rated F4 in the Fujita era, let's say.

So that's an event with (unofficially) 3-6 violent tornadoes, multiple of which were extremely long tracked. To be fair, 3/14 definitely comes close. That outbreak was completely absurd. It's crazy a similar area has seen such high magnitude outbreaks in a short time.

yeah, the fact that many tornadoes on this day were underrated downplays how violent it truly was.