Where did you here about the surveys being accidentally discarded? I heard it from a frequent YouTube commenter and storm chasing enthusiast 5-6 years ago.
Think I may have been that youtube commenter in question! What a coincidence...I saw the video of the Dalton tornado, was reminded of Wilkin County, remarked on the similarities between the 4 of the drill bits mentioned in the last couple of pages, did a quick google search on Pampa 1995 to see if any information had been recovered since I last looked up the subject. One thing lead to another and I found both the tornadotalk article and this thread, with all the information compiled recently!
I believe I got my original information about the data loss from my correspondence in 2013 with Jose Garcia at NWS Amarillo. I am sad to say that in an ironic twist (no pun intended) of fate, I've failed to keep up with the topic in the last several years, and have actually lost that conversation along with a lot of my meteorological knowledge. Any new data about the event is still sure to turn a head, though - and I am sure I am not the only one. Pampa's legendary status combined with the lack of readily available information online lends to a bit of mystique, I think.
A little bit to add on to the various events that have been discussed. Back in the day I talked a bit with Max from extremeplanet.me about the Pampa storm, he mentioned that he had a limited edition addendum at the end of one of his books where Grazulis noted that his personal photogrammetry indicated wind speeds of approximately 300 mph 100 ft AGL. That combined with its spectacular rotation, numerous feats of strength, and extreme vehicle damage leads me to the belief that Pampa was perhaps the strongest of the four drill bits. Grazulis himself did say he thought it had the highest wind speeds of any tornado he'd seen at the time of the writing; Garcia noted that had it occurred in modern times, with the updated EF scale, it would have almost certainly attained an EF5 rating. The main difficulty in actually confirming all that is the lack of photos displaying affected vegetation which, I think, would arguably be more useful than an example of what would have happened if the tornado actually struck a well built residential structure at full strength. Buildings can only take so much before they blow away, after all...tree trunks and ground scouring leave a bit more evidence to be evaluated. We do have this video shot, for what it's worth:
Very low resolution, but many of these trees look to be severely stripped and snapped off low to the ground. A pity we don't have a close up shot with higher color quality, then we'd be able to gauge the level of debarking.
It would not surprise me if Dalton were itself a bit underrated. As I recall, the building that was destroyed was struck while the circulation was still in the process of transitioning from its organizing to its mature stage. (Also of note, that process looked quite similar to Pampa's own.) The most violent rotation, similar to Elie, seems to occur somewhere around the shrinking stage. And to point out a further commonality with its compatriots, the twister lasted for exactly the same number of minutes (31) as Wilkin!
Wilkin used to have a NWS page detailing its damage and the rationale for its rating. Sadly, like much of the information about Pampa, it seems that page is now gone. I recall that it may have said that trees at the surveyed damage sites were stripped but not debarked...memory's a bit fuzzy on that. Given some of the photos of more severe tree damage posted in this thread I wouldn't be surprised if they missed a few areas, I definitely see at least one debarked trunk here. The ground scouring was certainly quite impressive, the NWS page had a ground level shot showing beets torn out of the earth in a concentrated swath and of course we've got that awesome aerial footage to go on.
Agreed with eric that Elie earned its higher rating more due to chance and circumstance than strength. I think though that it actually didn't travel over the same place twice - didn't retrace its footsteps, so to speak. extremeplanet.me had an analysis of the event (also now sadly disappeared, I'm sensing a trend here) and the tornado's path. My thoughts on the matter are that drill bit tornadoes probably do tend to be a bit underrated in general, their extremely narrow width means they need to hit an object pretty much dead on. Couple that with their usually occurring up north over plains and they don't have the opportunity to leave as many indicators of their intensity. Elie however by pure (bad) luck managed to strike pretty much every house in the immediate area, thus leaving no doubt. If it turned out that it was actually the weakest of the 4, frankly I'm not sure I would be surprised.
But it's all academic anyhow, the weather nerd equivalent of arguing over sports teams if you will. Have to say I haven't had an opportunity to do that in a long time though! I do wonder if in the future, as our knowledge of the subject grows, we'll start increasingly parsing out the common characteristics of the different forms of tornadoes. Terminology like drill bit, dust bowl, wedge, etc. could become a bit more formalized, much like the different breeds of supercells are now (HP, classic, LP).
