Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

There was another tornado that dug trenches that occurred during Jan 1957 in OK I believe.

I wonder how many times this has happened in the past and went undocumented. I'm pretty sure there's accounts of the Tri-State Tornado doing this but I've yet to find a clear photograph of them. I know another tornado from the March 1925 outbreak (an extremely violent F4 that occurred in TN) dug a long and narrow trench that was 18 inches or the like, but not sure if I would call it "Philadelphia-esque". I'm sure many more tornadoes that have occurred in remote areas have done damage like this that was never clearly photographed or documented properly.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Near the Craters of the Moon Idaho. This particular tornado was never surveyed by the NWS but a tornado that formed after this one was. The second tornado was given an EF1 rating but it was likely stronger as steel beams were twisted with portions below the surface being moved an inch, vinyl/steel cables were ripped apart and scattered for several yards, a sign was snapped off at the ground, sagebrush were completely ripped out of the ground and several small lava rocks were tossed. One guy did almost reach the damage path from the first tornado but stopped about 1 1/2 miles from it due to bad roads. He saw the track from a distance and noted RFD damage to trees. A weather station 2 miles south of the 1st tornado's path recorded a wind gust of 85 mph which shows the storm had very strong inflow.

Interesting how that tornado occurred in such a remote location surveyors weren't able to reach and properly survey the area. Makes you wonder about violent tornadoes occurring in remote areas out west that can never be identified or properly documented and/or surveyed due to lack of roads/infrastructure leading to the areas they go through. This event reminds me of an EF3 wedge that went through the remote areas of the Navajo Nation back in 2010 or so, the only verifiable damage it left behind was damage to 3 steel truss towers, if not for that it likely wouldn't have been recorded.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

That is textbook, a perfectly straight horizontal vortex. Incredible.

Also, it looks like you can see a horizontal vortex in this pic of the Cullman-Arab tornado (this is when it intensified and grew in width & taken in the Arab, AL area), look near the left of the funnel and follow to the right:

View attachment 5508

What you're looking at there is the wall cloud, the actual funnel is beneath that and hidden by the trees.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Interesting how that tornado occurred in such a remote location surveyors weren't able to reach and properly survey the area. Makes you wonder about violent tornadoes occurring in remote areas out west that can never be identified or properly documented and/or surveyed due to lack of roads/infrastructure leading to the areas they go through. This event reminds me of an EF3 wedge that went through the remote areas of the Navajo Nation back in 2010 or so, the only verifiable damage it left behind was damage to 3 steel truss towers, if not for that it likely wouldn't have been recorded.

I contacted the local NWS about this event and they said this: "Regarding the other possible tornado you referred to, yes we did survey that as well but were unable to find any conclusive evidence of damage. It occurred in an area even more remote and difficult to access, but we scoured the area everywhere we could access. Based on radar tracks and high-res satellite imagery like you mentioned, we believe we were able to cross the expected path in several locations. However, there was literally nothing in that area aside from sagebrush and lava rock. We found some spotty/minimal sagebrush damage but nothing widespread, continuous, or at all impressive like we were anticipating based on the radar signatures and high-res before and after satellite images. We were rather surprised at the lack of evidence found. I've lived and worked my whole career in the Plains until roughly 4 years ago, and the radar signatures of that supercell were about as impressive as we see around this part of the country, and impressive by Plains standards as well. Ultimately, it was impossible to discern whether the minimal spotty damage to some sagebrush plants found was caused by a tornado, RFD winds, or hail. It appeared most likely that the very intense circulation evident on radar remained just above ground level based on the lack of any appreciable ground truth damage found on our survey."

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The 2010 Almora-Bluffton MN tornado produced some intense ground scouring. It was still visible 3 years after the event.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Trees falling out of the sky? Crazy. I always hear stories of debris falling out of the sky with violent tornadoes but have yet to see it on video. I don't doubt it happens, but I'd love to see it documented clearly on tape someday. I heard a story from a poster on a thread on another weather-related site years ago that has since gone defunct about the 1998 Lawrence County F5 and how he was living out in the country near Waynesboro and all of a sudden pieces of roof shingles, window panes, glass and the like began falling out of the sky into his backyard. Just surreal.

She said she was sitting watching the live tornado coverage on TV when she heard things hitting her roof. She went and looked out the western window and started seeing shingles and insulation and all kinds of things falling from the sky. That's when she went outside for some unknown reason and that's when she said she saw trees landing in the treetops around her neighborhood. They're very large oak trees in her neighborhood. I don't know that they were entire trees but she kept saying it was large trees that fell on the top of the other trees. It would have been around a half a mile due west of her at that point. It's possible that she was exaggerating a bit but she's kept saying the same thing all these years the next time I'm in town I will ask her neighbors what actually was in the top of the trees around their neighborhood.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I've finally found more information and damage photographs on the 7/30/1978 Yellowknife NWT tornado. Appears that it was a short-lived though intense event. From the NWT archives.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Trees falling out of the sky? Crazy. I always hear stories of debris falling out of the sky with violent tornadoes but have yet to see it on video. I don't doubt it happens, but I'd love to see it documented clearly on tape someday. I heard a story from a poster on a thread on another weather-related site years ago that has since gone defunct about the 1998 Lawrence County F5 and how he was living out in the country near Waynesboro and all of a sudden pieces of roof shingles, window panes, glass and the like began falling out of the sky into his backyard. Just surreal.

There was a video on YouTube, I believe it was a snippet of WBRC's coverage, their skycam and I believe their live reporter cam outside captured large pieces of debris falling over Birmingham as the tornado approached from Tuscaloosa. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it now.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

There was a video on YouTube, I believe it was a snippet of WBRC's coverage, their skycam and I believe their live reporter cam outside captured large pieces of debris falling over Birmingham as the tornado approached from Tuscaloosa. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it now.

So the debris fell as the tornado was approaching? I've heard of debris falling after a tornado passes through but not before.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I've finally found more information and damage photographs on the 7/30/1978 Yellowknife NWT tornado. Appears that it was a short-lived though intense event. From the NWT archives.
View attachment 5525
View attachment 5526
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Interesting that this received a rating of only F2. Perhaps the transmission tower wasn't that strong? Or perhaps it was hard to rank as there wasn't that many other DIs to work with?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Interesting that this received a rating of only F2. Perhaps the transmission tower wasn't that strong? Or perhaps it was hard to rank as there wasn't that many other DIs to work with?

Or possibly they didn't see photographs of the damaged transmission tower and just went off brief descriptions of the tower being downed. Either way, the damage to the transmission tower is still impressive and the intensity is unusual for a tornado in that area. Also apparently trees were snapped in half and tossed 3-4 ft away.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

So the debris fell as the tornado was approaching? I've heard of debris falling after a tornado passes through but not before.

Yessir. Wish I could find that video, hope I'm just having a brain fart with the YouTube search and it didn't get removed. It was extremely eerie knowing what was coming, by that time buried in a wall of rain and haze.

Actually, come to think of it, my own (few seconds of shaky) video taken as the Stoughton, WI F3 of August, 2005 approached my neighborhood shows debris suspended overhead/some falling. Left side of the screen at 53 seconds in:

Of course this tornado was much closer to me at this point than the Birmingham tornado was to the cameras at the time; however reports of paper debris and insulation falling were received from the Milwaukee suburbs ~70 miles east.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yessir. Wish I could find that video, hope I'm just having a brain fart with the YouTube search and it didn't get removed. It was extremely eerie knowing what was coming, by that time buried in a wall of rain and haze.

Actually, come to think of it, my own (few seconds of shaky) video taken as the Stoughton, WI F3 of August, 2005 approached my neighborhood shows debris suspended overhead/some falling. Left side of the screen at 53 seconds in:

Now that I think about it, video of Niles/Wheatland shows debris falling before the tornado arrives, and I'm pretty sure people in the path of the Tri-State Tornado described such phenomena. I wouldn't doubt it from a long-tracked storm like that.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yessir. Wish I could find that video, hope I'm just having a brain fart with the YouTube search and it didn't get removed. It was extremely eerie knowing what was coming, by that time buried in a wall of rain and haze.

Actually, come to think of it, my own (few seconds of shaky) video taken as the Stoughton, WI F3 of August, 2005 approached my neighborhood shows debris suspended overhead/some falling. Left side of the screen at 53 seconds in:

Of course this tornado was much closer to me at this point than the Birmingham tornado was to the cameras at the time; however reports of paper debris and insulation falling were received from the Milwaukee suburbs ~70 miles east.

Ah man, I remember watching the episode of Storm Stories on Stoughton back in the day! Nostalgia overload right here! I was a mere teenager when that happened (man, I feel old now, lol). Wisconsin is interesting in that the state seems to avoid getting F5s any more, but once upon a time it seemed like it was a hotspot for really intense tornadoes.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

So the debris fell as the tornado was approaching? I've heard of debris falling after a tornado passes through but not before.

During some of the 5/6/1965 tornadoes, debris fell from the sky shortly before the tornado struck.

 

[SilentShadow87]

I somehow get more and more frustrated each time I see all the evidence for what could honestly be called a cover-up in Vilonia laid out. The fact that several completely slabbed homes were entirely omitted from the survey is beyond unacceptable. JR simply had no business being involved in tornado damage surveys, as he allowed his personal bias and arrogance get in the way of his ability to do his job in an objective manor. I truly believe he was so invested in pushing his own agenda, that he purposefully misled Tim Marshall away from areas of potential EF5 damage. Then to top it off, he "addressed" the controversy by stating the already-known fact that homes in that ONE subdivision were nailed to their foundations, which is an insult to the public's intelligence, and their understanding of the scale.

There is so much blatant evidence of deception, that I think this survey needs to be "re-opened" and examined by an objective panel of tornado damage experts.

Is there proof that he actually stopped Marshall from surveying all the damage? From what I've heard about JR I wouldn't put it past him honestly, although it seems like such an odd thing to try to cover up. What would he have had to gain from it?

 

[andyhb]

Here's a link to a PDF of the paper on it because this thread won't let me load the PDF file of it:

"The Gothenburg Tornado Family of June 18, 1975," by Forbes, Gregory S. and Umenfor, Thomas A., SMRP Research Paper No. 132, 1976.

swco-ir.tdl.org

Thank you for this! Been looking for more info on this crazy tornadic supercell. Can only imagine chasing it.

 

[buckeye05]

Is there proof that he actually stopped Marshall from surveying all the damage? From what I've heard about JR I wouldn't put it past him honestly, although it seems like such an odd thing to try to cover up. What would he have had to gain from it?

Cover-up might be too strong of a word, but it does seem like intentional omission of information occurred in order to convey a very biased interpretation of the event. The fact that well-built homes (Coker Rd) that would meet the criteria for EF5 were simply not surveyed shows that even if this wasn't a purposefully skewed damage survey, it was at best a lazy one. The Lentz family, who's well-anchored home was cleanly swept away in the Coker Rd area, made a comment that no survey team ever came to their property! Ridiculous.

I don't know if JR physically blocked Marshall from seeing certain areas of damage, but the E Wicker St EF5 candidate home was absolutely left out of his survey, and Marshall later said that he was not made aware of that particular house at the time of his survey of Vilonia.

In terms of what JR had to gain? I have no idea, besides taking the opportunity to perpetuate his personal interpretation of how the EF scale should be applied. JR was one of the people who helped put the EF scale together, and when asked about the Vilonia controversy in a local news interview, he mentioned this, and that "some of the people involved believe that homes shouldn't even be eligible for a rating higher than EF4" or something to that affect. I think that kinda says it all.

 

[buckeye05]

There was a video on YouTube, I believe it was a snippet of WBRC's coverage, their skycam and I believe their live reporter cam outside captured large pieces of debris falling over Birmingham as the tornado approached from Tuscaloosa. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it now.

I remember this! I remember the angle I watched was from the Weather Channel. It was with Jeff Morrow, and the sky was very dark, and the camera zoomed in on debris falling as the tornado started to approach Birmingham.

I've actually seen debris fallout ahead of a tornado in person. There was a high-end EF1 that hit my subdivision back in May of 2015 (in Beavercreek). I noticed leaves falling out of the sky, and a square piece of plywood tumbling out of the sky in the 45-60 seconds before it hit. The falling debris is actually what warned me as to what was about to happen.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I still don't get why all of the original 1965 Palm Sunday F5s were downgraded to F4s and yet tornadoes like the 1966 Belmond tornado were given an F5 rating.

Dunlap IN



Pittsfield-Strongsville OH