Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Speaking of F5s in Kentucky, I lived in Russell Springs for a few years when I was young. Long before my time, a localized but very intense outbreak on April 27, 1971 produced two violent tornadoes in the area - one of which Dr. Fujita rated F5. It's often called the Gosser Ridge tornado and it's covered briefly in one of Fujita's research papers. I've never seen a clear justification for the F5 rating, but it seems it was at least partially based on severe vegetation damage that remained consistent even as the tornado traversed very steep gorges (which is.. interesting?). It also destroyed a number of homes and caused considerable damage to the local Salem Elementary School, which happens to be where I attended 2nd-5th grade (I think).

Anywho, I bring this up because I found a video showing some of the damage. Nothing extraordinary, but some of it is definitely significant:

 

[OHWX97]

@locomusic01 Those Brandenburg photos are phenomenal and among some of the highest quality photos I've seen from the entire outbreak. Thank you for sharing!

Just curious y’all. have any of y’all been in any Violent EF4/EF5 Tornadoes?

On the early morning of April 9, 1999, a tornado passed about a mile south of my parent's home near Loveland, Ohio. I wasn't quite 2 years old yet, so I don't have much personal recollection of it, but my parents say the yard was littered with debris. The same tornado had just killed four people and damaged/destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in parts of Blue Ash and Montgomery is northeast Hamilton County, Ohio. The Wilmington NWS rated the tornado an F4. It was part of a major outbreak of tornadoes that started on the 8th, which produced two additional F4's in Iowa as well as many more significant tornadoes across the midwest.

 

[Casuarina Head]

Oh! Ok I assumed the booklet would provide additional details. This is pretty much the same info listen online and in the Big Green Book. This also finally proves Causarina Head’s old allegations about this event and the booklet’s contents as utter nonsense.

What happened was, user Causarina Head has been spreading misinformation regarding this event and info within the F5 booklet. He claimed the the booklet states that the Prague F5 carried oil tanks for long distances and removed all vegetation and several inches of topsoil from hillsides. After finally viewing the booklet entry, this confirms my suspicions that this information is NOT in the booklet, and that this is just more unverifiable hogwash perpetuated by the aforementioned user.

I think I need to clarify some things. Since 2006 I have edited meteorology-related articles at Wikipedia under the moniker “CapeVerdeWave.” During roughly the same timeframe (2005–present), I have also browsed numerous meteorological fora, including the old Eastern U.S. Weather forum and the old as well as the present version of this site. As mentioned, I also own several of Thomas P. Grazulis’ books, excluding the F5–F6 report—speaking of which, I extend a hearty thank-you to Equus for publicly sharing his copy. I relied on information that others were relaying in relation to tornadoes, including on the aforementioned fora, and if I could not locate the information either in Thomas P. Grazulis’ sources or others, I attributed it to the missing F5–F6 report, simply based on the assumption that it contained information absent from his other publications. As to the Winfield, KS, F4 tornado of 04/26/1991, I believe I confused it with Kellerville upon reading meteorologist Tony Lyza’s reference to the description in the F5–F6 report; I can’t remember how the confusion arose.

Really considering starting a petition to get Causarina Head banned from the site, or at least temporarily until he learns to think before he posts. Not sure of the logistics of all going about all that, but might as well voice what many of use are likely thinking.

For the record:

 

[Casuarina Head]

Speaking of F5s in Kentucky, I lived in Russell Springs for a few years when I was young. Long before my time, a localized but very intense outbreak on April 27, 1971 produced two violent tornadoes in the area - one of which Dr. Fujita rated F5. It's often called the Gosser Ridge tornado and it's covered briefly in one of Fujita's research papers. I've never seen a clear justification for the F5 rating, but it seems it was at least partially based on severe vegetation damage that remained consistent even as the tornado traversed very steep gorges (which is.. interesting?). It also destroyed a number of homes and caused considerable damage to the local Salem Elementary School, which happens to be where I attended 2nd-5th grade (I think).

Anywho, I bring this up because I found a video showing some of the damage. Nothing extraordinary, but some of it is definitely significant:

As an aside, loco, did you manage to obtain the original Brandenburg survey photos, both aerial and ground-level, from the Fujita archives at Texas Tech, either here or here? If so, were/are you able to acquire some from the original survey(s) of Guin and the first Tanner F5?

As an aside:

 

[pohnpei]

Alright here we go

F5-F6 Tornadoes, by T. Grazulis

Very interesting to see when asking the most intense tornado in the history/have ever been an F6 tornado, the answer of Grazulis was Pampa TX tornado 1995. I am very curious whether he still holds this view up to now.
I noticed that he thought one minute of F3 winds will probably do more damage than three seconds of F5 winds. It gives me a hint that he may not regard Jarrell as one of the strongest tornado. Just a personal guess here and I have no idea whether his opinion has changed now.

 

[pohnpei]

I think I need to clarify some things. Since 2006 I have edited meteorology-related articles at Wikipedia under the moniker “CapeVerdeWave.” During roughly the same timeframe (2005–present), I have also browsed numerous meteorological fora, including the old Eastern U.S. Weather forum and the old as well as the present version of this site. As mentioned, I also own several of Thomas P. Grazulis’ books, excluding the F5–F6 report—speaking of which, I extend a hearty thank-you to Equus for publicly sharing his copy. I relied on information that others were relaying in relation to tornadoes, including on the aforementioned fora, and if I could not locate the information either in Thomas P. Grazulis’ sources or others, I attributed it to the missing F5–F6 report, simply based on the assumption that it contained information absent from his other publications. As to the Winfield, KS, F4 tornado of 04/26/1991, I believe I confused it with Kellerville upon reading meteorologist Tony Lyza’s reference to the description in the F5–F6 report; I can’t remember how the confusion arose.

For the record:
View attachment 6802View attachment 6803View attachment 6804

Compared to his opinions on tornados in recent years, I am acutally more looking forward to his research on tornado climate change. The rank of 3300 tornado outbreaks since 1878 was such a huge task and certainly it will reveal something that simply statistics of changes of tornado number might ignore.
The overall tornado activity in US was in decline but the gap between very intense outbreaks was shortening and the scale of the most intense outbreaks was in rise, that is my guess. I used to brower through his twitter and found he thought the Palm Sunday outbreak 1965 was the starting point of all the changes brought by climate.

 

[A Guy]

Speaking of F5s in Kentucky, I lived in Russell Springs for a few years when I was young. Long before my time, a localized but very intense outbreak on April 27, 1971 produced two violent tornadoes in the area - one of which Dr. Fujita rated F5. It's often called the Gosser Ridge tornado and it's covered briefly in one of Fujita's research papers. I've never seen a clear justification for the F5 rating, but it seems it was at least partially based on severe vegetation damage that remained consistent even as the tornado traversed very steep gorges (which is.. interesting?). It also destroyed a number of homes and caused considerable damage to the local Salem Elementary School, which happens to be where I attended 2nd-5th grade (I think).

Anywho, I bring this up because I found a video showing some of the damage. Nothing extraordinary, but some of it is definitely significant:

I found that research paper you linked some time ago and it's quite interesting that Fujita drastically revised his ratings in the early days of the scale, perhaps as he gained a better feel for the effects of construction. 2 F5s and 23 F4s reduced to 1 and 10, and 11 F4s in 1972 was reduced to four. Something to keep in perspective the evolution of the scale's use since then. He doesn't seem to have made many or any revisions since 1974 though.

Must say it doesn't say much for the accuracy of pre-1971 ratings based mainly off reports when things can be changed that drastically. While there's no doubt 1965 was a very violent year I think one could venture to the opinion that 31 F4+ is a bit a stretch.

 

[Equus]

C. F. Boone Super Outbreak book

 

[pohnpei]

C. F. Boone Super Outbreak book

Wow,thanks for sharing this! Page 47 of this book shows some of the most high quality aerial photo of Guin I've ever seen.

 

[speedbump305]

@locomusic01 Those Brandenburg photos are phenomenal and among some of the highest quality photos I've seen from the entire outbreak. Thank you for sharing!


On the early morning of April 9, 1999, a tornado passed about a mile south of my parent's home near Loveland, Ohio. I wasn't quite 2 years old yet, so I don't have much personal recollection of it, but my parents say the yard was littered with debris. The same tornado had just killed four people and damaged/destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in parts of Blue Ash and Montgomery is northeast Hamilton County, Ohio. The Wilmington NWS rated the tornado an F4. It was part of a major outbreak of tornadoes that started on the 8th, which produced two additional F4's in Iowa as well as many more significant tornadoes across the midwest.



View attachment 6790View attachment 6791View attachment 6793View attachment 6794View attachment 6795

Holy Crap. That’s terrible. i’m sorry. The tornado from what i’ve seen did produce quite a bit of wind rowing, but there’s no way it would be rated F5. Poor quality homes

 

[OHWX97]

Holy Crap. That’s terrible. i’m sorry. The tornado from what i’ve seen did produce quite a bit of wind rowing, but there’s no way it would be rated F5. Poor quality homes

No need to be sorry. My family and I got lucky. Many others weren't so fortunate. You're right though, the tornado wasn't exceptionally violent and Wilmington noted it had only briefly produced F4 damage, while most of the more intense damage was rated F2-F3.

 

[speedbump305]

No need to be sorry. My family and I got lucky. Many others weren't so fortunate. You're right though, the tornado wasn't exceptionally violent and Wilmington noted it had only briefly produced F4 damage, while most of the more intense damage was rated F2-F3.

It kinda reminds me of the Linwood Kansas Tornado damage. Where over half the damage was F2-F3 with like 2 homes having F4 damage.

 

[jbn60]

I wish it was possible to find more high-quality aerial or ground photos to get a full picture of the scale of the damage; I'd also like to see more pictures of the damage done by it outside of Guin; in Decatur and Twin, AL and the William B. Bankhead National Forest. There are damage photos of the forest available on the NWS site for 4/3/74 but they're very low quality. I have a feeling someone in Alabama (or maybe Grazulis) is sitting on a massive collection of damage photographs from Guin that we'd all really like to see.

There is someone who has probably the most pictures of Guin damage and that would be the late J. B. Elliot of the NWS in Birmingham. He did the storm survey for Guin for the NWS along with Fujita and on the old Talkweather sight he mentioned that he had dozens of pictures of Guin damage. There is an old video on youtube that has some of the pictures as well as an interview with him. Here is the link to the video.

 

[speedbump305]

There is someone who has probably the most pictures of Guin damage and that would be the late J. B. Elliot of the NWS in Birmingham. He did the storm survey for Guin for the NWS along with Fujita and on the old Talkweather sight he mentioned that he had dozens of pictures of Guin damage. There is an old video on youtube that has some of the pictures as well as an interview with him. Here is the link to the video.

I’m sure most of us know including you probably, But J.B elliot is where the rumor of sweeping away foundations started in Guin. Fujita had nothing to do with it. But still, people still manage to say Fujita considered an F6 rating. Once again i’ve only heard that from J.B

 

[J-Rab]

C. F. Boone Super Outbreak book

You are the man.

Very much appreciated.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

But wait, there's more!

And finally, just a bunch of assorted photos (of varying utility/interest) that I threw into an album:

Color photography really makes all the difference vs. black and white. Many of these pics were previously only available in black and white, and being in color really helps you notice a lot more details in terms of damage you'd otherwise miss.

A couple interesting things about Brandenburg; there seems to have been quite a bit of tree damage but none of the trees appear completely debarked, partially yes,but not completely.

Also, this photo:



This was previously only available in B&W form. One thing I've noticed in the color photo is on the ground (particularly near the foundation) there seems to be what looks like lots of ground wood; pretty extreme granulation on par with Joplin, Parkersburg and Smithville. Quite a bit of the damage aerials of this tornado through town (particularly the one with the water tower) look a lot like the EF5 damage corridor through Smithville. Now, if only we could find high quality color photographs of Guin damage, then we could really definitely say which of the two tornadoes (Bradenburg or Guin) was the most violent of 4/3/74.
Also, where did you find these color photographs? And do you know of any tools for colorizing B&W photographs within reasonable accuracy? I know on the old thread someone managed to do so with Tupelo 1936 damage aerials, wondering if you might know of any programs that allowed them to do so.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Color photography really makes all the difference vs. black and white. Many of these pics were previously only available in black and white, and being in color really helps you notice a lot more details in terms of damage you'd otherwise miss.

A couple interesting things about Brandenburg; there seems to have been quite a bit of tree damage but none of the trees appear completely debarked, partially yes,but not completely.

Also, this photo:

View attachment 6825

This was previously only available in B&W form. One thing I've noticed in the color photo is on the ground (particularly near the foundation) there seems to be what looks like lots of ground wood; pretty extreme granulation on par with Joplin, Parkersburg and Smithville. Quite a bit of the damage aerials of this tornado through town (particularly the one with the water tower) look a lot like the EF5 damage corridor through Smithville. Now, if only we could find high quality color photographs of Guin damage, then we could really definitely say which of the two tornadoes (Bradenburg or Guin) was the most violent of 4/3/74.
Also, where did you find these color photographs? And do you know of any tools for colorizing B&W photographs within reasonable accuracy? I know on the old thread someone managed to do so with Tupelo 1936 damage aerials, wondering if you might know of any programs that allowed them to do so.

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[MNTornadoGuy]

View attachment 6826New Richmond colorized using deoldify.

 

[speedbump305]

Color photography really makes all the difference vs. black and white. Many of these pics were previously only available in black and white, and being in color really helps you notice a lot more details in terms of damage you'd otherwise miss.

A couple interesting things about Brandenburg; there seems to have been quite a bit of tree damage but none of the trees appear completely debarked, partially yes,but not completely.

Also, this photo:

View attachment 6825

This was previously only available in B&W form. One thing I've noticed in the color photo is on the ground (particularly near the foundation) there seems to be what looks like lots of ground wood; pretty extreme granulation on par with Joplin, Parkersburg and Smithville. Quite a bit of the damage aerials of this tornado through town (particularly the one with the water tower) look a lot like the EF5 damage corridor through Smithville. Now, if only we could find high quality color photographs of Guin damage, then we could really definitely say which of the two tornadoes (Bradenburg or Guin) was the most violent of 4/3/74.
Also, where did you find these color photographs? And do you know of any tools for colorizing B&W photographs within reasonable accuracy? I know on the old thread someone managed to do so with Tupelo 1936 damage aerials, wondering if you might know of any programs that allowed them to do so.

WOW. that debris granulation is on par with Joplin, Smithville, Parkersburg, and Jarrell. Brandenburg Really had proved its intensity. Also, it does seem to have produced some intense wind rowing.

 

[locomusic01]

As an aside, loco, did you manage to obtain the original Brandenburg survey photos, both aerial and ground-level, from the Fujita archives at Texas Tech, either here or here? If so, were/are you able to acquire some from the original survey(s) of Guin and the first Tanner F5?

Yes, they're from the Texas Tech Wind Science archives. They have (had?) some stuff posted online, but unfortunately, most of their archives are only available for purchase according to their fairly specific guidelines. I believe I also have some stuff from Xenia and a handful of photos from Madison County (taken around Hazel Green IIRC), but from what I remember there's not much that's really new. I'll have to check again later when I have time.

Color photography really makes all the difference vs. black and white. Many of these pics were previously only available in black and white, and being in color really helps you notice a lot more details in terms of damage you'd otherwise miss.

A couple interesting things about Brandenburg; there seems to have been quite a bit of tree damage but none of the trees appear completely debarked, partially yes,but not completely.

Also, this photo:

View attachment 6825

This was previously only available in B&W form. One thing I've noticed in the color photo is on the ground (particularly near the foundation) there seems to be what looks like lots of ground wood; pretty extreme granulation on par with Joplin, Parkersburg and Smithville. Quite a bit of the damage aerials of this tornado through town (particularly the one with the water tower) look a lot like the EF5 damage corridor through Smithville. Now, if only we could find high quality color photographs of Guin damage, then we could really definitely say which of the two tornadoes (Bradenburg or Guin) was the most violent of 4/3/74.
Also, where did you find these color photographs? And do you know of any tools for colorizing B&W photographs within reasonable accuracy? I know on the old thread someone managed to do so with Tupelo 1936 damage aerials, wondering if you might know of any programs that allowed them to do so.

The debris granulation definitely sticks out in a number of places, and there's some pronounced wind rowing in some areas as well. Debarking/denuding is kind of tricky because there are so many variables. There have been a few interesting studies on this that suggest our view of vegetation damage is probably too simplistic. One thing that's noteworthy in a few photos is the damage done to shrubs/hedges and other low-lying vegetation, which is indicative of pretty intense winds very near the surface.

Color photos really make the swath of damage running roughly parallel with the little ravine leading to Main St. pop out. It really is reminiscent of portions of the Smithville track. I've played around with a few different tools to colorize B&W damage photos with varying degrees of success. I'll see if I can find the ones that've yielded decent results. I've also contacted a couple of professional colorization artists/services about some Tupelo damage photos out of curiosity, but I'm not sure the results are really worth it. Might turn out better with newer, higher-res photos though.

Short of paying for professional colorization, something like this is probably about the best you can realistically expect: