That derrick that the El Reno tornado managed to do really solidified it as being one of the most violent on record. Pampa was definitely violent and the object it threw was definitely impressive
Some damage photos I can find about this tornado yet to find the combine photo.Huh. I dunno how I've never heard of this before, but this is pretty damn impressive:
From this study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167610516304032
The Tuscaloosa tornado threw a 35-ton (70,000 lb) coal hopper nearly 400 ft, which is probably the most extraordinary example that comes to mind. It also threw part of a steel train trestle 100 ft up a nearby hill at Hurricane Creek Canyon. The El Reno tornado also threw a tanker truck about a mile, but I can't remember how much it was said to have weighed. Probaby somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 tons depending on whether it was fully loaded or not.
i think it weighed 25,000-35,000
Yeah. That’s the one thing that could land Tuscaloosa an EF5 rating
It's interesting to notice that Tuscaloosa was already in the weakening stage when threw that 35 ton coal hopper.
They were rolled/pushed according to the survey, which is still extremely impressive.
3 oil tanks actually, they all weighed 180,000 pounds and were thrown a total of 3 miles. Two of them were thrown up a steep hill that had a 35-degree incline or something to that effect. While perhaps not the heaviest objects thrown by a tornado, it's probably the single most impressive instance of tornado damage ever documented, although the sparse amount of structures in the area likely contributed to the tanks being able to be carried so far. Also, an adobe house was levelled and its commode was found 3 miles away.
That is definitely the most intense instance of tornado damage i think i’ve ever heard of. There’s been a lot of intense damage, but 180,000 pound oil tanks being thrown a total of 3 miles, up steel hills definitely proves Bakersfield valley was one of the most violent on record
Yes, that' it
(That's 30,000 lbs and three-quarters of a mile for the metric-averse.)
Never had I had an idea what would happen when I post this three days ago, Happy TX pairs definitely can join the "Twin Wedge" Group
Apparently i heard that tornado recorded winds in the EF5 range. I’ve not seen all the damage pictures, i did see a radar image so i’m not gonna deny if it’s true. i heard it from a youtube comment on one of the storm chaser vids. I don’t think it’s necessarily reliable, but if it did in fact have winds up to 200+ mph and hit something at peak, we may or may not have an EF5
What I think people were referring to was the gate-to-gate shear(?) measured by the velocity signature on radar (someone can correct me if I'm wrong). At it's peak, the gate-to-gate shear exceeded 200 mph iirc. However, that doesn't always translate to winds at the actual surface, so it is unreliable to go off of a radar signature above ground to determine the actual wind speeds in the tornado. Plus, I have my doubts about damage indicators being available to classify the tornado as EF5 (thankfully). I do believe that the tornado was probably of violent intensity at some point in its life. The only damage pics I've seen up to this point wouldn't warrant any higher than an EF3 rating (toppled transmission tower), again, someone who has better knowledge of the EF-scale can correct me.
I do agree with you on everything you said. Now i do agree the damage pics we do have right now do show that it was a strong tornado “ EF3 “ GTG shear was over 200 mph, but we don’t really know how high the actual winds were. It did look violent on radar and i’m sure it was violent intensity. It does look nasty similar to the Canadian Texas Tornado. But anyways what we do know is that it was a violent tornado probably over open country and that we know it did produce EF3 damage, for now we just have to wait for NWS to do its surveys and see what they can find.
Three radar based violent tors from one cyclic supercell tracking from SW Happy TX to Washburn TX if I recall correctly for yesterday's outbreak.Most photographs including the two I published above all came from the first one near Happy TX to Ogg TX.Calculating the tornado windspeed based on the radar-based algorithm given by SPC, you'll get a 188mph couplet at this point.
