Significant Tornado Events

[MNTornadoGuy]

Amazed it took this long in the thread for Tracy to get a mention. I think the F5 rating may also be based on the damage it did at the train station/depot area on the edge. The buildings are still standing but a ton of heavy train cars were rolled/thrown some distances and the ground looks a bit torn up in some spots but not sure. Might be wrong.

Tornado Damage on the CNW at Tracy, MN 6-14-1968

On June 13, 1968 at 7:02PM, Tracy was hit by a devistating tornado. Although I was only 7 years old and living in Brookings, SD (70 miles west) at the time, I remember the day vividly. On that day, we were to pick up my grandmother in Elkton and go on to Verdi, MN for a church supper. On...

www.flickr.com

No, the F5 damage was based on the homes and farms that were swept away but the rail-cars being thrown were probably used as contextual damage by Grazulis.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

No, the F5 damage was based on the homes and farms that were swept away but the rail-cars being thrown were probably used as contextual damage by Grazulis.

OK, thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure about this tornado.
These are just 2 pics of the funnel, I've always how textbook and photogenic in appearance it was. Reminds a bit of Elie, MN. Also did ground scouring occur in the railroad yards or not?

 

[locomusic01]

Damage from the 1968 Tracy MN tornado. The F5 damage might have occurred on farms instead of in town. Some of these photos were taken after a bit of cleanup had occurred.
View attachment 7944

This photo is always the one that immediately comes to mind for me:

Also, there's some pretty impressive damage in portions of this video:

Tracy tornado aftermath | This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy... | By Scott | Facebook

This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy...

www.facebook.com

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This photo is always the one that immediately comes to mind for me:

Also, there's some pretty impressive damage in portions of this video:

Tracy tornado aftermath | This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy... | By Scott | Facebook

This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy...

www.facebook.com

I've actually seen this photo mislabeled as being from Murphysboro, IL or Princeton, IN in some books or online threads. I've no doubt some clean up on the road occurred but the debris granulation and tree damage looks pretty intense. I think Tracy may have been like ELIE in that it did F5 damage over a very small and narrow area. Not sure.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

OK, thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure about this tornado.
These are just 2 pics of the funnel, I've always how textbook and photogenic in appearance it was. Reminds a bit of Elie, MN. Also did ground scouring occur in the railroad yards or not?
View attachment 7945View attachment 7946

It likely did as in that aerial view the scouring does appear to go all the way up to the railyard. Other views of the funnel.

 

[locomusic01]

Also, there's some pretty impressive damage in portions of this video:

Tracy tornado aftermath | This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy... | By Scott | Facebook

This video was taken by Lloyd Goltz and graciously given to me to share with others ... The first-recorded F5 tornado in Minnesota history struck Tracy...

www.facebook.com

Actually it might've been this video I was thinking of, which only surfaced recently. Don't want to watch through both again, but one or the other lol

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I've actually seen this photo mislabeled as being from Murphysboro, IL or Princeton, IN in some books or online threads. I've no doubt some clean up on the road occurred but the debris granulation and tree damage looks pretty intense. I think Tracy may have been like ELIE in that it did F5 damage over a very small and narrow area. Not sure.

The intense damage did occur in a very narrow area and the gradient between F4+ damage and F0 damage is very noticeable in ground-level photos. Also in some of the photographs, there is significant wind-rowing and debarking.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The other post-1950 MN F5 was the 1992 Chandler tornado. The vegetation and vehicular damage were very impressive. You can see scouring in some of these photos.

 

[speedbump305]

The other post-1950 MN F5 was the 1992 Chandler tornado. The vegetation and vehicular damage were very impressive. You can see scouring in some of these photos.


View attachment 7947
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View attachment 7949

Chandler actually seemed to have produced very intense scouring.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The other post-1950 MN F5 was the 1992 Chandler tornado. The vegetation and vehicular damage were very impressive. You can see scouring in some of these photos.


View attachment 7947
View attachment 7948
View attachment 7949

Are you sure that's scouring and not just previously-plowed land? I've always been a bit iffy about this thing, some photographs it does appear to have produced scouring on hillsides but I wasn't sure.
Write-up on it: https://www.weather.gov/fsd/19920616-tornado-chandlerlakewilson

 

[pohnpei]

Upon further review, I think I overcompensated on the basis of others’ critique, including back-and-forth. (See also this.) Previously I had regarded a bunch of pre-1950 and post-1950 tornadoes as being among the strongest on record, including Tristate, Tupelo, Andover, and Philadelphia, only to retreat under pressure over my reliance on anecdotal evidence, i.e., descriptions and photographs. So I grew wary. I hadn’t previously seen the above image of the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park from that perspective, so the degree of debarking and shredding involved, along with video of the tornado itself, adds a bit more context that points to a solid E/F5 tornado. Additionally, the pictures shown here from Rainsville, especially that of the school bus, add more confidence to the tornado’s having attained solid E/F5 intensity, given the damage to the bus and the pronounced debarking of mature trees. I am still a bit skeptical about Philadelphia being more than a low-end E/F5, but I’ve now revised my views on Andover and Rainsville. I should probably restore several of the events that I removed from my list(s) of consideration.

I don't think school bus damage of Rainsville was a soild evidence of EF5 damage despite it has been labeled EF5 in damage viewer. Tornado went through downtown Rainsville when doing school bus damage, but the structure damage from downtown was no more than EF3 level because it was far from the peak intensity of the tornado. If WE regard this area as EF5 damage then Jonesboro last year also can be considered EF5 tornado with almost the same types of inconsistent damage pattern. Also There was a tornado from Mexico 2015 did heavier school bus damage than Rainsville's.

 

[speedbump305]

I don't think school bus damage of Rainsville was a soild evidence of EF5 damage despite it has been labeled EF5 in damage viewer. Tornado went through downtown Rainsville when doing school bus damage, but the structure damage from downtown was no more than EF3 level because it was far from the peak intensity of the tornado. If WE regard this area as EF5 damage then Jonesboro last year also can be considered EF5 tornado with almost the same types of inconsistent damage pattern. Also There was a tornado from Mexico 2015 did heavier school bus damage than Rainsville's.

Yes i do agree with u

 

[pohnpei]

The stone house was , at least, questionable to me because it is clear than that house was on the weaker side of the tornado based on aerial photo from Extremeplanet's blog. The core of the tornado just went through a subvision with no more than low end EF4 type of damage 100-200 yards from the stone house so it's very hard for me to believe that the stone house damage was a good indicator for its extreme intensity.

Rainsville reached peak intensity between Old county Road 180 and County Road 441.
There were some extreme contextual damage in this area, just not as many as Hackleburg/Smithville/Vilonia and the damage was way more selective than these tornado.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I don't think school bus damage of Rainsville was a soild evidence of EF5 damage despite it has been labeled EF5 in damage viewer. Tornado went through downtown Rainsville when doing school bus damage, but the structure damage from downtown was no more than EF3 level because it was far from the peak intensity of the tornado. If WE regard this area as EF5 damage then Jonesboro last year also can be considered EF5 tornado with almost the same types of inconsistent damage pattern. Also There was a tornado from Mexico 2015 did heavier school bus damage than Rainsville's.

Given that the bus was completely stripped down to its frame I don't see not being evidence of EF5 intensity. Rainsville was extremely selective, but multivortex tornadoes often are. Rainsville also swept away houses without damaging the vegetation or trees around them, which seems weird but again, multivortex tornadoes are like that. I don't think it was as violent as Smithville or Hackleburg but it was still one of the most violent tornadoes documented in quite a while.

This article demonstrates its EF5 potential with some pretty incredible photographs:

Amazing Damage Pictures from the EF5 Rainsville Tornado – April 27, 2011

□ During the April 27th, 2011 Super Outbreak, a tornado of incredible ferocity left a streak of devastation through northeast Alabama. The tornado carved a modest 34 mile path, significantly shorte…

extremeplanet.wordpress.com

 

[buckeye05]

saying fargo is a low end questionable F5 is such bullshit to me. like bruh. the images clearly show a very intense F5 that was well into the range.

I wasn’t saying that either. I was just saying that those photos I posted showed some clear debris granulation, and that the last one showed two homes completely swept clean of debris, though they had block foundations. I can’t call it clear cut F5/EF5, but a closer look at the photos left me a little more impressed than I previously was.

This was very obvious in those photos, but our perpetually confused, long-time poster apparently couldn’t quite make it out, while at the same time, he can frequently pick out non-existent “debarking” in old damage photos.

He’s beyond frustrating.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I wasn’t saying that either. I was just saying that those photos I posted showed some clear debris granulation, and that the last one showed two homes completely swept clean of debris, though they had block foundations. I can’t call it clear cut F5/EF5, but a closer look at the photos left me a little more impressed than I previously was.

This was very obvious in those photos, but our perpetually confused, long-time poster apparently couldn’t quite make it out, while at the same time, he can frequently pick out non-existent “debarking” in old damage photos.

He’s beyond frustrating.

Wondering how long until he gets banned. He might derail this thread if he isn't.

 

[Marshal79344]

I wasn’t saying that either. I was just saying that those photos I posted showed some clear debris granulation, and that the last one showed two homes completely swept clean of debris, though they had block foundations. I can’t call it clear cut F5/EF5, but a closer look at the photos left me a little more impressed than I previously was.

This was very obvious in those photos, but our perpetually confused, long-time poster apparently couldn’t quite make it out, while at the same time, he can frequently pick out non-existent “debarking” in old damage photos.

He’s beyond frustrating.

Are you talking about the Causurina Head Person? I didn't intend to offend anyone by saying that I wasn't sure if Fargo was an F5, I meant to say that Fargo may not have gotten that rating today. I apologize for any offence I've caused.

 

[speedbump305]

I wasn’t saying that either. I was just saying that those photos I posted showed some clear debris granulation, and that the last one showed two homes completely swept clean of debris, though they had block foundations. I can’t call it clear cut F5/EF5, but a closer look at the photos left me a little more impressed than I previously was.

This was very obvious in those photos, but our perpetually confused, long-time poster apparently couldn’t quite make it out, while at the same time, he can frequently pick out non-existent “debarking” in old damage photos.

He’s beyond frustrating.

I wasn’t saying that either. I was just saying that those photos I posted showed some clear debris granulation, and that the last one showed two homes completely swept clean of debris, though they had block foundations. I can’t call it clear cut F5/EF5, but a closer look at the photos left me a little more impressed than I previously was.

This was very obvious in those photos, but our perpetually confused, long-time poster apparently couldn’t quite make it out, while at the same time, he can frequently pick out non-existent “debarking” in old damage photos.

He’s beyond frustrating.

Yep i know you weren’t saying that, but yes i do agree. there’s no doubt it was a very intense tornado, but we obviously cannot tell if a tornado has debarked trees directly from an old photo, and yes granulation is evident. he really is beyond frustrating

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are you talking about the Causurina Head Person? I didn't intend to offend anyone by saying that I wasn't sure if Fargo was an F5, I meant to say that Fargo may not have gotten that rating today. I apologize for any offence I've caused.

Yeah we're talking about him, not you. Don't worry.

 

[speedbump305]

Yeah we're talking about him, not you. Don't worry.

Now i will admit, i did derail the thread a bit, but i did learn my lesson