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Significant Tornado Events

Seeing the Jonesboro Tornado come out of the skies on live television was so heart-wrenching. I interacted with someone on a Twitter thread who said that there were some mountains near Jonesboro which contributed to a slight increase in directional shear values, which helped that particular supercell to drop a tornado of that caliber and finally stop producing tornadoes after it left the influence area of the mountains. Something similar happened with a long-tracked supercell thunderstorm on April 8, 2020, that dropped the long-tracked Harrisburg, AR tornado after it came into contact with these locally backed winds. Two other examples occurred in 1968 and 1973, the 1968 one was so much worse though. The 1968 Tornado took a track near a highway and moved through southern Jonesboro at the height of rush hour, resulting in 35 fatalities, almost all of which were in cars. Here are some photos from the 1968 Tornado:

A subdivision that vaporized

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Another view of the same subdivision

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A school that was destroyed

19680515JONESBORO4.PNG
 
Marshal79344 said:
Seeing the Jonesboro Tornado come out of the skies on live television was so heart-wrenching. I interacted with someone on a Twitter thread who said that there were some mountains near Jonesboro which contributed to a slight increase in directional shear values, which helped that particular supercell to drop a tornado of that caliber and finally stop producing tornadoes after it left the influence area of the mountains. Something similar happened with a long-tracked supercell thunderstorm on April 8, 2020, that dropped the long-tracked Harrisburg, AR tornado after it came into contact with these locally backed winds. Two other examples occurred in 1968 and 1973, the 1968 one was so much worse though. The 1968 Tornado took a track near a highway and moved through southern Jonesboro at the height of rush hour, resulting in 35 fatalities, almost all of which were in cars. Here are some photos from the 1968 Tornado:

A subdivision that vaporized

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Another view of the same subdivision

View attachment 7985

A school that was destroyed

View attachment 7986
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The 1968 Tornado was just another in a string of violent tornadoes on May 15th, 1968. Based on what I've seen from tornadoes that day, I wouldn't be surprised if this one was the strongest on that day.
 
So recently this study was published regarding tornado wind speeds (it's open access, thankfully):

www.pnas.org

Supercell tornadoes are much stronger and wider than damage-based ratings indicate

This study documents the actual distribution of supercell-tornado wind intensities and sizes, revealing that most are much stronger than damage surveys indicate, with >20% of tornadoes potentially capable of causing catastrophic EF-4/EF-5 damage. Additionally, supercell tornadoes are shown to be...
www.pnas.org www.pnas.org

Basically, the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) vehicles measured fairly low-level wind speeds inside a number of tornadoes over the years, and the measured speeds (and corresponding EF-scale ratings) were compared to official NWS damage ratings of the same tornadoes. What was found was that the damage ratings seem to be about 1-2 categories lower (on average) than the radar-measured winds would indicate, suggesting that it usually requires stronger winds to cause at least particular degrees of damage than was previously believed. This and (perhaps) other future studies should at the very least be given some consideration in the future regarding damage ratings.
 
Tennie said:
So recently this study was published regarding tornado wind speeds (it's open access, thankfully):

www.pnas.org

Supercell tornadoes are much stronger and wider than damage-based ratings indicate

This study documents the actual distribution of supercell-tornado wind intensities and sizes, revealing that most are much stronger than damage surveys indicate, with >20% of tornadoes potentially capable of causing catastrophic EF-4/EF-5 damage. Additionally, supercell tornadoes are shown to be...
www.pnas.org www.pnas.org

Basically, the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) vehicles measured fairly low-level wind speeds inside a number of tornadoes over the years, and the measured speeds (and corresponding EF-scale ratings) were compared to official NWS damage ratings of the same tornadoes. What was found was that the damage ratings seem to be about 1-2 categories lower (on average) than the radar-measured winds would indicate, suggesting that it usually requires stronger winds to cause at least particular degrees of damage than was previously believed. This and (perhaps) other future studies should at the very least be given some consideration in the future regarding damage ratings.
Click to expand...
One thing I noticed in the article was that it seems Bridge Creek's peak ground relative winds measured by DOW was 144m/s. It used to be listed as 135m/s in an article published in 2007.(134m/s velocity)
 
pohnpei said:
2020 China tornado annual review shows that last year there were 7 EF2 and 1 EF3 tornado occurred in China. The EF3 tornado occurred on July 22 with a path about 62KM, which was the longest tornado ever recorded in China with formal investigation available. As a comparison, Funing EF4 2016 had a path of 34KM and Kaiyuan EF4 had a path of 15KM. The rating was based on transmission tower damage and container being brown away.
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Can you link this?
 
D
eric11 said:
Still can't believe it's already been a year since the Jonesboro AR tornado, and, still can't believe it was rated only 150mph.
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Didn't this thing also completely level the shopping mall? Or at least severely damage it? Yeah, yet another ridiculously-underrated tornado like Vilonia 2014, although again there might be deliberate reasons for underrating it.
 
Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
May 2003 was absolutely ridiculous, I think it still holds the record for most tornadoes in an outbreak sequence (401). There were 4 violent tornadoes that struck the Kansas City area that day and I remember as a KC native how much I was watching the sky that day and praying my house wasn't struck (it wasn't, don't worry). So many impressive tornadoes from those couple of weeks in May of 2003.
Click to expand...

I was 17 at the time and had just "discovered" the SPC site the summer before so that was my first spring following it for severe weather events. 5/4 (518 total reports, 94 of them tornado), 5/8 (313, 54) and 5/10 (514, 93) were my original baseline for how a high risk day should play out, which I guess is why ones like the two this month still seem kind of underwhelming despite being far from busts.
 
speedbump305 said:
T

This is getting me thinking, i wonder what the longest distance a vehicle has been thrown by a tornado
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I believe Smithville and Hackleburg carried some vehicles up to a mile, El Reno threw a tanker trailer a mile, not sure about the cab, also not sure whether or not you want to count a trailer and cab as separate vehicles or not. Supposedly the Allison, Texas tornado of the 6/8/95 outbreak threw a couple vehicles up to 2 miles, but I've never been able to verify that. The thing about Allison to take into account is that it occurred in the remote Texas panhandle, which is largely open desert or ranch country so there wouldn't be that many structures for the vehicles to slam into (assuming it actually happened).
 
Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
I believe Smithville and Hackleburg carried some vehicles up to a mile, El Reno threw a tanker trailer a mile, not sure about the cab, also not sure whether or not you want to count a trailer and cab as separate vehicles or not. Supposedly the Allison, Texas tornado of the 6/8/95 outbreak threw a couple vehicles up to 2 miles, but I've never been able to verify that. The thing about Allison to take into account is that it occurred in the remote Texas panhandle, which is largely open desert or ranch country so there wouldn't be that many structures for the vehicles to slam into (assuming it actually happened).
Click to expand...
I think Rochelle also threw a car one full mile too
 
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