Significant Tornado Events

[buckeye05]

To be fair to Max he had (and likely still has) an extremely busy schedule which likely caused him to overlook some things and prevented him from having more time to dig through online archives or contact eyewitnesses to these vents. Even Grazulis doesn't mention extreme scouring or vegetation from this tornado, although when you're compiling information on 12,000+ tornadoes you're bound to miss some things and not have time to fill in every single detail.

That detail about the Beaver Falls tornado, if true, might be a record as the official record for longest distance of a person being thrown from a tornado is Matt Suter of Fordland, Missouri who was carried 1,307 feet (13 ft. shy of a quarter mile) and lived to tell about it.

Sources about Matt Suter:

1.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/furthest-distance-survived-in-a-tornado-

2.

I've heard of Matt's story before and it is truly incredible. A similar event that I can't find much information on is the teenagers who were apparently thrown 1,000 yards by the Brownwood, TX of F5 of 1976 (likely an F4 in actuality) and survived. Kyson Stowell of Castalian Springs, TN from the 2008 Super Outbreak also comes to mind.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I've heard of Matt's story before and it is truly incredible. A similar event that I can't find much information on is the teenagers who were apparently thrown 1,000 yards by the Brownwood, TX of F5 of 1976 (likely an F4 in actuality) and survived. Kyson Stowell of Castalian Springs, TN from the 2008 Super Outbreak also comes to mind.

I sometimes wonder if 1,000 yards is a typo for 1000 feet.

Aside from Grazulis this is the only other significant article on it:

F5 Tornadoes: The Chronology – Part II

In A Blink, Their World Vanished (cont’d) Waco, Texas – May 11, 1953 The 1950’s were a time of radical change in weather forecasting. Radar was being adapted as a tool for analyzing sto…

ericsweatherlibrary.com

Scroll down the page to find the entry for Brownwood, TX

 

[CheeselandSkies]

I've heard of Matt's story before and it is truly incredible. A similar event that I can't find much information on is the teenagers who were apparently thrown 1,000 yards by the Brownwood, TX of F5 of 1976 (likely an F4 in actuality) and survived. Kyson Stowell of Castalian Springs, TN from the 2008 Super Outbreak also comes to mind.

2008 didn't have a "Super Outbreak" in the 1974 or 2011 sense (obviously 2 of that caliber in 3 years would be extraordinarily remarkable). Perhaps you meant "Super *Tuesday* Outbreak"?

 

[buckeye05]

2008 didn't have a "Super Outbreak" in the 1974 or 2011 sense (obviously 2 of that caliber in 3 years would be extraordinarily remarkable). Perhaps you meant "Super *Tuesday* Outbreak"?

Lol whoops I meant to say Super Tuesday, which while significant, was obviously not an actual "super outbreak" of any kind.

 

[buckeye05]

The pics won't load for me, but I know the news you published, CCTV this morning went to the affected area and took a lot damage pics, even the drones were sent out to investigate the damage, I'm hoping there're more damage pics in coming days
View attachment 9746View attachment 9747View attachment 9748

Man, 2021 has been a noteworthy tornado year for you guys to say the least. Makes me wonder how the rest of June, July and August will turn out, considering that seems to be peak season for violent tornadoes in China. Are you or any of your friends considering going out and chasing?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I do wonder if this tornado swept away or leveled any farmhouses that we haven’t seen yet

 

[Marshal79344]

41 years ago this evening, a discrete cyclic supercell thunderstorm initiated over central Nebraska and quickly began producing multiple tornadoes. However, it just happened to be that the supercell fired right over the city of Grand Island. Remaining mostly stationary, it dropped a total of seven tornadoes, both cyclonic and anticyclonic, near or within the city limits of Grand Island. This day has since become known as the "Night of the Twisters."

Reanalysis for the environment that the Grand Island supercell would have been interacting with. The thick critical angle calls for high-end cyclic activity, and the thick instability profile highlights that the environment would be able to sustain quite an intense supercell. This is a loaded, classic cyclic tornado environment, and fits quite well with the tornadic behavior of the parent supercell.



Damage was very severe in town, and I have some images of the cul-de-sac which earned one of the tornadoes an F4 rating.




Elsewhere in town, several other homes were destroyed, as seen in these images below:

 

[ARCC]

41 years ago this evening, a discrete cyclic supercell thunderstorm initiated over central Nebraska and quickly began producing multiple tornadoes. However, it just happened to be that the supercell fired right over the city of Grand Island. Remaining mostly stationary, it dropped a total of seven tornadoes, both cyclonic and anticyclonic, near or within the city limits of Grand Island. This day has since become known as the "Night of the Twisters."

Reanalysis for the environment that the Grand Island supercell would have been interacting with. The thick critical angle calls for high-end cyclic activity, and the thick instability profile highlights that the environment would be able to sustain quite an intense supercell. This is a loaded, classic cyclic tornado environment, and fits quite well with the tornadic behavior of the parent supercell.

View attachment 9762

Damage was very severe in town, and I have some images of the cul-de-sac which earned one of the tornadoes an F4 rating.

View attachment 9763
View attachment 9764

Elsewhere in town, several other homes were destroyed, as seen in these images below:

View attachment 9766View attachment 9765

Crazy, I never knew that cheesy film I watched when I was little was loosely based on a real event. Learn something new every day.

 

[locomusic01]

41 years ago this evening, a discrete cyclic supercell thunderstorm initiated over central Nebraska and quickly began producing multiple tornadoes. However, it just happened to be that the supercell fired right over the city of Grand Island. Remaining mostly stationary, it dropped a total of seven tornadoes, both cyclonic and anticyclonic, near or within the city limits of Grand Island. This day has since become known as the "Night of the Twisters."

Grand Island is one of the events I most wish I'd written about. Among the most unique and fascinating in weather history. There's a pretty good website about it here: http://www.gitwisters.com/gitwisters/

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Interesting that a top analog in that sounding is the July, 2004 Roanoke, IL F4.

It's not extremely rare to have slow-moving supercells produce tornado families in the Plains, but it's certainly unusual for them to do so right over a city. While certainly a dangerous and destructive scenario, Grand Island did get lucky in the sense that even though several were quite strong, none of these tornadoes were exceptionally violent (high-end F4 to F5). At least, I haven't seen any pictures or accounts suggesting that the one F4 was potentially underrated.

 

[buckeye05]

The Night of the Twisters outbreak is interesting. A lot of people forget the eastern extent of the outbreak, with additional strong to violent tornadoes touching down across IN, OH, PA, and WV. There was a lot more to it that the Grand Island tornado family, though that was clearly the most notable event of the outbreak.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

41 years ago this evening, a discrete cyclic supercell thunderstorm initiated over central Nebraska and quickly began producing multiple tornadoes. However, it just happened to be that the supercell fired right over the city of Grand Island. Remaining mostly stationary, it dropped a total of seven tornadoes, both cyclonic and anticyclonic, near or within the city limits of Grand Island. This day has since become known as the "Night of the Twisters."

Reanalysis for the environment that the Grand Island supercell would have been interacting with. The thick critical angle calls for high-end cyclic activity, and the thick instability profile highlights that the environment would be able to sustain quite an intense supercell. This is a loaded, classic cyclic tornado environment, and fits quite well with the tornadic behavior of the parent supercell.

View attachment 9762

Damage was very severe in town, and I have some images of the cul-de-sac which earned one of the tornadoes an F4 rating.

View attachment 9763
View attachment 9764

Elsewhere in town, several other homes were destroyed, as seen in these images below:

View attachment 9766View attachment 9765

Ah man, finally this event got mentioned in this thread. The supercells moved over the city at only 8 mph, 3 of the tornadoes were anticyclonic and most looped over their paths at least once.

Fujita's map from the damage survey. Man, I'd hate to be on this survey lol.

 

[buckeye05]

I do wonder if this tornado swept away or leveled any farmhouses that we haven’t seen yet

I’d say it’s definitely possible, but I haven’t seen any definitive proof yet. The leveled structures posted in the previous days all appear to be big industrial hen houses at an egg farm, which is EF2 to low-end EF3 damage.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Other damage photos from the Shangzhi tornado.

I also found this video of some tornado from the same day possibly the Shangzhi tornado?

尚志市局部地区发生龙卷风灾害

baijiahao.baidu.com

 

[buckeye05]

Other damage photos from the Shangzhi tornado.
View attachment 9768
View attachment 9769

I also found this video of some tornado from the same day possibly the Shangzhi tornado?

尚志市局部地区发生龙卷风灾害

baijiahao.baidu.com

Whoa. Some crazy horizontal vortices going on there in that video.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

One of the most mysterious tornadic events is the May 7, 2007 Bebejia Chad tornado. This tornado killed 14 people and injured over 100. 95% of the town was reportedly destroyed. This would be an extremely unusual location for a tornado as it is only 8 degrees north of the equator. Unfortunately, there is almost no information available online about the tornado.

 

[buckeye05]

One of the most mysterious tornadic events is the May 7, 2007 Bebejia Chad tornado. This tornado killed 14 people and injured over 100. 95% of the town was reportedly destroyed. This would be an extremely unusual location for a tornado as it is only 8 degrees north of the equator. Unfortunately, there is almost no information available online about the tornado.
View attachment 9770

Always been curious about this one, and part of me wonders if it was a tornado at all. Eyewitness reported that it lasted 20 minutes, which sounds more like a violent microburst to me.

Another interesting African tornado was the Yumbi, Congo tornado of 2003, which killed 164. Again, information is vague, and I’m not positive if it was an actual tornado or some type of extreme straight-line wind event.

 

[buckeye05]

Upon further reading, it sounds like the Yumbi event had a death toll of “only” 17. Not sure where the 164 figure came from. Still not sure what to make of the event.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

One of the best-documented tornadoes from West Africa is the April 12, 2019 Bokkos Nigeria tornado. Several homes were destroyed along with a filling station.

 

[buckeye05]

This is kind of an internet white whale of mine, but back around 2009, I once stumbled upon a very close up YouTube video of an African tornado moving through a field, I want to say in Zimbabwe or Nigeria. It was in a Serengeti type setting and at first appears to be a strong dust devil, but it intensifies with multiple vortices whipping around inside it. You can hear someone saying “Wow, very very strong wind” in a thick African accent as it uproots a large tree.

I know it’s a total shot in the dark, but does this ring a bell to anyone?

Edit: I found it! Turns it was neither Zimbabwe or Nigeria, but Congo.