That's absurd and should've led to some sort of discipline if that's what happened. There are definitely people who subscribe to that school of thought (one of the former mets at BGM once told me the same thing), but I've never heard of refusing to issue a tornado warning on those grounds.
I can’t understand how any professional meteorologist would even subscribe to that school of thought. There have been countless examples of QLCS tornadoes caught on video which show a clear condensation funnel from the cloud to the ground (Beavercreek 2015, El Reno 2019, Kokomo 2013, and Naperville 2021 just to name a few off the top of my head). Videos of these events show a violently rotating column of air extending from the cloud base to the ground.
The only coherent argument I've ever heard is that QLCS tornadoes are generally weak and/or transitory and hard to warn effectively (either you miss too many real tornadoes or you fire off too many false alarms), so it's better from a public messaging standpoint to fold them into severe warnings. The idea being that a severe warning implies the potential for destructive winds anyway, so the difference is moot.
I don't doubt that there were many weaker (F0-F1) tornadoes that occurred that day that weren't documented, as that was pretty typical for most tornado outbreaks until the 1990s or so. It also wouldn't surprise me if there were a bunch of satellite tornadoes that occurred with many of the major tornadoes that day that weren't documented
I can't find any mentions of the "rotating tornado-like winds" wording on the severe tstm warnings in my archives of the Cool TX tornado. I did hear from an SPC forecaster on Twitter once that he believes there is an "overuse and focus on QCLS tornadoes."
Weird. I hope it’s not a false memory or that I’m confusing two unrelated events. But I distinctly remember there being the words “tornado-like” in the warning text associated with what was clearly a QLCS spinup, and I remember other weather enthusiasts on a separate forum being totally dumbfounded by the wording.
I've been trying to save everything for my article, but I can't help myself. One of the other tornadoes that caused notable vegetation damage (and one that I think was underrated) was the Beaver Falls F3. Same one I mentioned earlier re: debris transport. This is from one of the homes where a fatality occurred. The woman's nephew said that a number of trees on the property were stripped bare and some of the grass was torn up.
He said the family has photos somewhere, so I'm hoping he can locate them and/or I can find some better shots from this property. It actually caused pretty significant damage throughout much of its ~40-mile path.
Nothing egregious, really. I think Beaver Falls certainly could've warranted an F4 rating, and potentially in a few different areas. Actually surprised it didn't. Tionesta produced some really impressive contextual damage, but nothing I've found that'd clearly suggest F5. Same for Atlantic-Cherrytree. Neither hit very many structures when they were at their most intense, and even fewer structures were directly in the core of the path. I wouldn't be shocked if one or both reached that intensity at some point, though.
I've never been able to find many pictures from Grand Valley, and all the ones I have the damage isn't any more then in the F2-F3 range, this photo is interesting to me for that reason. I do think Grand Valley's path is the longest tornado path ever surveyed in Canada to this day.Nothing egregious, really. I think Beaver Falls certainly could've warranted an F4 rating, and potentially in a few different areas. Actually surprised it didn't. Tionesta produced some really impressive contextual damage, but nothing I've found that'd clearly suggest F5. Same for Atlantic-Cherrytree. Neither hit very many structures when they were at their most intense, and even fewer structures were directly in the core of the path. I wouldn't be shocked if one or both reached that intensity at some point, though.
Moshannon's even trickier because there was literally almost nothing substantial in most of its path. Lots of trees obviously, but even then it's hard to get really high-end tree damage in a forest that thick. Some summer/hunting cabins were destroyed but they weren't exactly well-built, and the PermaGrain facility wasn't really struck directly. The vast majority of the significant structural damage was near the beginning of the path, south of Penfield, which is before it really exploded.
The Johnstown, OH F3 is another underrated candidate, and one that I don't think most people know much about. Possibly Saegertown-Centerville as well, but I'm still working on researching that so I'm only basing that on like two properties so far.
Oh! And while I don't necessarily think either was an F5 candidate, both the Barrie and Grand Valley F4s appear to have been more impressive than I'd always assumed before starting my research. Barrie was very likely the stronger of the two, but Grand Valley seems to be largely overshadowed. The thing was on the ground for 72 miles, yet the info/photos most people encounter come almost exclusively from the immediate GV area. It produced some pretty intense damage just based on what I've been able to dig up so far, particularly further east along the path.
For example, this home just south of Tottenham was reportedly "blown away" (except for the toilet) and scattered far downstream.
Obviously can't tell much about the construction here, and the tree in the background being only lightly damaged raises some questions, but the tornado was also quite narrow through this area. Probably not a case of a really well-anchored home being swept away, but even doing this to a home of more modest construction is fairly significant. Not far from this area, the tornado also tossed a combine roughly half a mile and apparently tore it up pretty good. Trying to find out what kind to get an idea of the weight, but figure several tons.
I'm not sure I can think of a more anomalous event in the historical record. The 1944 Apps outbreak might be the closest comparison, but obviously the scale was much smaller. Also can't help wondering what we might've missed due to Lake Erie (and Ontario to a lesser extent).
I'm still working on digging up more, but it's been a frustratingly slow process. It seems the Corbetton F3 may have been pretty powerful as well, but that's feeling like even more of a wild goose chase lol
Interesting, I thought its path ended at Lake Simcoe, seems like that one tornado from the 1953 Waco outbreak that spent most of its life over Lake Michigan so there's way to know for sure how long it lasted. I mentioned further back in this thread that it wouldn't surprise me if several tornadoes touched down on Lake Erie and/or Lake Ontario and weren't recorded because, really, how could track a path entirely over water?
Man, imagine a giant multivortex wedge going across one of the Great Lakes; once in a lifetime moment, right there. Also, imagine if there were a group of stormchasers that pursued it on boat, wonder how long until something like that actually happens.
