Significant Tornado Events

[Marshal79344]

Some additional photos I think are noteworthy of posting:

An F3 tornado in the Indaiatuba, Brazil area on May 24th, 2005. This is the same tornado that was caught on the security camera footage.



Damage it resulted in:



San Justo Photo Dump:




A large tornado that was spawned by an isolated cyclic supercell in Argentina on December 23rd, 2008



A scene in Forestburg, IL after the March 1948 tornado arrived

 

[locomusic01]

Some additional photos I think are noteworthy of posting:

An F3 tornado in the Indaiatuba, Brazil area on May 24th, 2005. This is the same tornado that was caught on the security camera footage.

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Nice work! It's exciting to see tornadoes outside the US getting more attention in recent years. This one could just about pass for a scene from 4/27/11.

 

[locomusic01]

I did some thinking about the quote on Niles-Wheatland being around a half mile wide but the tiny core being no more than 50-100 yards, a good analog for its structure is probably Flint-Beecher MI back in 1953. It's total damage width was up to just under a half mile, but the extreme core of F5 damage was probably even smaller than Niles-Wheatland's, but of course compensating for it by being SUPER violent. Obviously the synoptic setup for Flint was different and it was a nocturnal event, but you get the idea.

Flint-Beecher was definitely similar, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a gradient quite like Niles-Wheatland. Maybe Bridge Creek-Moore in a few areas I guess. In Beecher, pretty much everything along both sides of Coldwater Road was leveled. In Niles and Hubbard, there were places where one side of the road was utterly obliterated and the other side mostly just had broken windows and shingle damage and whatnot.

I wasn't planning on using this picture for the article since the quality is terrible, but it actually does a pretty good job of highlighting the very narrow swath of extreme damage through Niles (US 422 and Niles Park Plaza are slightly above center). You can also clearly see the pretty dramatic wobble to the north (left) in a path that was otherwise unusually straight compared to most others that day:

 

[A Guy]

A large tornado that was spawned by an isolated cyclic supercell in Argentina on December 23rd, 2008

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Not Argentina, Australia - between Cooma and Nimmitabel in southern NSW. Date's correct though, so I suspect just a mistake.

 

[locomusic01]

Just re-found a bunch of 5/31/85 aerial shots I'd forgotten about. The guy I got them from wasn't sure where they were taken, but I was able to match locations for most of them using Google Earth. There are two I haven't matched up yet, so I figured I might as well share them here. I suspect they might be from somewhere along the Atlantic F4's path but I'm not sure yet. The guy thought some of the photos were from the Mesopotamia/North Bloomfield, OH F3 but none of the others were, so it could also be from that area.

 

[andyhb]

Those Pinson and San Justo photos above look pretty extreme.

 

[buckeye05]

Hey all, it sure has been a while since I've posted on this server. I have done a lot of reanalysis work while I was away, and would like to share a few things I've come across with you all. Most of the work has to do with tornadoes that occurred in the southern hemisphere.

First off, I found a wide-angle shot of the scene at Pinson, Tennessee after it was devastated by a tornado that came after dark on March 11th, 1923. The tornado was spawned during a very widespread and high-end severe weather event. The damaging winds on this day were so widespread that it was referred to as a "hurricane" in newspapers. I believe that the tornado was spawned by a supercell that was able to remain discrete just long enough to produce the tornado. The tornado did not last long, which would fit perfectly with the messy warm sector I had in mind, occluding due to a convective merger.

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Next, I came across two very intriguing tornado scars in southern Paraguay, one of which was exceptionally large and unusually violent for that area. I knew that they had appeared not too long before 1965, and reanalysis data indicated that they appeared on August 23rd, 1963, the same day where Dr. King delivered his legendary "I have a Dream" speech.

The two scars

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Reanalysis for the exact location of the tornado scar at 4:00 PM on August 23rd, 1963. I don't think the SHARPpy algorithm is used to southern hemisphere profiles, explaining why the possible hazard type says "SVR" instead of "PDS TOR." This sounding would generally be too dry to support convection, but the kinematics matched up perfectly with the occurrence of the tornado. After the big one dissipated, no other tornadoes appeared to be produced by the parent supercell responsible.

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Another tornado scar in this region appeared sometime in 1978, which reanalysis data helped me conclude that it likely appeared on July 19th, 1978. This data was supported by GOES-2 Satellite Imagery that was available at that time.

The 1978 scar was the only one I found that did not move due SE, rather taking an ENE path, making this one a big unique. It was also unusually large and had a tree damage swath of nearly a mile wide.

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Reanalysis Data for the location where the tornado occurred at 4:00 PM on July 19th, 1978. Once again, ERA5 was too dry for convective initiation but other evidence makes it likely that it occurred on July 19th.

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A Brazilian tornado that recently caught my eye occurred on August 29th, 2005 during a very high-end and widespread severe weather outbreak. It was not big in size, but it was big in intensity. Several brick homes in the town of Muitos Capões were simply swept away, and businesses were badly damaged. The tornado scar was detected on LANDSAT imagery in November. It was estimated to have been an F3 but I have some doubts.

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Now, we'll take a trip down under with, at least from a meteorological point of view, a very unique tornado event. It occurred not far from Darwin, Australia on the early hours of March 1st, 2007. Yes, the same day that a tornado in the opposite hemisphere visited Enterprise, Alabama with serious but lucky consequences. The tornado passed extremely close to a ranger's station in Kakadu State Park, doing massive tree damage. What's most stunning about the tornado, however, is that IT MOVED WEST-NORTHWEST FOR ITS WHOEL LIFESPAN. This is something I have NOT seen a tornado in any hemisphere do before (save for landspouts and a few tornadoes associated with marginal kinematic support). I'll let this news article below speak for itself:

"Rangers at Kakadu National Park had a lucky escape when a powerful tornado carved a trail of destruction through forest near the Mary River Ranger Station two weeks ago. Two unoccupied caravans were totally destroyed and many trees were snapped and felled around the rangers� houses and office. Park ranger Rob Muller said that the noise of the spinning wind was loud like an industrial machine and could be heard for at least 10 minutes as the tornado approached in the dark, then moved slowly away."

Reanalysis sounding from the event

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EF3-level damage from the tornado

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The most bizarre tornado of them all touched down in the country you'd least expect, New Zealand in the early morning hours of August 15th, 2004 (local time), north of the city of Waitara. This tornado was associated with a very big and powerful low-pressure system that was located right off the coast of New Zealand. It formed as a waterspout offshore before it made its way ashore, destroying paddocks and snapping power lines. The most jaw-dropping damage occurred next when the tornado cored a farmhouse and an outbuilding. The farmhouse was picked up from its foundation and then thrown to the ground a distance away from the foundation, the impact forces appeared to completely destroy the home. Debris was wind-rowed for an extremely long distance through nearby fields, supposedly over 400 yards but I have doubts that this claim is true. The 4 people inside the home were seriously injured and two of them succumbed to the storm. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in finding images from this event, but it clearly is the strongest tornado to have impacted New Zealand to date. Photos would clear a lot of doubt about this event, and I will update you all if I am successful. For now, the doubts remain.

That Muitos Capoes damage does look potentially violent. I have noticed that a lot of South American survey teams are pretty conservative with their ratings. The F3 Xanxere, Brazil wedge of 2015 was listed as an F2 for quite a while until post-analysis, even though it leveled homes and debarked trees. Yet on the other hand, the 2018 Ciriaco, Brazil F4 was given a violent rating despite producing damage that didn’t seem as intense as some South American F3s.

Not to say that we’re that much more consistent with ratings up here in the States though lol.

 

[buckeye05]

Those Pinson and San Justo photos above look pretty extreme.

Been looking for Pinson photos forever. Looks like the total obliteration/wipeout of the town that Grazulis described is accurate. I can see why it’s considered Tennessee’s only other F5 event besides Lawrenceburg 1998 (though based on info from loco’s blog, I personally believe that the Sumner County tornado from the 1925 Tri-State tornado meets F5 criteria too).

Also, the bit about pieces of human remains being found over a mile outside of Pinson always struck me as particularly horrific and gruesome.

 

[buckeye05]

Does anybody know why the 1929 Sneed, AR tornado is considered the only F5 in Arkansas history? I’ve dug around for info and photos, but never found anything that remarkable. The aftermath photos and survivor accounts from other violent AR tornadoes like Judsonia and Warren seem just as bad, if not worse than Sneed.

I assume there are some important details that got lost to time?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Does anybody know why the 1929 Sneed, AR tornado is considered the only F5 in Arkansas history? I’ve dug around for info and photos, but never found anything that remarkable. The aftermath photos and survivor accounts from other violent AR tornadoes like Judsonia and Warren seem just as bad, if not worse than Sneed.

I assume there are some important details that got lost to time?

Here's a forum with some damage photos from Sneed and other tornadoes from that outbreak. The damage in the Sneed area seems to be pretty violent (debarked/denuded trees, obliterated buildings, mangled automobiles being thrown hundreds of yards, etc.) but the poor quality makes it a bit difficult to fully know for sure. FWIW Grazulis lists it as an F5, here's a snapshot of his entry on it:

1929-04-10 Sneed, AR

On April 10, 1929, a small but very intense tornado outbreak occurred across northeastern Arkansas. It began with a large F4 tornado which struck Guion, destroying all but four of the town's 150 buildings. A concrete block bank was demolished and its vault was blown open. A number of homes were...

web.archive.org

 

[Marshal79344]

Some Sneed photos I found:

 

[locomusic01]

Once upon a time, I was planning on writing a short article on the 6/1/90 Bakersfield Valley tornado. I still might eventually, but in the meantime I don't think I've ever posted most of the photos I collected for it. So first and foremost, part of the 300-ft section of Co-Op Road that was scoured:

As most of y'all probably know, it was reported that the tornado scoured out a huge swath of land (variously reported at anywhere from half a mile to a mile wide), leaving "nothing but dirt and rocks." The super poor quality Storm Data photos appeared to back that up, but it seemed implausible to me that any tornado could produce scouring that intense and widespread. It still does tbh, and yet..

Assorted mangled vehicle parts:

A truck that was thrown by the tornado, killing the driver:

Snapped utility pole:

Assorted wreckage (including the remains of some sort of large truck):

Some sort of tank that was torn apart?:

A very dead cow:

Assorted oilfield equipment:

 

[locomusic01]

Also here are a few from the Guion, AR F4 that struck the same day as Sneed:

This was after some cleanup/rebuilding had occurred:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Once upon a time, I was planning on writing a short article on the 6/1/90 Bakersfield Valley tornado. I still might eventually, but in the meantime I don't think I've ever posted most of the photos I collected for it. So first and foremost, part of the 300-ft section of Co-Op Road that was scoured:

As most of y'all probably know, it was reported that the tornado scoured out a huge swath of land (variously reported at anywhere from half a mile to a mile wide), leaving "nothing but dirt and rocks." The super poor quality Storm Data photos appeared to back that up, but it seemed implausible to me that any tornado could produce scouring that intense and widespread. It still does tbh, and yet..

Assorted mangled vehicle parts:

A truck that was thrown by the tornado, killing the driver:

Snapped utility pole:

Assorted wreckage (including the remains of some sort of large truck):

Some sort of tank that was torn apart?:

A very dead cow:

Assorted oilfield equipment:

So for the ground scouring, those two photo just look like desert sand, is that the scouring in question? It'd be nice to have a further aerial view to be able to see where the scouring starts and ends.

 

[locomusic01]

So for the ground scouring, those two photo just look like desert sand, is that the scouring in question? It'd be nice to have a further aerial view to be able to see where the scouring starts and ends.

That was my impression as well, but the photos were apparently taken within the swath you can see in the poor quality Storm Data aerial:

And both newspaper accounts and people who were there mentioned that grass, greasewood/mesquite shrubs, etc. was scoured out for up to a mile in some areas. I'm still not totally sure what to make of it. Even in loose, sandy sort of soil like that it seems hard to imagine that basically every vestige of plant life could be removed in an area stretching a number of miles in length and 1/2 - 1 mile in width.

Of course, it also seems hard to imagine that a tornado could do some of the other things we know the Bakersfield Valley tornado did, so..

 

[locomusic01]

As an example of the news reports:

 

[andyhb]

Also here are a few from the Guion, AR F4 that struck the same day as Sneed:

This event (and honestly April 1929 as a whole) is probably worth more investigation than it gets. There was also the F4 that hit Princedale.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That was my impression as well, but the photos were apparently taken within the swath you can see in the poor quality Storm Data aerial:

And both newspaper accounts and people who were there mentioned that grass, greasewood/mesquite shrubs, etc. was scoured out for up to a mile in some areas. I'm still not totally sure what to make of it. Even in loose, sandy sort of soil like that it seems hard to imagine that basically every vestige of plant life could be removed in an area stretching a number of miles in length and 1/2 - 1 mile in width.

Of course, it also seems hard to imagine that a tornado could do some of the other things we know the Bakersfield Valley tornado did, so..

I'm wondering if lots of this was just layers of loose sand and desert dirt/mud/rock that was blown away, so perhaps not exactly ground scouring? Not sure.
I guess there's no way to colorize the Storm Data photographs? It seems like so many of their publications had low-quality B&W photos, wonder why?
I think what contributed to a lot of this tornado's incredible damage is the lack of structures in the area, objects could be thrown as far as possible and extremely wide instances of damage could occur.
Also, that photo on the left, the scouring is the white patch near the top, right? What are the narrow white lines below?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This event (and honestly April 1929 as a whole) is probably worth more investigation than it gets. There was also the F4 that hit Princedale.

Based on Grazulis' details on it and the damage photographs available if definitely seems to have been really intense and yet another poorly documented outbreak in the Southern United States. Arkansas has had a surprising amount of violent tornadoes and yet no official F5s.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

As an example of the news reports:

Not related to Bakersfield Valley, but to 5/31/85. The comment from user "coriolis" is of interest, as he mentions having taken photographs from the storm and apparently went up to the Moshannon State Forest area after the tornado went through and saw the mangled fire tower. Perhaps you could track him down and get him to share his photo collection....

20 years ago today, deadly tornado outbreak in OH, PA, NY - STORM2K