Significant Tornado Events

[TH2002]

Here's an image from Chandler I always found impressive but am still not sure if this is intense ground scouring or a farm field that had no grass to begin with.

 

[andyhb]

Re: the 5/31/1985 damage vids above, none of that is ever really featured in the pictures of the aftermath in most spots. More proof of the "a house that is partially destroyed gets more hits than one that is gone" idea.

Those are very supportive of the F4/F5 ratings.

 

[buckeye05]

The more I look at the Barrie aftermath, the more I see that this was an extremely violent tornado, likely with F5 potential. Those homes and industrial buildings are destroyed in a fashion consistent with the most violent of tornadoes. Might be a little bit of grass scouring too.

Also, it produced arguably the most violent vehicle damage I’ve ever seen in Canada. There’s a crazy black and white photo of the remains of a totally obliterated, stripped down car in Barrie, twisted around a completely debarked tree trunk with nothing left but a mud-spattered chassis and some tires.

 

[buckeye05]

Here's an image from Chandler I always found impressive but am still not sure if this is intense ground scouring or a farm field that had no grass to begin with.
View attachment 10261

I didn’t think so at first, but after zooming in, that appears to be legit scouring, albeit with crops rather than grass. You can see the sharply defined edge of the scouring path in the background, with rows of unscoured crops visible.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So here's a brief aerial view of the hardest-hit area in Barrie. It starts with a neighborhood along Patterson Rd, where five people were killed and a number of homes were just completely obliterated, and then moves on to the Morrow Rd industrial park that we've talked about here before.



And a couple short aerial shots from downtown Atlantic. The most intense damage was actually outside of town, but it's not hard to see why it was reported that Atlantic had been "wiped off the map":

Barrie's wind-rowing of those homes reminds me of Andover; also the damage swath appears relatively narrow; did this tornado have a tiny core like Niles-Wheatland or was the entire tornado itself pretty narrow overall?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The more I look at the Barrie aftermath, the more I see that this was an extremely violent tornado, likely with F5 potential. Those homes and industrial buildings are destroyed in a fashion consistent with the most violent of tornadoes. Might be a little bit of grass scouring too.

Also, it produced arguably the most violent vehicle damage I’ve ever seen in Canada. There’s a crazy black and white photo of the remains of a totally obliterated, stripped down car in Barrie, twisted around a completely debarked tree trunk with nothing left but a mud-spattered chassis and some tires.
View attachment 10262

The damage it did to the factory buildings is the most violent I've seen to industrial buildings in Canada.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Might as well post this photo while on the topic of Barrie:



The only known photograph of the Barrie tornado in progress; it was completely rain-wrapped and likely caught its victims off guard.

To quote the source:

"1200 DPI HD scan of the original photograph that Gary Crawford donated to OTW. This is the only known photo of the Barrie Tornado taken by Gary Crawford. He took this photo on Hwy 11, right beside the Drive In Theatre in Guthrie (on the edge of Oro).
I checked on the original photo to see if that white thing in the air is a scratch. Nope. That's debris. The photo was mint."

Source:

Barrie, ON F4 Tornado of May 31, 1985 — Highways & Hailstones

Recounting the F4 tornado that struck Barrie, Ontario, Canada on May 31, 1985

highwaysandhailstones.com

 

[buckeye05]

Might as well post this photo while on the topic of Barrie:

View attachment 10263

The only known photograph of the Barrie tornado in progress; it was completely rain-wrapped and likely caught its victims off guard.

To quote the source:

"1200 DPI HD scan of the original photograph that Gary Crawford donated to OTW. This is the only known photo of the Barrie Tornado taken by Gary Crawford. He took this photo on Hwy 11, right beside the Drive In Theatre in Guthrie (on the edge of Oro).
I checked on the original photo to see if that white thing in the air is a scratch. Nope. That's debris. The photo was mint."

Source:

Barrie, ON F4 Tornado of May 31, 1985 — Highways & Hailstones

Recounting the F4 tornado that struck Barrie, Ontario, Canada on May 31, 1985

highwaysandhailstones.com

Chilling photo. Looks more like an approaching haboob/dust storm than a tornado.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Chilling photo. Looks more like an approaching haboob/dust storm than a tornado.

I think Joplin looked like in portions of its path, only even darker; I wonder if the Tri-State looked like that in certain portions of its path, especially when it got completely rain-wrapped and eyewitnesses couldn't tell what was approaching them.
I also wonder if Barrie would have been rated F5 had it stayed on land instead of moving offshore onto Lake Simcoe nearby, it seems like it may have been increasing in intensity as it moving offshore.

 

[locomusic01]

The more I look at the Barrie aftermath, the more I see that this was an extremely violent tornado, likely with F5 potential. Those homes and industrial buildings are destroyed in a fashion consistent with the most violent of tornadoes. Might be a little bit of grass scouring too.

Also, it produced arguably the most violent vehicle damage I’ve ever seen in Canada. There’s a crazy black and white photo of the remains of a totally obliterated, stripped down car in Barrie, twisted around a completely debarked tree trunk with nothing left but a mud-spattered chassis and some tires.
View attachment 10262

This happened in the same area as the aerial shot I posted, where the five people were killed. The damage there was exceptionally violent and IMO had all the hallmarks of F5 intensity - vehicles thrown long distances and mangled, homes swept away & wind-rowed, debris granulated, extreme vegetation damage, etc.

Here's a better shot of that vehicle:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This happened in the same area as the aerial shot I posted, where the five people were killed. The damage there was exceptionally violent and IMO had all the hallmarks of F5 intensity - vehicles thrown long distances and mangled, homes swept away & wind-rowed, debris granulated, extreme vegetation damage, etc.

Here's a better shot of that vehicle:

Holy crap, this shot reminds me of Udall and Bridge-Creek Moore with the twisted, stripped chassis, debarked trees and possible ground scouring. Barrie definitely would have been rated F5 in the US, but in Canada they are typically conservative when it comes to tornado ratings.

 

[locomusic01]

Barrie's wind-rowing of those homes reminds me of Andover; also the damage swath appears relatively narrow; did this tornado have a tiny core like Niles-Wheatland or was the entire tornado itself pretty narrow overall?

Like a few of the other tornadoes that day, it sort of pulsed in size. It was fairly narrow (300-ish yards) at that point, with the most violent damage confined to about 100 yards or so. At a few other points, it was closer to 500-600 yards. The overall intensity at those points was lower, but the worst damage extended more like 200-300+ yards.

I also wonder if Barrie would have been rated F5 had it stayed on land instead of moving offshore onto Lake Simcoe nearby, it seems like it may have been increasing in intensity as it moving offshore.

It weakened dramatically about a mile and a half from the shore - to the point that you have to look closely to find any damage at all - before very rapidly intensifying, expanding and becoming violent again. Then it started to weaken once more, but that was probably due to the cooler, more stable air near the lake. Hard to say what would've happened without the lake, but it's striking how quickly it reintensified.

Here's a rough outline of the intensity throughout the path:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Like a few of the other tornadoes that day, it sort of pulsed in size. It was fairly narrow (300-ish yards) at that point, with the most violent damage confined to about 100 yards or so. At a few other points, it was closer to 500-600 yards. The overall intensity at those points was lower, but the worst damage extended more like 200-300+ yards.


It weakened dramatically about a mile and a half from the shore - to the point that you have to look closely to find any damage at all - before very rapidly intensifying, expanding and becoming violent again. Then it started to weaken once more, but that was probably due to the cooler, more stable air near the lake. Hard to say what would've happened without the lake, but it's striking how quickly it reintensified.

Here's a rough outline of the intensity throughout the path:

Interesting how you put a possible F5 area of damage on this map; is this where the mangled vehicle, 5 fatalities and industrial park damage occurred?
Out of the two in Ontario, would you say Barrie or Grand Valley was the more violent based on what you've managed to dig up?
Also, did anyone get a good look at this thing when it was moving over water, or was it rain-wrapped until the end? Were there any fatalities involving boats/barges on the water or not?

 

[locomusic01]

Holy crap, this shot reminds me of Udall and Bridge-Creek Moore with the twisted, stripped chassis, debarked trees and possible ground scouring. Barrie definitely would have been rated F5 in the US, but in Canada they are typically conservative when it comes to tornado ratings.

I don't wanna share everything yet, but the ground scouring shows up better in a number of other photos. It's not extreme like you might see in the Plains, but it's pretty clear. Trees and low-lying shrubs along the highway were also extensively debarked/denuded, and some of the photos just sort of have "the look" that immediately screams violent tornado.

One other thing I wasn't going to share yet, but I can't help myself. I don't feel like typing it back out so I'll just share the paragraph from my article:

The funnel began to contract as it crossed Essa Road and climbed a modest rise into Allandale Heights. Despite its waning intensity, it sheared the top floors off an entire townhouse complex surrounding Adelaide Street. Homes along Debra Crescent and Innisfil Street were also hit hard. One home was nearly flattened by the crumpled sleeper cab of a semi truck, believed to have been thrown from the vicinity of Highway 400 — a distance of nearly half a mile.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I don't wanna share everything yet, but the ground scouring shows up better in a number of other photos. It's not extreme like you might see in the Plains, but it's pretty clear. Trees and low-lying shrubs along the highway were also extensively debarked/denuded, and some of the photos just sort of have "the look" that immediately screams violent tornado.

One other thing I wasn't going to share yet, but I can't help myself. I don't feel like typing it back out so I'll just share the paragraph from my article:

I'll try to stop asking questions at this point lol....I feel like this thread has 50% ruined your article lol.
Also, how far along are you? Over halfway or still a ways to go?

 

[locomusic01]

Interesting how you put a possible F5 area of damage on this map; is this where the mangled vehicle, 5 fatalities and industrial park damage occurred?
Out of the two in Ontario, would you say Barrie or Grand Valley was the more violent based on what you've managed to dig up?
Also, did anyone get a good look at this thing when it was moving over water, or was it rain-wrapped until the end? Were there any fatalities involving boats/barges on the water or not?

Yes, that's the Patterson Road neighborhood and the industrial park. You can see the locations of fatalities marked by little numbered balloons. Grand Valley was legitimately violent in a few areas, but I haven't seen anything from that tornado that compares to Barrie. Of course, it was also at its most intense in rural areas where there just wasn't much to hit.

I dunno about a good look, but several people saw it traveling out over the bay. As far as I know, no one was actually in close proximity to it on the water though. And speaking of the bay - most of the official accounts mention that the marina at the bay was destroyed, boats and their concrete anchors "disappeared," etc.. but I talked to the man who owned it at the time and he said they didn't even use that type of anchor and nothing "disappeared." Some of the wooden structures were knocked down, larger boats were tossed around a bit and a flat-bottomed aluminum boat was hurled 300 yards and wrapped around a tree, but that was about it.

 

[locomusic01]

I'll try to stop asking questions at this point lol....I feel like this thread has 50% ruined your article lol.
Also, how far along are you? Over halfway or still a ways to go?

Hard to say since I'm not sure how long each section will be. I'm done with Moshannon, Beaver Falls, Johnstown, Corry, Barrie, Tionesta and a handful of smaller ones. Partly done with Atlantic and Niles-Wheatland. Up to around 13,000 words altogether, but still a lot of work to do. I have a bad habit of vastly underestimating how much I'll be sucked into a project like this and end up making so much more work for myself than I ever anticipated. I'm sure you couldn't tell lol

 

[locomusic01]

Re: the 5/31/1985 damage vids above, none of that is ever really featured in the pictures of the aftermath in most spots. More proof of the "a house that is partially destroyed gets more hits than one that is gone" idea.

Those are very supportive of the F4/F5 ratings.

Yup. The most photographed structure in Atlantic - by far! - is a house that was sort of cut in half and probably would've warranted an F2-F3 rating. It also happens to be the least damaged structure in the entire area. It's insane. Most of Atlantic was virtually gone and several homesteads outside of town were freakin' vaporized, but you'd never know it if you just saw the most common photos and videos out there.

Same deal with Barrie, where most of the focus was on the Allandale area where townhouses lost their top floors and a bunch of houses sustained F2-F3 type damage. And maybe the most ridiculous example comes from Wheatland. There were two large hotels in town - one of them near the edge of the path lost its roof and basically suffered cosmetic damage, while another near the center of the path was utterly demolished, killing two people. Guess which one it's nearly impossible to find photos & videos of?

I've come to expect this phenomenon, but that one even surprises me. The Shenango Hotel was a huge old Victorian-style institution that was very well-known in the area; you'd think that building being reduced to a pile of jagged rubble would've at least warranted a bit of attention. Same deal with the industrial damage as well. The one facility that it's relatively easy to find images of in Wheatland (Sawhill Tubular) is basically the only facility that wasn't completely mangled in F5 fashion. Go figure.

 

[locomusic01]

BTW I can't remember if I posted this before and I don't feel like checking, so I'll just put it here. It's a very short aerial clip from the Orangeville section of the Grand Valley F4 track. Hard to see because of the poor quality, but you can kinda make out the track of the tornado through the fields as well as the destroyed farms:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yup. The most photographed structure in Atlantic - by far! - is a house that was sort of cut in half and probably would've warranted an F2-F3 rating. It also happens to be the least damaged structure in the entire area. It's insane. Most of Atlantic was virtually gone and several homesteads outside of town were freakin' vaporized, but you'd never know it if you just saw the most common photos and videos out there.

Same deal with Barrie, where most of the focus was on the Allandale area where townhouses lost their top floors and a bunch of houses sustained F2-F3 type damage. And maybe the most ridiculous example comes from Wheatland. There were two large hotels in town - one of them near the edge of the path lost its roof and basically suffered cosmetic damage, while another near the center of the path was utterly demolished, killing two people. Guess which one it's nearly impossible to find photos & videos of?

I've come to expect this phenomenon, but that one even surprises me. The Shenango Hotel was a huge old Victorian-style institution that was very well-known in the area; you'd think that building being reduced to a pile of jagged rubble would've at least warranted a bit of attention. Same deal with the industrial damage as well. The one facility that it's relatively easy to find images of in Wheatland (Sawhill Tubular) is basically the only facility that wasn't completely mangled in F5 fashion. Go figure.

This video shows that problem....at 2:25 or so the newscaster has a photo of Sawhill Tubular and identifies it as the Yourga Trucking Company....I guess it's easier to recognize so it gets more views?




Tornadotalk has some links to FB albums with F5 damage in Wheatland: https://www.tornadotalk.com/may-31-1985-tornado-outbreak/

This album has some incredible pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150209837408773&type=3