Significant Tornado Events

[MNTornadoGuy]

The tornado also dismembered cars, some axles and tires near a county road
View attachment 11620View attachment 11621View attachment 11622View attachment 11623
and....what's this? ground digging or some impact marks from heavy object?
View attachment 11624
Semis thrown into the Manitoba Lake
View attachment 11625

The mark in the 2nd to last photo is where a tree was ripped out of the ground.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

One of the worst documented cases of F/EF5 damage in the post-1995 era is the 1998 Birmingham AL tornado. No clear photos of the F5 damage exist. These photos are probably close to the F5 damage area.

 

[buckeye05]

One of the worst documented cases of F/EF5 damage in the post-1995 era is the 1998 Birmingham AL tornado. No clear photos of the F5 damage exist. These photos are probably close to the F5 damage area.

View attachment 11626
View attachment 11627

From what I have heard, this one probably shouldn't have received an F5 rating, as it pretty much only swept away poorly built CMU foundation homes. Plus, it was initially rated F4, but was later upgraded to F5 following an aerial survey of the damage path. The problems with using an aerial flyover in which no real details can be ascertained as basis for such a significant upgrade, are self evident.

However, one pretty impressive thing that I did hear, but never have been able to confirm about this one, is that at one house, it supposedly pulled concrete sidewalk slabs out of the ground from a walkway that led to where the front door was. Someone mentioned it on the old forum, but no photographic evidence was provided, and I haven't heard anything else about it.

 

[andyhb]

Holy excrement at those photos from Vilonia.

 

[locomusic01]

From what I have heard, this one probably shouldn't have received an F5 rating, as it pretty much only swept away poorly built CMU foundation homes. Plus, it was initially rated F4, but was later upgraded to F5 following an aerial survey of the damage path. The problems with using an aerial flyover in which no real details can be ascertained as basis for such a significant upgrade, are self evident.

However, one pretty impressive thing that I did hear, but never have been able to confirm about this one, is that at one house, it supposedly pulled concrete sidewalk slabs out of the ground from a walkway that led to where the front door was. Someone mentioned it on the old forum, but no photographic evidence was provided, and I haven't heard anything else about it.

I have a log of all the photos taken during the survey, but I only have a handful of the photos themselves. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I even got them from lol. Anyway, definitely not what you'd call well-constructed homes, at least in the photos I have available.

 

[andyhb]

A concrete(?) safety house was almost torn down, you can see the hard brick and concrete pieces around the safety house

Was this the same safe room where someone was killed because the door was not built to code?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

One of the most significant September tornado outbreaks is the 9/13-14/1928 Upper Midwest tornado outbreak. This is one of the "big three" September tornado outbreaks to hit the Upper Midwest along with the 1894 and 1924 outbreaks. 14 significant tornadoes occurred, 3 of which were violent. The first major tornado of this event was the infamous Pender NE F4.

This large and extremely violent tornado family moved from 5 miles SSW of Pender to north of Dakota City. The tornado is most notable for destroying 3 schools where sadly 3 students/teachers were killed. One of the worst-hit schools was the James School which was completely obliterated and swept away with pieces of two cars parked at the school being scattered up to a mile. The Lamere School was swept clean, with "all that remains is a single row of bricks around the foundation." Corn crops along the tornado's path were "husked, shredded, and leveled to the ground," two farms were completely destroyed at possible F5 intensity according to Grazulis, and a 25-acre grove of cottonwood trees was "completely leveled."

The second violent tornado of this outbreak touched down NE of Utica SD and moved through the town of Davis. One farm was completely swept away near Irene. In this rural area, road machinery reportedly weighing several tons was lofted and dropped "some distance away," a grove of large trees was devastated only leaving bare trunks, and three people were killed on farms. The tornado then cut a 200-yard wide swath through Davis. In Davis, the devastation was immense with a brick post office being destroyed, numerous businesses were completely destroyed along with homes, a boxcar was lifted off its tracks, an automobile had its motor torn out, and debris was strewn for long distances. Amazingly only one person was killed in Davis.

The outbreak continued to the next day, affecting IL, WI, and MI. The deadliest tornado of the outbreak would occur on this day, the Rockford IL F4. A three-story chair factory was destroyed resulting in 8 deaths, and multiple homes were leveled. This was probably the weakest violent tornado of the outbreak.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

One of the most significant September tornado outbreaks is the 9/13-14/1928 Upper Midwest tornado outbreak. This is one of the "big three" September tornado outbreaks to hit the Upper Midwest along with the 1894 and 1924 outbreaks. 14 significant tornadoes occurred, 3 of which were violent. The first major tornado of this event was the infamous Pender NE F4.

This large and extremely violent tornado family moved from 5 miles SSW of Pender to north of Dakota City. The tornado is most notable for destroying 3 schools where sadly 3 students/teachers were killed. One of the worst-hit schools was the James School which was completely obliterated and swept away with pieces of two cars parked at the school being scattered up to a mile. The Lamere School was swept clean, with "all that remains is a single row of bricks around the foundation." Corn crops along the tornado's path were "husked, shredded, and leveled to the ground," two farms were completely destroyed at possible F5 intensity according to Grazulis, and a 25-acre grove of cottonwood trees was "completely leveled."

The second violent tornado of this outbreak touched down NE of Utica SD and moved through the town of Davis. One farm was completely swept away near Irene. In this rural area, road machinery reportedly weighing several tons was lofted and dropped "some distance away," a grove of large trees was devastated only leaving bare trunks, and three people were killed on farms. The tornado then cut a 200-yard wide swath through Davis. In Davis, the devastation was immense with a brick post office being destroyed, numerous businesses were completely destroyed along with homes, a boxcar was lifted off its tracks, an automobile had its motor torn out, and debris was strewn for long distances. Amazingly only one person was killed in Davis.
View attachment 11631
View attachment 11632
View attachment 11634

The outbreak continued to the next day, affecting IL, WI, and MI. The deadliest tornado of the outbreak would occur on this day, the Rockford IL F4. A three-story chair factory was destroyed resulting in 8 deaths, and multiple homes were leveled. This was probably the weakest violent tornado of the outbreak.

I've been trying to find info on September outbreaks, this was a really good post.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Another winter outbreak that doesn't get mentioned much is the November 1992 outbreak, sometimes called the Widespread Outbreak. It was (and still is) one of the most geographically widespread events on record, the extent and violence of it reminds me somewhat of the November 2002 Veterans Days weekend outbreak. The most violent and deadliest tornado from this event was an extremely long-tracked tornado that traveled 128 miles and lasted over 2.5 hours through Mississippi. It was a fast-moving nighttime tornado and it some ways reminds me of Mayfield (late at night, long-lasting, extremely violent). This tornado was responsible for 12 deaths, 8 of the 12 being in mobile home parks.

The tornado talk article on it:

Brandon/Rankin County, MS F4 Tornado – November 21-22, 1992 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

NOAA article on it:

NWS Jackson, MS--November 21-22, 1992 Tornado Outbreak

WLBT article on it: https://www.wlbt.com/story/36902118...992-tornado-outbreak-on-its-25th-anniversary/

The most notable instance of damage that I can find a clear photograph of is of this large, well-constructed, brick mansion in the Easthaven subdivision of Jackson that was obliterated, killing all 4 occupants immediately. One of the occupants' bodies was found a quarter mile away from the foundation.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I screwed this post up the first time, so I'll retry with more added context and visual evidence.

This is neat, a compilation of violent tornadoes that have struck the state of Alabama. Of note is the tornado that struck Hackleburg in 1943 and a handful of damage photographs from Guin I've never seen before. There was also a tornado that killed an entire family of 6 in Lawrence County (presumably one of the Tanner tornadoes but not entirely sure):


https://www.al.com/living/2017/02/vintage_photos_of_tornado_dama.html

The Guin photographs (the second one is what stands out the most to me, the others not so much):










Not from the article but another blurry image of Guin damage that's probably made it's rounds here before but I noticed a detail that I didn't the first time I saw it due to the bad quality:



I put a red line parallel to it so you can follow the path but you can see a massive streak of wind-rowing originating from what looks like slabbed foundations.

 

[pohnpei]

Was this the same safe room where someone was killed because the door was not built to code?

No This was in downtown Vilonia. The one killed because door wasn't built to code was in Mayflower.
I always think Vilonia's damage was on par with Bridge Creek, Smithville etc. No kidding.

 

[buckeye05]

No This was in downtown Vilonia. The one killed because door wasn't built to code was in Mayflower.
I always think Vilonia's damage was on par with Bridge Creek, Smithville etc. No kidding.

That’s why I consider it so egregious, it’s not a case where a good argument can be made for EF4 or EF5 both. Instead, it produced some of the most high-end damage ever photographed since the implementation of the EF scale.

 

[locomusic01]

The most notable instance of damage that I can find a clear photograph of is of this large, well-constructed, brick mansion in the Easthaven subdivision of Jackson that was obliterated, killing all 4 occupants immediately. One of the occupants' bodies was found a quarter mile away from the foundation.

There's an old news report you can watch here, which includes footage from this home starting around 2:40:



Another view of the Easthaven house:

Picking thru the rubble of the house (I feel a bit bad that I couldn't help noticing the Playboy mag):

Where a woman was killed near Florence, MS (the child is her young son):

The Duncan Mobile Home Park:

 

[pohnpei]

Continue to add photos from downtown Vilonia. The once green lawn turned into black muddy land after the tornado with mangled cars tossed everywhere and all trees fully debarked. The 13.6t tank traveled 1192m was not far away from this place. Tornado then swept a brick restaurant into bare slab with debris hard to distinguish from aerial.
It may likely weaken a little bit when It hit that well built house based on contextual but still powerful enough turned It into clean slab.

 

[tornado examiner]

i didnt know that parkersburg was as bad as it was....

 

[andyhb]

Continue to add photos from downtown Vilonia. The once green lawn turned into black muddy land after the tornado with mangled cars tossed everywhere and all trees fully debarked. The 13.6t tank traveled 1192m was not far away from this place. Tornado then swept a brick restaurant into bare slab with debris hard to distinguish from aerial.
It may likely weaken a little bit when It hit that well built house based on contextual but still powerful enough turned It into clean slab.

It's almost as if we didn't see all of this before because there wasn't a proper survey done or something...

I'd also be cautious to infer the latter given that the E Wicker Street home was probably on the left edge of the core damage path, hence the "standing trees nearby". What isn't talked about as much is that there was a house across the street from that one and slightly further to the east that was also swept from its foundation, with no DI of course.

 

[locomusic01]

i didnt know that parkersburg was as bad as it was....

It's a pretty strong contender for the most violent tornado in Iowa's history, which is saying something.

 

[tornado examiner]

i wish it was manditory to provide the public with high resolution aerial photo maps of ef4+ tornado tracks...

 

[CheeselandSkies]

IMO Parkersburg and El Reno '11 (along with Smithville, and JUST ahead of Hackleburg) were the most impressive EF5s of the EF-scale era. But it's really splitting hairs.

Of course it should be a rare rating, it's meant to differentiate the most extreme of already extreme events (violent tornadoes), but if Vilonia and Mayfield don't qualify anymore, what does?

 

[tornado examiner]

Continue to add photos from downtown Vilonia. The once green lawn turned into black muddy land after the tornado with mangled cars tossed everywhere and all trees fully debarked. The 13.6t tank traveled 1192m was not far away from this place. Tornado then swept a brick restaurant into bare slab with debris hard to distinguish from aerial.
It may likely weaken a little bit when It hit that well built house based on contextual but still powerful enough turned It into clean slab.
View attachment 11656View attachment 11657View attachment 11658View attachment 11659View attachment 11660View attachment 11661

it just looks like a grave yard. like something out of a post apocalyptic horror movie.