Significant Tornado Events

[eric11]

I find the 5/7/2002 Ford County-Pratt County KS tornadoes to be one of the most impressive Plains events of the 2000s. A long-lived supercell produced ~9 tornadoes, some of which were very large and intense.

Windhorst F3 #1:
This large tornado scoured topsoil from one field and debarked trees. Several dozen cattle were killed with several 1500 lb heifers carried 3/4 of a mile. Two other tornadoes occurred near the field and might have contributed to the severe scouring.
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Windhorst F3 #2:
This massive tornado was up to a mile-wide and produced "extreme damage" to trees and irrigation pipes.
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Windhorst F3 #3:
A smaller but still intense tornado struck two farms north of Mullinville. One of these farms had the home leveled with a person being thrown into a field.
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Cullison F2:
Not much is known about this tornado.
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Pratt F2:
The last massive tornado to be produced by this supercell passed right through the town of Pratt. 14 homes were destroyed and 245 were damaged. It was rated as a HE F2. There were no injuries or fatalities.
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Tim Samaras managed to intercept one of those tornadoes with his HITPR Probe and recorded a pressure drop ~22hpa on the tip of its track.

 

[eric11]

Geez! I remember this one. It formed in a really marginal environment. I remember it destroying some barns, but I had no idea it produced such insane vegetation damage.

Yep, a long track significant tornado in very shallow environment, this tornado also had some wedge state

Andy Gabrielson's chase video about this tornado was classic.

 

[eric11]

Waldron-Moscow IN EF3 on 6/3/2008, just one of the countless underestimated violent candidate in 2008

 

[eric11]

Albert Lea MN EF4, the best documented tornado during the 6/17/2010 Northern Plains tornado outbreak.NWS Twin Cities published several damage photos on the 10th Anniversary of this outbreak, I'd like to add a little more for what I could find, undoubtedly the storngest tornado of that day.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Albert Lea MN EF4, the best documented tornado during the 6/17/2010 Northern Plains tornado outbreak.NWS Twin Cities published several damage photos on the 10th Anniversary of this outbreak, I'd like to add a little more for what I could find, undoubtedly the storngest tornado of that day.
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Were there any impressive or underrated events from 2009?

 

[TH2002]

Were there any impressive or underrated events from 2009?

Boston, GA

Significant Tornado Events

Moshannon? It's hard to say just because there were so few manmade structures in the path. It definitely did violent damage in the Winterburn/Penfield area, which is pretty impressive since that was only a few miles after touchdown. That was before it exploded in size though, and after that...

talkweather.com

Murfreesboro did level and/or sweep away numerous homes, though the vast majority of the homes swept away were of questionable construction (bolted to unreinforced CMU foundations). It did, however, cause impressive wind rowing and debark low lying vegetation.

April 10, 2009 Good Friday Tornado Outbreak

And might as well mention that though the 2009 Krasnozavodsk tornado is by no means overlooked or exceptionally violent, it did exhibit impressive rotation and other very unusual behaviors. I'll write up a more detailed post on it at some point, but I will say I question the veracity of its F3 rating.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Were there any impressive or underrated events from 2009?

Magee MS was probably one of the most intense tornadoes of that year in North America. A large "well-built" church was almost completely destroyed.



:

 

[buckeye05]

Magee MS was probably one of the most intense tornadoes of that year in North America. A large "well-built" church was almost completely destroyed.



:

Yup always wondered if this one may have been a low-end EF4 rather than it’s official rating of EF3. Also, this same outbreak produced an EF3 that caused some pretty impressive tree and vehicle damage in Corydon, KY.

 

[pohnpei]

Russia's military action towards Ukraine made an old question come to my mind again: Can tornado move a normal sized tank?

Apparently, tank would be especially hard to lift due to its weight and low center of gravity. The whole structure of a tank is way more stable than a truck due to very heavy chasis.
The only case that I can think of when violent tornado encountered a tank was from Dawson Springs tornado last year.

An old de-activated M60, probably a monument in city's industrial area, was hit directly by EF4 tornado. Not surprisingly, no trace of movement can be noticed after the tornado. While it's hard to say Dawson Springs tornado can represent the highest level of tornado's intensity, whether tornado can move or even lift a tank remained to be a puzzle in my mind.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Russia's military action towards Ukraine made an old question come to my mind again: Can tornado move a normal sized tank?

Apparently, tank would be especially hard to lift due to its weight and low center of gravity. The whole structure of a tank is way more stable than a truck due to very heavy chasis.
The only case that I can think of when violent tornado encountered a tank was from Dawson Springs tornado last year.

An old de-activated M60, probably a monument in city's industrial area, was hit directly by EF4 tornado. Not surprisingly, no trace of movement can be noticed after the tornado. While it's hard to say Dawson Springs tornado can represent the highest level of tornado's intensity, whether tornado can move or even lift a tank remained to be a puzzle in my mind.
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I wonder if an EF5 tornado, if its core or an intense subvortex might be able to move a tank like that? If the windspeeds are intense enough it's likely possible.
There was actually a military thread from years ago (pre-2005) where many of the users posited various scenarios based on make, model, year and durability of materials the tank was made of. I'll have to look for it, assuming it's still up/

 

[buckeye05]

I wonder if an EF5 tornado, if its core or an intense subvortex might be able to move a tank like that? If the windspeeds are intense enough it's likely possible.
There was actually a military thread from years ago (pre-2005) where many of the users posited various scenarios based on make, model, year and durability of materials the tank was made of. I'll have to look for it, assuming it's still up/

Given what El Reno 2011 did to the Cactus oil rig, I’d say it’s definitely possible. Mayfield/Dawson Springs was violent, but nowhere near the intensity of what a top-end EF5 could do. Plus, it wasn’t at peak strength in Dawson Springs (from what I’ve seen it maxed out in Bremen)

 

[pohnpei]

Tuscaloosa tornado hit a armed force center directly. Some heavy trucks weight 5t overtuned by the tornado. This dramatic footage captured the moment when It hit the center.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Given what El Reno 2011 did to the Cactus oil rig, I’d say it’s definitely possible. Mayfield/Dawson Springs was violent, but nowhere near the intensity of what a top-end EF5 could do. Plus, it wasn’t at peak strength in Dawson Springs (from what I’ve seen it maxed out in Bremen)

TornadoTalk's article on El Reno 2011 revealed that the tornado's core missed the rig entirely, it was a subvortex that took it down. Crazy to think it may have actually held together if not for that one thing.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Damage photos from the Plainfield F5 that might not have been published before, which behaved pretty similar to Czech EF4 last year from my perspective.The tornado reached maximum intensity in cornfields outside the city (the place where Fujita rated F5 according to significant ground scouring) but went immediately weakening in the city. It encountered numerous automobiles outside the city with many of them been thrown long distance and severely mangled.
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Some notes on this portion of the tornado's path:

A tractor hauling a metal storage trailer was impacted directly by the column of F5 winds. The tractor was thrown 100 yards into a cornfield in one throw, killing the driver. The 20-ton trailer was torn from the tractor and centrifuged around the center of the storm, bouncing several times before landing a quarter mile from the road. Another car was lifted into the tornado by violent inflow winds and whirled a half mile through the air without impacting the ground. The driver of the car, who had been wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and found dead later that evening.

Source: https://extremeplanet.wordpress.com...he-strongest-tornadoes-ever-recorded-part-iv/

Some photos:

First 2 are aerials of its path over farmland, it's core is easily visible.







Crop/vegetation damage and the 20-ton trailer that was centrifuged and thrown far from the road:

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Extreme damage from Vilonia 2014:

 

[buckeye05]

Extreme damage from Vilonia 2014:

Just unreal damage there. That's close to as bad as it gets. I'm curious as to where the crushed concrete slabs at 1:42 originated from, as that looks extremely heavy.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Extreme damage from Vilonia 2014

Old but goodie...



/

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Old but goodie...

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/

Two words: insurance premiums.

 

[tornado examiner]

the vilonia tornado has exidence of 200mph+ winds throughout large chunks of its track.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Damage from the 2004 Markesan WI F3.