Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Another minor detail that's probably only interesting to me: it wasn't clear from the sources exactly where the Thompson Run F1 happened, so I took another look at the satellite imagery. It's subtle enough that I missed it the first time, but it pops out once you compare 1984 vs 1985 images (basically dead center of the image cutting across the river):

The full path is a few miles longer, but it was too small and/or weak to leave a visible scar.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So I've been getting some more Bridge Creek-Moore photos sent to me in the last few days after the anniversary. I haven't had time to sort through them much yet, but this small batch definitely caught my eye. These are from Moore but the woman didn't say exactly where. I'm hoping she remembers, because holy moly.

Edit: Thinking about it for a second, I think they may be from near Country Place (S Pennsylvania & SW 134th), which is where this demolished Grand Am was thrown a mile and blown under a bridge:

Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo: Yup! I thought that second photo looked sorta familiar so I checked my other pictures from that area. (The bridge in the background is where the Grand Am was found btw)

Looks like this was also near the bridge:



More impressive photos:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So I found this pic of a Pontiac Grand Am that on some sites was misidentified as being from Bridge Creek-Moore but is actually from a tornado that struck Logan, IA on May 16, 1999. This outbreak was largely overshadowed by the May 3, 1999 one that spawned the aforementioned F5 tornado but appears to have had some violent events that are relatively obscure.



Source:

May 16, 99 Logan IA Tornado event:

 

[CheeselandSkies]

That site is still live, it doesn't need the Wayback Machine.

May 16, 99 Logan IA Tornado event:

That chaser is Mike Hollingshead, whose site used to be on a different domain (Extremeinstability.com) and whose photography was the subject of a "viral hoax" campaign in the mid-2000s, where some of his excellent photos of Plains supercells were stolen and Photoshopped onto shots of oceans/coastlines and e-mailed around as "photos of Hurricane Katrina making landfall" and the like.

 

[locomusic01]

Looks like this was also near the bridge:

View attachment 13994

Yeah it was. Pretty sure they're all from that neighborhood - between Country Place and Eastlake Estates, the damage was honestly almost on par with Bridge Creek.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That site is still live, it doesn't need the Wayback Machine.

May 16, 99 Logan IA Tornado event:

That chaser is Mike Hollingshead, whose site used to be on a different domain (Extremeinstability.com) and whose photography was the subject of a "viral hoax" campaign in the mid-2000s, where some of his excellent photos of Plains supercells were stolen and Photoshopped onto shots of oceans/coastlines and e-mailed around as "photos of Hurricane Katrina making landfall" and the like.

Is this the source of the tornado approaching ocean oil rig Photoshop?

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Is this the source of the tornado approaching ocean oil rig Photoshop?

I'm not sure, I don't believe I've seen that particular one.

 

[locomusic01]

On today's edition of "Random Old-Timey Tornadoes," we have the April 11, 1927 Alfalfa, OK F3:

Also the July 27, 1932 Swan Lake, MN F3, because why not?

And the June 10, 1929 Cokato, MN F3 (thought I had some damage photos for this one but apparently not):

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

On today's edition of "Random Old-Timey Tornadoes," we have the April 11, 1927 Alfalfa, OK F3:

Also the July 27, 1932 Swan Lake, MN F3, because why not?

And the June 10, 1929 Cokato, MN F3 (thought I had some damage photos for this one but apparently not):

The structure of the Alfalfa one in the 2nd pic looks like a perfect barrel/fat pickle shape. Perhaps the quality of the photo but really striking.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'm not sure, I don't believe I've seen that particular one.

This one:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

On today's edition of "Random Old-Timey Tornadoes," we have the April 11, 1927 Alfalfa, OK F3:

Also the July 27, 1932 Swan Lake, MN F3, because why not?

And the June 10, 1929 Cokato, MN F3 (thought I had some damage photos for this one but apparently not):

How about this one? the 4-15-1912 Ponca City, OK F4? Surprisingly well documented for the time period:

 

[CheeselandSkies]

This one:

View attachment 13999

That's a really old photo, I believe it was in National Geographic sometime in the 1990s. It's actually a waterspout in Florida.

“Not What You Want To See”

The top photo, showing a flash of lightning that reveals a waterspout approaching an oil rig, has circulated online since early 2008. It is usually accompanied by the caption, When the lightning flashes, this is not what you want to see. The image is not real. It is a composite of two...

hoaxes.org

 

[locomusic01]

Sorry to keep spamming the thread, but I think I might've found another undocumented tornado. Short little guy, but it wasn't there until after 5/31/85 and it's perfectly in line with the previous undocumented tornado near Clarendon. This is just east of Lewis Run the next county over:

 

[locomusic01]

How about this one? the 4-15-1912 Ponca City, OK F4? Surprisingly well documented for the time period:

Yeah, I've been gradually collecting stuff because I've been thinking about eventually doing something on the crazy April 1912 outbreak sequence. Ponca City was really well-documented, but there were a ton of large and/or violent tornadoes all over the place between the 20th and the 28th. From what I understand, some of the other tornadoes were (relatively) widely photographed too, including the Yukon-Edmond, OK F4 on April 20:

 

[locomusic01]

I thought I was done for a while but I just remembered something else I forgot to mention. I can't find it right now, but a while back I read a paper looking at the ability to detect tornado tracks via Landsat. Specifically they looked at normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and they found that tornado tracks generally became detectable at around EF2+ intensity (assuming there's enough tree cover in the first place). Obviously not justification for such a rating on its own, but it gives a bit of context for tornadoes like the ones I posted where they never received a rating and probably didn't hit anything except trees.

On a related note, I think normalized burn ratio (NBR) actually does a better job highlighting tornado tracks. It's a pretty similar index except it also incorporates short-wave infrared, which seems to pop a little more in areas where there's not a lot of tree cover.

 

[eric11]

So I've been getting some more Bridge Creek-Moore photos sent to me in the last few days after the anniversary. I haven't had time to sort through them much yet, but this small batch definitely caught my eye. These are from Moore but the woman didn't say exactly where. I'm hoping she remembers, because holy moly.

Edit: Thinking about it for a second, I think they may be from near Country Place (S Pennsylvania & SW 134th), which is where this demolished Grand Am was thrown a mile and blown under a bridge:

Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo: Yup! I thought that second photo looked sorta familiar so I checked my other pictures from that area. (The bridge in the background is where the Grand Am was found btw)

There's a little more to add about. I think it's near Bridge Creek

 

[A Guy]

The structure of the Alfalfa one in the 2nd pic looks like a perfect barrel/fat pickle shape. Perhaps the quality of the photo but really striking.

I think that one's been retouched, possibly quite a bit. I'm a light year from an expert, but the way immediately either side of the funnel there's a dust-poor band of similar and uniform width makes me think it was lightened to bring out the funnel more sharply. Cloud to the right looks a bit odd too.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The April 1912 tornado outbreak sequence was absolutely insane, Oklahoma experienced 10 violent tornadoes alone during that month. Grazulis lists no F5s from the sequence but I suspect the 4/20 Hennessy OK, the 4/20 Ralston OK, the 4/21 Morocco IN, and the 4/27 Lugert OK tornadoes might be F5 candidates.

Yeah, I've been gradually collecting stuff because I've been thinking about eventually doing something on the crazy April 1912 outbreak sequence. Ponca City was really well-documented, but there were a ton of large and/or violent tornadoes all over the place between the 20th and the 28th. From what I understand, some of the other tornadoes were (relatively) widely photographed too, including the Yukon-Edmond, OK F4 on April 20:

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

4/20 Hennessy OK, the 4/20 Ralston OK, the 4/21 Morocco IN, and the 4/27 Lugert OK tornadoes might be F5 candidates.

Are there any photos of those tornadoes?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

There's a little more to add about. I think it's near Bridge Creek
View attachment 14004View attachment 14005View attachment 14006View attachment 14007

A couple others, most from Bridge Creek but some from Moore:










This pic reminds me of the aftermath of a severe forest fire:



This classic: