Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Somebody just emailed me this single picture along with the subject line of "1985 tornado" and nothing else. So that's.. something? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's probably from Beaver Falls:

Significant Tornado Events

Greetings all. Just uploaded a high quality upload of the infamous flyover video of the damage after the Jarrell F5 from KXAN (I believe they’re the ones who shot this video anyways). This video is already online in many different videos and clips, but this should be the highest quality and most...

talkweather.com

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Damage from the 1999 Loyal Valley TX F4 tornado:
View attachment 14063
View attachment 14062
View attachment 14061

Check out its radar signature:

 

[locomusic01]

It's probably from Beaver Falls:

Are you talking about the conversion van that was thrown from I-79? That one was squashed flat as a pancake; I think I've posted the picture before:

IIRC the other van I mentioned in that post was like a full-size monstrosity and I think it ended up in a little gully or something. I thought the guy who sent me that picture of the one wrapped around a tree would've told me something about it by now, but nope. People are weird lol

 

[buckeye05]

Ok the more damage photos I see from Beaver Falls, the more I wonder what in the world the survey team was thinking when they decided on F3. It was clearly an F4 tornado that produced textbook violent damage.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

One significant tornado event that Grazulis appears to have missed is the July 22, 1920 Minot ND tornado. This deadly tornado devastated rural areas east of Minot. At least 4 farms were destroyed and 1-2 people were killed. At the Botz farm, the house was lifted up, carried 50-80 ft up a hill, and completely demolished. "Hardly two boards could be found together and the furniture was scattered in every direction." One person was killed here when they were thrown 200 ft. Another farm that was devastated by this tornado was the Abramhamson place. "Nothing was left" of all the buildings on this farm with the house being swept away. The basement wall was blown in, and the house's remains were found a one-half mile away in a pond. This event was probably F3-F4.

 

[Sawmaster]

With weak(ish) winds aloft, storm motions are slow and they can just sort of drift along the boundary. I'd imagine that also has something to do with the wide damage swaths, giving winds further from the center of the vortex more time over a given area.

I haven't looked much, but this seems to be the case as does the opposite; fast winds aloft equals fast ground speed and a sharper 'cut-off' of winds at the edges of circulation. But being tornadoes, I think the word "usually" always applies somewhere and that's one of the most fascinating aspects for me.

Phil

 

[pohnpei]

Damage from the 1999 Loyal Valley TX F4 tornado:
View attachment 14063
View attachment 14062
View attachment 14061

Several other pics to add.
Huge tractor Dismantled

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Come to think of it, the few tornadoes I know of with wide instances of EF3+ were all slow-moving wedge; Jarrell, Loyal Valley, Joplin, and Marion, ND (aka the Noot Farm tornado).

Greensburg had like a mile-wide swath of like mid EF3 to mid EF4 damage but as usual the EF5 damage was in small isolated areas.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Several other pics to add.
Huge tractor Dismantled
View attachment 14079View attachment 14080View attachment 14081View attachment 14082View attachment 14083View attachment 14084View attachment 14085

Could this tornado have been rated F5? That context is very extreme.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Managed to find what is probably the only available damage picture from the 1.8 mile wide Clark State Lake/Mullinville EF3. Hard to make out much but the tree damage is certainly noteworthy. Here are the coordinates of the area where this photo was taken 37°23'42"N 99°32'42"W goes to show just how remote this part of Kansas really is.


Here’s the entry and radar image for the Buttermilk KS EF3 that Eric mentioned earlier, I don’t think those vehicles were ever located which is pretty incredible. This tornado was also spawned from the same supercell that produced the Cairo EF3 as well, supercells that day were incredibly cyclic and prolific.



And here’s another little tidbit about the Mullinville EF3 I thought was interesting.

 

[buckeye05]

Could this tornado have been rated F5? That context is very extreme.

It's pretty much certain it was an F5. Didn't produce any clear-cut structural damage, but the context leaves little to question.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

It's pretty much certain it was an F5. Didn't produce any clear-cut structural damage, but the context leaves little to question.

Like Bakersfield Valley, TX June 1, 1990, Culbertson, NE June 15, 1990, and Chapman, KS May 25, 2016. Those 3 tornadoes left very extreme context and all probably should have been rated F5/EF5.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Like Bakersfield Valley, TX June 1, 1990, Culbertson, NE June 15, 1990, and Chapman, KS May 25, 2016. Those 3 tornadoes left very extreme context and all probably should have been rated F5/EF5.

The Westminster tornado on May 9, 2006 is another one I may consider as an F5 as it left very extreme context and slabbed likely at least one well-built home. High-end F4+ is the absolute bare minimum for Westminster.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Damage from the 2010 Sibley IA tornado:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Does anyone have any information of the 2010 Moore tornado and/or the Little, AX, OK tornado? May 10, 2010 was a pretty notable plains outbreak that doesn't get as much publicity as it should (at least I think).

 

[buckeye05]

Damage from the 2010 Sibley IA tornado:
View attachment 14093View attachment 14094View attachment 14095View attachment 14096View attachment 14097View attachment 14098View attachment 14099

Among the most forgotten of EF4s. Another one people don't mention much is the November 29, 2010 Atlanta, LA tornado. This is still the only tornado to be rated EF4 in Louisiana since the implementation of the EF scale in 2007. Rating was based on one well-built house that was flattened.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Damage from the 2010 Sibley IA tornado:
View attachment 14093View attachment 14094View attachment 14095View attachment 14096View attachment 14097View attachment 14098View attachment 14099

So would this be around high-end EF4 damage?

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Among the most forgotten of EF4s. Another one people don't mention much is the November 29, 2010 Atlanta, LA tornado. This is still the only tornado to be rated EF4 in Louisiana since the implementation of the EF scale in 2007. Rating was based on one well-built house that was flattened.

The Winn Parish tornado. The damage looks like around mid EF4 based on some context and the house being completely leveled with some of it swept away.

 

[buckeye05]

Does anyone have any information of the 2010 Moore tornado and/or the Little, AX, OK tornado? May 10, 2010 was a pretty notable plains outbreak that doesn't get as much publicity as it should (at least I think).

Those were both pretty minimal EF4s. The rating for Moore was based on just one single home that was mostly, but not completely leveled, though it was of above average construction from what I understand, so they went with EF4. I remember seeing aerial video of what I believe was the EF4 house during The Weather Channel's coverage of the outbreak. It wasn't very impressive.

For Norman/Little Axe, I have no idea what the basis is for the rating, and have been trying to figure it out for a while myself. No specific structure or damage point was mentioned as the reason they upgraded from EF3 to EF4, and I haven't found any damage photos that show clear-cut EF4 damage. Would really like to know what made them go with EF4.