Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

These 2 pictures from Mulhall wind damaged grass is clearly visible. The pic on the right, I wonder if some ground scouring occurred just out of frame. Perhaps it did do ground scouring but it just wasn't well documented.
View attachment 14925

That's the second area I mentioned where there was apparently some tree debarking, but I didn't really see anything there to suggest scouring. Maybe a few clumps of sod pulled up, but that could just as easily be from debris impacts. There's not really much there on satellite either:

I sketched out the path slightly wider than it actually is so that I didn't obscure anything; the arrow points to the overpass where McClure was killed. You can see a few small light patches that I suppose could indicate scouring, but it's pretty ambiguous. Compare that to, for instance, the Dover F4:

Or the Bridge Creek F5 (which of course isn't even remotely fair, but I'm just blown away every time I see it):

Anyway, there were also reports of some scouring east/northeast of Crescent, and those look more credible:

These areas are very close to the locations of some of the most intense structural/vehicle (or tractor, in this case) damage I found as well.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That's the second area I mentioned where there was apparently some tree debarking, but I didn't really see anything there to suggest scouring. Maybe a few clumps of sod pulled up, but that could just as easily be from debris impacts. There's not really much there on satellite either:

I sketched out the path slightly wider than it actually is so that I didn't obscure anything; the arrow points to the overpass where McClure was killed. You can see a few small light patches that I suppose could indicate scouring, but it's pretty ambiguous. Compare that to, for instance, the Dover F4:

Or the Bridge Creek F5 (which of course isn't even remotely fair, but I'm just blown away every time I see it):

Anyway, there were also reports of some scouring east/northeast of Crescent, and those look more credible:

These areas are very close to the locations of some of the most intense structural/vehicle (or tractor, in this case) damage I found as well.

That Bridge Creek scouring to me is proof that that tornado achieved Jarrell levels of intensity (and a pretty wide core too) but was moving much faster than Jarrell. I shudder to think what it would've done to Bridge Creek and/or Moore if it moved through those areas at Jarrell's speed.

Also, this:

Bridge Creek-Moore's path is still visible years later in satellite images. A trail of deforestation can be seen at bottom left near Bridge Creek, and the northerly turn the tornado made in Del City is visible at top right.

 

[locomusic01]

Go home tornado, you're drunk.

I got distracted (clearly a very rare occurrence) after pulling up the satellite for 5/3/99 and decided to poke around a bit. This is the Harper, TX F3 that formed shortly after Loyal Valley on 5/11/99, and uh.. wtf? The second half of the track is a little harder to make out, but it looks as if it slithered its way southeastward from Harper (top left), ballooned in size, did a freakin' loop and then curved from the southwest back toward the south/southeast as it crossed the Pedernales River. It's about 4.6 miles between start and end points, but it looks like the tornado actually covered like 7.8 miles lol

Of course, Loyal Valley was a bit funky in its own right.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

That's the second area I mentioned where there was apparently some tree debarking, but I didn't really see anything there to suggest scouring. Maybe a few clumps of sod pulled up, but that could just as easily be from debris impacts. There's not really much there on satellite either:

I sketched out the path slightly wider than it actually is so that I didn't obscure anything; the arrow points to the overpass where McClure was killed. You can see a few small light patches that I suppose could indicate scouring, but it's pretty ambiguous. Compare that to, for instance, the Dover F4:

Or the Bridge Creek F5 (which of course isn't even remotely fair, but I'm just blown away every time I see it):

Anyway, there were also reports of some scouring east/northeast of Crescent, and those look more credible:

These areas are very close to the locations of some of the most intense structural/vehicle (or tractor, in this case) damage I found as well.

Ive heard some people and even a couple of meteorologists claim that Mulhall may have been just as intense if not more intense than Bridge Creek, and in my opinion this is proof that they weren’t really even that close. Bridge Creek just completely blows any other tornado from this outbreak out of the water. Mulhall was violent but I think people tend to overhype it’s true intensity, if there’s one tornado from that day that gets overlooked it’s Dover. Other than Bridge Creek, the Dover F4 produced the most notable scouring and violent tornado damage from that day.

 

[pohnpei]

That's the second area I mentioned where there was apparently some tree debarking, but I didn't really see anything there to suggest scouring. Maybe a few clumps of sod pulled up, but that could just as easily be from debris impacts. There's not really much there on satellite either:

I sketched out the path slightly wider than it actually is so that I didn't obscure anything; the arrow points to the overpass where McClure was killed. You can see a few small light patches that I suppose could indicate scouring, but it's pretty ambiguous. Compare that to, for instance, the Dover F4:

Or the Bridge Creek F5 (which of course isn't even remotely fair, but I'm just blown away every time I see it):

Anyway, there were also reports of some scouring east/northeast of Crescent, and those look more credible:

These areas are very close to the locations of some of the most intense structural/vehicle (or tractor, in this case) damage I found as well.

I don't know If there were serious research on it. But It my opinion It seems that tornados with lower swirl ratio more prone to make scouring and scar on barren land. Some presumably high swirl ratio and large RMW megawedges like El Reno 13, Big Four family, Mulhall, Greensburg 2008 all didn't leave any siginificant scar or prominent scouring with pics available which may associated more to tornados' structure rather than intensity.
DOW of Mulhall
Winds on DOW peaked exact the very beginning of the deployment which lead to the guess It may even stronger before 0305Z.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Go home tornado, you're drunk.

I got distracted (clearly a very rare occurrence) after pulling up the satellite for 5/3/99 and decided to poke around a bit. This is the Harper, TX F3 that formed shortly after Loyal Valley on 5/11/99, and uh.. wtf? The second half of the track is a little harder to make out, but it looks as if it slithered its way southeastward from Harper (top left), ballooned in size, did a freakin' loop and then curved from the southwest back toward the south/southeast as it crossed the Pedernales River. It's about 4.6 miles between start and end points, but it looks like the tornado actually covered like 7.8 miles lol

Of course, Loyal Valley was a bit funky in its own right.

Kinda reminds me of that other tornado in Kansas back in 2013 or so that did a loop while being almost stationary for over an hour.

 

[SouthFLwx]

Kinda reminds me of that other tornado in Kansas back in 2013 or so that did a loop while being almost stationary for over an hour.

You talking about Bennington?

 

[locomusic01]

I don't know If there were serious research on it. But It my opinion It seems that tornados with lower swirl ratio more prone to make scouring and scar on barren land. Some presumably high swirl ratio and large RMW megawedges like El Reno 13, Big Four family, Mulhall, Greensburg 2008 all didn't leave any siginificant scar or prominent scouring with pics available which may associated more to tornados' structure rather than intensity.
DOW of Mulhall
Winds on DOW peaked exact the very beginning of the deployment which lead to the guess It may even stronger before 0305Z.

Yeah, they initially deployed just south of Mulhall; the tornado was still very intense at that point, but everything I've seen suggests it probably peaked east-northeast of Crescent. And it definitely seems that vortex structure is an important factor in scouring, although it's a bit counterintuitive. A higher swirl ratio typically means higher velocities nearer the surface, but it also means the flow is a lot more unsteady. I'd imagine at some point you just don't get sustained velocities over a given area for long enough to produce significant scouring, even at violent wind speeds.

(Of course I'm just spitballing here so I could be totally off the mark.)

 

[locomusic01]

Ive heard some people and even a couple of meteorologists claim that Mulhall may have been just as intense if not more intense than Bridge Creek, and in my opinion this is proof that they weren’t really even that close. Bridge Creek just completely blows any other tornado from this outbreak out of the water. Mulhall was violent but I think people tend to overhype it’s true intensity, if there’s one tornado from that day that gets overlooked it’s Dover. Other than Bridge Creek, the Dover F4 produced the most notable scouring and violent tornado damage from that day.

Dover would've been a big problem had it struck a more populated area. Even like a quarter-mile south would've been bad news, taking it straight through the middle of town.

 

[locomusic01]

Oh, also, an update to New Richmond:

I'd had the first section of this path near Burkhardt as a separate tornado based on two different eyewitness accounts that described the tornado "lifting" or "retreating into the clouds" as it passed over a prominent mound near the Willow River. It turns out there actually was a fairly narrow strip of damage to properties in that area, so I joined the paths together again. My guess is that the condensation funnel probably appeared to "lift" in this area but the vortex itself remained on the ground. Possibly a failed occlusion based on the path recurving + shrinking, but that's just speculation.

Anyway, the new path is 14.9 miles long. Still haven't worked out the situation near Boardman re: whether it was a satellite tornado or the path was just even wider than I have it. May need to widen the section southwest of New Richmond a bit as well depending on exactly where some of the destroyed structures were on their respective properties. Otherwise this should be more or less the final version - the breaks before and after this path are well-attested by both damage points and eyewitness accounts.

Edit: Had to update a couple of the other paths as well. Still a WIP, but getting closer.

 

[TH2002]

For temporary issues, just set your phone up as a hotspot. Watch your data limits; some providers bill hotspot use differently than normal data. Programs like "Fox.fi" can usually 'trick' the system into thinking your hotspot use is data to circumvent limited hotspot issues. If you don't use it much it's easy to forget hotspot exists

Due to a move and finances I had dial-up until 2002, and I got to "enjoy" it again for a short time a couple years ago when I spent some time waaaay up in the hills where there was no cable or DSL. You can tell how young someone is by playing the sounds of a dial-up modem at work and asking them what it is but us old folks know it well!

Phil

Yeah Verizon has a MAJOR tendency to overcharge for mobile hotspot use, though mobile carrier BS aside the main problem with setting up a hotspot is that I live in a rural area so the cell reception isn't exactly what most people would call good. So it's essentially a "pick your poison" kind of situation... :/

Though fortunately my internet started working better today so I'm cautiously optimistic I can post the photos now. Here's my rundown of a couple Super Outbreak tornadoes (particularly Cordova)

This photo is a pretty textbook scene of violent tornado damage; note the scoured hillsides, significant debarking and mangled tractor.

Kind of hard to tell here, but looks like some pretty intense damage in the background of this one.

The Cordova tornado's trek in Cullman County (after striking Sipsey) was far from the longest segment of the tornado's path, but it was a violent one. Vast swaths of trees were blown down, ground scouring occurred, and homes were wiped out:

Intense debarking from the Sawyerville-Eoline tornado

Might as well also add that while I've heard rumors the Cullman tornado caused EF5-worthy damage (particularly that of an allegedly well-built home in the Arab-Ruth area), after surveying the tornado's entire path on aerial imagery I failed to find anything to indicate such. There WAS some very impressive wind rowing northeast of Fairview, however.

 

[pohnpei]

Yeah Verizon has a MAJOR tendency to overcharge for mobile hotspot use, though mobile carrier BS aside the main problem with setting up a hotspot is that I live in a rural area so the cell reception isn't exactly what most people would call good. So it's essentially a "pick your poison" kind of situation... :/

Though fortunately my internet started working better today so I'm cautiously optimistic I can post the photos now. Here's my rundown of a couple Super Outbreak tornadoes (particularly Cordova)
View attachment 14926
This photo is a pretty textbook scene of violent tornado damage; note the scoured hillsides, significant debarking and mangled tractor.

Kind of hard to tell here, but looks like some pretty intense damage in the background of this one.

The Cordova tornado's trek in Cullman County (after striking Sipsey) was far from the longest segment of the tornado's path, but it was a violent one. Vast swaths of trees were blown down, ground scouring occurred, and homes were wiped out:
View attachment 14930
View attachment 14931

Intense debarking from the Sawyerville-Eoline tornado

Might as well also add that while I've heard rumors the Cullman tornado caused EF5-worthy damage (particularly that of an allegedly well-built home in the Arab-Ruth area), after surveying the tornado's entire path on aerial imagery I failed to find anything to indicate such. There WAS some very impressive wind rowing northeast of Fairview, however.

Tornadotalk had a detailed article about Cullman last month and they labeled some of its path as EF5 damage though I would be more hesitate to call these true EF5 damage, at least not Hackleburg/Smithville/Rainsville level damage.

Overview of the Cullman-Arab, AL EF4 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

 

[Sawmaster]

On scouring, just some thoughts from what I've observed. There does seem to be a lot of variation in the vertical 'uplift' winds in tornadoes having roughly equal outflow and/or inflow winds. This also varies among wide and narrow tornadoes with no pattern I can see. Scouring can be narrow or wide, again not always corresponding to it's width or size.

There has to be some characteristic aiding or allowing scouring which is not always present in enough quantity to cause it. As Dr. Fujita discovered it's often found in subvortices- maybe there's a clue in that? Much we know; so much more we don't and that's why I find tornadoes intriguing.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Phil

 

[TH2002]

Tornadotalk had a detailed article about Cullman last month and they labeled some of its path as EF5 damage though I would be more hesitate to call these true EF5 damage, at least not Hackleburg/Smithville/Rainsville level damage.

Overview of the Cullman-Arab, AL EF4 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

Since the three path segment summaries are behind a paywall there's no way for me to tell exactly what they labeled as EF5 damage, though I can see they labeled about 9 acres as such and the only thing that really caught my attention in this regard was the mention of a concrete slab frame home swept away along County Rd 1635. I hesitate to call it clear cut EF5 damage though because there's still quite a bit of debris left on the foundation:


Anyways, the aforementioned wind rowing:


The tornado also caused some notable ground scouring in the same area NE of Fairview, and I have to wonder if this is where it attained peak intensity.

 

[Sawmaster]

Kind of hard to tell here, but looks like some pretty intense damage in the background of this one.

Obviously awhile afterwards with the 'Port-a-potty' intact, so hard to know. One contributing factor could be that the hillside 'caught' debris from adjacent sites which was being blown along more than lofted. You'll notice that in a lot of 'aftermath' pics and vids where relatively level land meets a hill or natural abutment. The grassy area could have seen clean-up by the time this pic was made. Might have been EF-5 but too close to argue, and it does pale in comparison to those others.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Since the three path segment summaries are behind a paywall there's no way for me to tell exactly what they labeled as EF5 damage, though I can see they labeled about 9 acres as such and the only thing that really caught my attention in this regard was the mention of a concrete slab frame home swept away along County Rd 1635. I hesitate to call it clear cut EF5 damage though because there's still quite a bit of debris left on the foundation:
View attachment 14932

Anyways, the aforementioned wind rowing:
View attachment 14934

The tornado also caused some notable ground scouring in the same area NE of Fairview, and I have to wonder if this is where it attained peak intensity.
View attachment 14936

I think the EF5 area on the map means that there was an area where EF5 contextual damage occurred

 

[tornado examiner]

pretty simple to make but following the aerial imagery i think this is an accurate depiction of this tornado's centerline if i didn't mistake some of the damage being done by a sub vortex rather than the main vortex. and yes...it is extremely erratic. wobbling drunkenly all over the place while maintaining a common direction via its parent supercell and the mesocyclone. apart from in mayfield where the main core of the tornado and its likely center straightened out significantly.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Since the three path segment summaries are behind a paywall there's no way for me to tell exactly what they labeled as EF5 damage, though I can see they labeled about 9 acres as such and the only thing that really caught my attention in this regard was the mention of a concrete slab frame home swept away along County Rd 1635. I hesitate to call it clear cut EF5 damage though because there's still quite a bit of debris left on the foundation:

View attachment 14932

Anyways, the aforementioned wind rowing:
View attachment 14934

The tornado also caused some notable ground scouring in the same area NE of Fairview, and I have to wonder if this is where it attained peak intensity.
View attachment 14936

Just curious, where’d you find this aerial imagery at?

 

[TH2002]

Just curious, where’d you find this aerial imagery at?

April 2011 Tornado Response Imagery

There's also aerial imagery for other tornadoes including Joplin, and various hurricanes here:

National Geodetic Survey - Emergency Response Imagery Index

storms.ngs.noaa.gov

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

April 2011 Tornado Response Imagery

There's also aerial imagery for other tornadoes including Joplin, and various hurricanes here:

National Geodetic Survey - Emergency Response Imagery Index

storms.ngs.noaa.gov

Thank you! Speaking of aerial imagery, Google Earth has been killing me these past couple days. Tonight I had just finished the EF1-EF2 contours for the whole Tuscaloosa track and even made sure to save it and began the EF3 layer, when yet again the program froze and a pop up saying Google earth needed to close due to an issue showed up. Thought nothing of it because I saved it, until I reopened it. That’s when I noticed every single layer was missing, EF0 included. Guess even when you save it on the program that doesn’t matter, thankfully I saved the EF0 layer to my documents so that’s a small positive…I guess.