Yeah using the traditional scale and the damage indicators this tornado would’ve been rated EF4, although I’d argue some of the home damage in piedmont warranted an EF5 rating. Chickasha and Goldsby that same day both 100% reached EF5 intensity and pretty much did EF5 damage yet got hit with an EF4 rating despite clearly being top-tier violent tornadoes.
Yeah, I believe this is directly across from the Calumet "Y" - IIRC it was a horse farm and they lost all but a couple of their horses. The entire property was just completely obliterated.
Yeah, some places in Calumet and Piedmont are practically indistinguishable from Southern Hills, which is the absolute peak of the damage in Bridge Creek.
Quite a bit of what you've posted I've never seen before, really impressive stuff from that horse ranch property area.
El Reno 2011 easily is on par with Jarrell and Bridge Creek, one could argue it may have even been stronger than the two. It was also faster moving with an average forward speed of 36mph and also a significantly longer damage path with a much longer swath of EF4-EF5 damage.
Yeah, I don't usually get into ranking tornadoes and such because it's just so subjective, but I think you could put Bridge Creek, Jarrell, El Reno '11 and Smithville in the top four for the modern era (however you choose to define that) and make decent arguments for ranking them in any order. Nothing quite compares to Jarrell for me personally, but it's pretty much splitting the finest of hairs between any of the four (and several others tbh).
2011 really was the year of the tornado, lists like this are meaningless because several tornadoes from a single year alone could be in the top 4 lol.
We've literally never seen a year quite like it, and as fascinating as it was, I sure hope we never do again. And obviously Joplin deserves a mention there as well, having caused probably the most extreme damage I can recall in modern times to a densely populated area. There are so many tornadoes that would've been headline events in most other years that were afterthoughts in 2011.
Never seen a year like it? Really? I think 1953 is pretty close to it in terms of fatalities and widespread geographic extent.
There are several other years that stand out (1953 probably being the most notable - maybe 1896 and/or 1917), but I'm not sure anything quite matches 2011. Not just in sheer numbers (which are pretty wild), but also the number of historically violent tornadoes.
I tend to think that if tornados in 2011 happened in 1953, it would have caused near 1000 death or even more in one year. Like there were so many cases that people in direct path of those violent super outbreak tornados took shelter in advance due to tornado warning and certainly saved their lifes. Thanks to the warning system! This was one of impression I get from reading all the tornadotalk's article. If Hackleburg happened in 1953, it would easily cause more than 100, even more than 150 death undoubtedly.
Several other photos around this chevy Avalanche that I think not posted before.Some photos from a property in Piedmont:
The mangled red vehicle is the same Chevy Avalanche that was thrown.. 780 yards IIRC?
While 1953 had many violent tornadoes and they occurred over a wide area, the 2011 tornadoes far exceed those ones in intensity with only Flint coming close. Also 1953 didn't have a Super Outbreak.
Two questions: