Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

35th Anniversary of the Saragosa Tornado

May 22nd, 1987

storymaps.arcgis.com

I've never seen these before.

Wow, incredible find! Warren Faidley in one of his old books from the 90s took a bunch of pictures from this event I still haven't been able to find anywhere online, even on this page. I'll have to keep digging but this page is great.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Has anyone posted this already on the 1936 Tupelo F5 Tornado.










Great comments. I found this documentary.

Roy Turner​

13 years ago
Jim Palmer and I did a documentary on the 1936 Tupelo Tornado in the mid ninties. We interviewed 22 survivors and found 98% of the pictures used in this video. You can check it out from the Lee County Library. It is 55 minutes long. Roy Turner

 

[andyhb]

Some damage photos of West Liberty tornado
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The urban damage there was definitely a tier lower than Mayfield/other similar violent tornadoes striking downtown regions of mid-large towns, but I believe the max wind speed for that tornado was 165 mph, not 140. Unless you're referring to specifically the West Liberty area itself.

 

[Marshal79344]

Since the 50th anniversary of the San Justo, Argentina is tomorrow, local newspapers have been doing some flashbacks on the historic event, and have also brought some new, high-quality photos of the tornado damage that I have never seen before to light. Here are a few of the most significant ones that I found:

An aerial of the devastated town



Various views of complete devastation







Extreme contextual and tree damage was photographed on several occasions





This car was severely mangled and tossed a considerable distance



All in all, I'd venture to say that this might be the strongest tornado documented outside of the United States, and definitely the most violent tornado recorded in the southern hemisphere.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Since the 50th anniversary of the San Justo, Argentina is tomorrow, local newspapers have been doing some flashbacks on the historic event, and have also brought some new, high-quality photos of the tornado damage that I have never seen before to light. Here are a few of the most significant ones that I found:

An aerial of the devastated town

View attachment 16645

Various views of complete devastation

View attachment 16646

View attachment 16647
View attachment 16648
View attachment 16649

Extreme contextual and tree damage was photographed on several occasions

View attachment 16650
View attachment 16651
View attachment 16652

This car was severely mangled and tossed a considerable distance

View attachment 16653

All in all, I'd venture to say that this might be the strongest tornado documented outside of the United States, and definitely the most violent tornado recorded in the southern hemisphere.

These other 2 pics:

Mangled cars:




A motor engine from a vehicle of some sort:




I'll have to find the video on YouTube that appears to show entire factories swept away sometime. With the high amount of fatalities, extreme vehicle damage, tree debarking and vegetation scouring/stripping I'd say this tornado caused the most violent damage I've seen outside of the United States. The only thing close to it is Barrie, ON.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

More about San Justo
https://www.unosantafe.com.ar/santa...-incrustado-el-primer-piso-n10039932.html/amp

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

More about San Justo
https://www.unosantafe.com.ar/santa...-incrustado-el-primer-piso-n10039932.html/amp

More links on it:


1. https://web.archive.org/web/2013052...011/03/tornado-ef5-en-san-justo-santa-fe.html

2 more articles:

1. https://translate.google.com/transl....org/wiki/Pasillo_de_los_Tornados&prev=search

2. https://translate.google.com/transl...wiki/Tornado_de_San_Justo_en_1973&prev=search

 

[buckeye05]

35th Anniversary of the Saragosa Tornado

May 22nd, 1987

storymaps.arcgis.com

I've never seen these before.

Sorry to rewind, but this is pretty incredible. I had no idea there were color photographs of the Saragosa tornado itself during its mature stage. Matches the descriptions of it that I’ve heard from chasers.

 

[buckeye05]

Since the 50th anniversary of the San Justo, Argentina is tomorrow, local newspapers have been doing some flashbacks on the historic event, and have also brought some new, high-quality photos of the tornado damage that I have never seen before to light. Here are a few of the most significant ones that I found:

An aerial of the devastated town

View attachment 16645

Various views of complete devastation

View attachment 16646

View attachment 16647
View attachment 16648
View attachment 16649

Extreme contextual and tree damage was photographed on several occasions

View attachment 16650
View attachment 16651
View attachment 16652

This car was severely mangled and tossed a considerable distance

View attachment 16653

All in all, I'd venture to say that this might be the strongest tornado documented outside of the United States, and definitely the most violent tornado recorded in the southern hemisphere.

That tree damage says it all. San Justo was an extremely violent tornado. Also is that 5th photo of a mostly clean building foundation? Kinda looks like it, but it also just might be an empty lot too.

 

[pohnpei]

More about San Justo
https://www.unosantafe.com.ar/santa...-incrustado-el-primer-piso-n10039932.html/amp

He recalled: "This is a terrible event. It seems incredible to be able to tell what it feels like to see a car on the ground floor of the hotel at a height of 7 meters. When this phenomenon ended, we went out with our parents to see what happened, and they told us: Look, there is a car on the second floor.".
He added: "This is a surprising thing. A Renault Gordini flew up and hit the wall on the first floor. A few years after the tornado, I met a woman in Santa Fe. She recognized me because she lived in San Justo, and told me that she was the owner of the car flying to the hotel. She also told me where she parked the car, where we could see the car flying three blocks in the air, and then sneaked into the hotel. The car was shot out like a shell, breaking the front of the hotel on the first floor, crossing the entire corridor, and nailed to the wall.

I hope that there was a picture of this Gordini. This was incredible damage.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

More about San Justo
https://www.unosantafe.com.ar/santa...-incrustado-el-primer-piso-n10039932.html/amp

Found the video, 11:55 or so appears to show entire factories swept away.
Also, 7:55 mangled car, reminds me of Andover:

 

[Marshal79344]

This image of forest damage from the San Justo tornado is also extraordinary, and kind of reminds me of the Smithville tornado.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This image of forest damage from the San Justo tornado is also extraordinary, and kind of reminds me of the Smithville tornado.

View attachment 16671

I'd like to find a colorized version of this pic, to fully ascertain the extent of tree damage.
It'd also help with seeing if this thing did any ground scouring (or make the scouring more clear).

 

[locomusic01]

Anybody know if there's ever been a comprehensive write-up on San Justo? A few years ago I was working on refreshing my Spanish with the intention of eventually trying to put something together, but that ended up on my ever-growing "maybe some day" pile lol. With all the new stuff that's come out for the anniversary, it might be a lot easier now.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Anybody know if there's ever been a comprehensive write-up on San Justo? A few years ago I was working on refreshing my Spanish with the intention of eventually trying to put something together, but that ended up on my ever-growing "maybe some day" pile lol. With all the new stuff that's come out for the anniversary, it might be a lot easier now.

There have been a few news articles with a somewhat extensive write-up on San Justo and 2 documentaries about the event.

 

[pohnpei]

I hope that there was a picture of this Gordini. This was incredible damage.

So it seems that this was the Gordini that nailed into the wall of the hotel.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Color footage from San Justo 1973.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So it seems that this was the Gordini that nailed into the wall of the hotel.

View attachment 16695

I'm guessing the engine embedded into the wall came from that thing? My guess is it was ripped out by the tornado and/or impact? Really this has gotta be the most violent damage to a vehicle outside of the USA by a tornado I've ever seen (although some in Mexico and again, Barrie, ON come close).

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Color footage from San Justo 1973.
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What's incredible about this tornado is that it was a brief flare-up (like Saragosa) and had a total path length of AT MOST a mile, yet managed to do F5 damage. Very few tornadoes achieve that kind of intensity as soon as they touch down.

 

[locomusic01]

What's incredible about this tornado is that it was a brief flare-up (like Saragosa) and had a total path length of AT MOST a mile, yet managed to do F5 damage. Very few tornadoes achieve that kind of intensity as soon as they touch down.

I can't really think of any comparable event off-hand, at least among official/widely acknowledged F5s. Elie and Wichita Falls '64 were both only a few miles long, but they were on the ground for better than half an hour. There was an F4 that hit Garland, TX during the May 1927 outbreak that basically touched down, immediately leveled a few blocks and then dissipated, but definitely nothing on the level of San Justo.

I'm not sure it's that uncommon for tornadoes to intensify extremely quickly after touchdown, but flaring up and then dissipating so quickly is fascinating. Astronomically bad luck to have happened right over a densely populated area. I haven't looked into the conditions that day but I'm assuming instability must've been pretty extreme.