Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

A ton of damage pics from Indiana tornadoes from 4/3/74, kept alive by the Wayback Machine:

1. First 2 are from the Madison/Hanover, Indiana F4:

Tornado Photos and Damage of F4 Tornado in Hanover Indiana

Pictures of Tornadoes and Damage in Madison Indiana: April 3, 1974

2.Monticello, Indiana F4:

Monticello_april31974

3. Depauw, Indiana F5:

April 3, 1974: A Day of Disaster

First photograph won't load but all the others will

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah that’s not the photo unfortunately. The one I saw was apparently a screen capture of some video taken of the tornado. It actually looked like someone took a photo of a tv screen. There were those horizontal “line” artifacts that you get when you take a pic of one of those really old school TVs while they’re on. But saying that it probably wasn’t real because most QLCS are rain wrapped isn’t a fair deduction. It happens more than people realize. In fact, the one that hit my old neighborhood in 2015 had a fully condensed funnel, despite being embedded in a tiny squall line and hardly visible on radar.

But yeah, it was a photo I haven’t seen before of since, looked to be in the right setting, was in an article about that tornado, and labeled specifically mentioning that it was a photo of the Vancouver tornado itself, captured from a brief video that was taken that day. It very much seemed legit to me.

So I'm not going crazy after all!
If I recall it was a gray stovepipe-looking tornado, kind of reminded me of a downburst in some ways (although that could be the quality of the TV).
Yeah, it was a photograph of a TV with the tornado on it, no clue who the poster was, all I know is it was on the original thread before that thing got nuked.

 

[Sawmaster]

There was a post awhile back in the thread about a tornado in the Plateau State of Nigeria on May 13, 2022 of last year. I found some more damage photos from the event on Facebook. It devastated the village of Makundang in the Bokkos LGA. Over 50 homes were destroyed but there doesn't seem to have been any fatalities thankfully. Looks like it could have possibly produced F2 damage.

I'm not so sure that's EF2. This is stacked 'mud brick' construction where mass provides almost all of the bond strength between layers. The outside is sometimes skimmed with 'mud' to provide a smooth appearance like stucco, but that adds almost no strength. The roof structures are generally weak as wood is scarce. The reason for this construction is three-fold: 1st it's what they have and free for the taking ad making. 2nd it's thermal mass allows overnight cooling to keep it cooler in the daytime. 3rd may be surprising: Termites are abundant in much of sub-Saharan Africa and wood any nearer to the ground than roof level would get eaten to nothing in a few weeks.

They do get seasoal rainstorms/ thunderstorms which erodes the mud brick, but it's not really a problem when it's that thick. I'm not sure what each 'brick' weighs, but a hign-end EF 1 would probably be enough to displace it. EF 2 would most certainly do that job. The roof beams and structure are also held mostly by gravity and 'mud mortar' so not any strength there at all.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Sorry to rewind a bunch, but that last photo….
Are we looking at debarked shrubbery/vegetation here?

It looks like grass or dead crops to me.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

A ton of damage pics from Indiana tornadoes from 4/3/74, kept alive by the Wayback Machine:

1. First 2 are from the Madison/Hanover, Indiana F4:

Tornado Photos and Damage of F4 Tornado in Hanover Indiana

Pictures of Tornadoes and Damage in Madison Indiana: April 3, 1974

2.Monticello, Indiana F4:

Monticello_april31974

3. Depauw, Indiana F5:

April 3, 1974: A Day of Disaster

First photograph won't load but all the others will

It looks like the Depauw F5 tornado took this appearance for a brief moment :

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Yeah that’s not the photo unfortunately. The one I saw was apparently a screen capture of some video taken of the tornado. It actually looked like someone took a photo of a tv screen. There were those horizontal “line” artifacts that you get when you take a pic of one of those really old school TVs while they’re on. But saying that it probably wasn’t real because most QLCS are rain wrapped isn’t a fair deduction. It happens more than people realize. In fact, the one that hit my old neighborhood in 2015 had a fully condensed funnel, despite being embedded in a tiny squall line and hardly visible on radar.

But yeah, it was a photo I haven’t seen before of since, looked to be in the right setting, was in an article about that tornado, and labeled specifically mentioning that it was a photo of the Vancouver tornado itself, captured from a brief video that was taken that day. It very much seemed legit to me.

Looking at MSN and found this which is probably not the Vancouver tornado lmao. Article did put it in the North Crest area though:

I think a very similar photo was claimed to be Lubbock. I'd really like to know what this tornado actually is.

EDIT: Was this the article? https://history.columbian.com/tornado-of-1972-2/

EDIT 2: Still looking, still haven't found it. Maybe if someone drew it from memory I could color it in and try to use image search to find the closest version of it...long shot but might work

EDIT 3: Yep I've given up. RIP old TalkWeather.

 

[buckeye05]

So I'm not going crazy after all!
If I recall it was a gray stovepipe-looking tornado, kind of reminded me of a downburst in some ways (although that could be the quality of the TV).
Yeah, it was a photograph of a TV with the tornado on it, no clue who the poster was, all I know is it was on the original thread before that thing got nuked.

Yup that sounds like the photo. The post was likely mine. Shame it’s lost with the old site.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

On the topic of lost photos from the old site, I remember loco posting a black and white newspaper pic of a mangled car deposited/tangled up in tree branches (like the crown of a tree) it was a event that occurred in Texas in I believe 1957 (or 58-59) but not entirely sure. It was NOT the tornado that struck downtown Dallas, I know that. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, that'd be awesome!

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yup that sounds like the photo. The post was likely mine. Shame it’s lost with the old site.

I'm curious how you happened upon that old photo....on FB, Pinterest, or some other random source!

 

[locomusic01]

On the topic of lost photos from the old site, I remember loco posting a black and white newspaper pic of a mangled car deposited/tangled up in tree branches (like the crown of a tree) it was a event that occurred in Texas in I believe 1957 (or 58-59) but not entirely sure. It was NOT the tornado that struck downtown Dallas, I know that. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, that'd be awesome!

Are you sure it was Texas and/or in that timeframe? I'm sure I've got photos that fit that description but nothing from Texas in that specific time period. I vaguely recall something like that from the 5/15/57 Silverton F4, but if that's what it was I must not have saved it.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

I'm curious how you happened upon that old photo....on FB, Pinterest, or some other random source!

Apparently it was in an article about the tornado.

 

[locomusic01]

Okay so I'm not 100% certain (the photos weren't labeled correctly), but I believe these are from the 4/6/36 Acworth, GA F3 that was part of the Tupelo-Gainesville outbreak. Specifically southwest of Canton.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Yup that sounds like the photo. The post was likely mine. Shame it’s lost with the old site.

If this was before Page 40 on the old site, then apparently @Equus has Pages 1-40 archived, so we could ask him to search for the photo. If it was AFTER page 40 though.....

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are you sure it was Texas and/or in that timeframe? I'm sure I've got photos that fit that description but nothing from Texas in that specific time period. I vaguely recall something like that from the 5/15/57 Silverton F4, but if that's what it was I must not have saved it.

It was Texas in the 50s, for sure. There was also an aerial of the town a coupled days later when some clean-up had probably occurred, which may have been a factor in Grazulis ranking it F4 instead of F5 as no aerials from the immediate aftermath. Not sure what else I can say to help lol.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

On the topic of lost photos from the old site, I remember loco posting a black and white newspaper pic of a mangled car deposited/tangled up in tree branches (like the crown of a tree) it was a event that occurred in Texas in I believe 1957 (or 58-59) but not entirely sure. It was NOT the tornado that struck downtown Dallas, I know that. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, that'd be awesome!

That might have been from the 1976 Brownwood tornado. I’m pretty sure I posted photos from that event in here.

 

[locomusic01]

It was Texas in the 50s, for sure. There was also an aerial of the town a coupled days later when some clean-up had probably occurred, which may have been a factor in Grazulis ranking it F4 instead of F5 as no aerials from the immediate aftermath. Not sure what else I can say to help lol.

That description sounds like either Knox City or San Angelo. I don't remember a photo like that from either event, but I'll check again in a bit. San Angelo specifically was borderline F4/F5 and most of the aerial shots I've been able to find have been after cleanup had already begun.

 

[locomusic01]

So, I just realized last night that the Minnesota Historical Society had a handful of New Richmond photos that, for some inexplicable reason, they listed as being a tornado that hit Newport, MN (which has literally never been hit by a significant tornado) in 1890. Nothing particularly new and they're all very low-resolution, but I thought it was amusing.

 

[locomusic01]

Okay, last one lol. UW-River Falls also had a small collection from New Richmond. Unfortunately the resolution is again very poor. I wrote them to see if they have higher-res versions but haven't heard back yet. Even with the poor quality, the incredible violence of this tornado is unmistakable.

 

[Equus]

If this was before Page 40 on the old site, then apparently @Equus has Pages 1-40 archived, so we could ask him to search for the photo. If it was AFTER page 40 though.....

I can take a look when I have some time, if it's in the first 40 then I would have it

 

[locomusic01]

I don't mean to completely hijack the thread, but I guess that's what I'm doing lol. Anywho, the discussion about very short-lived violent tornadoes a while back randomly popped back into my head and reminded me of the 5/8/64 Anchor Bay, MI F4. The path was only a few miles long (because it went out over the bay, but still) but it was rather intense. I've got like a billion photos from the event but here are some of the better ones.

The aerials are kinda hard to see unless you open up the full versions (edit - uploaded to a different host so hopefully they're better now):