Significant Tornado Events

Tagging @Marshal79344 since this post is inspired by his post on X about this a bit back and figured I'd share it.

On 5/8/2009, a "EF1" struck rural areas near Ellington, MO. Despite the EF1 rating, satellite just a few months later revealed a estimated 1.25 mile wide swath of likely intense tree damage. It is not far off to say EF3-EF4 intensity was reached with this tornado but due to its rating, this is all we can go off on.

WeathermanLeprechaun said:

Tagging @Marshal79344 since this post is inspired by his post on X about this a bit back and figured I'd share it.

On 5/8/2009, a "EF1" struck rural areas near Ellington, MO. Despite the EF1 rating, satellite just a few months later revealed a estimated 1.25 mile wide swath of likely intense tree damage. It is not far off to say EF3-EF4 intensity was reached with this tornado but due to its rating, this is all we can go off on.

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My question with this one (given it was embedded within a major derecho) would be how much of this swath was tornado and how much was straight line winds with the MCV that produced the tornado.

andyhb said:

My question with this one (given it was embedded within a major derecho) would be how much of this swath was tornado and how much was straight line winds with the MCV that produced the tornado.

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That is a very fair point! Straight line winds likely did play some part in it, but no doubt still unusually vicious for a embedded tornado if all of that swath is legit tornado and not just SLW/tornado clashing.

I'm finally getting the hang of QGIS.

Speaking of 74, here is a radar shot from Nashville at 6:15. You can clearly make out Tanner 1 and 2 supercells. Tanner #1 cell in Madison/Limestone county Alabama with the Tanner #2 cell training right behind it in Lawrence.

You can also see 4 supercells to the north. The two cells around Dekalb and Cannon counties in TN I believe later produced the Fentress and Overton tornados. You can also see a cell moving out of Putnam county TN (possibly the Cookeville F4 will need to check time) and a supercell making its way across Wayne county KY.

I’m working on a project of tying these radar shots to the time the tornados occurred.

Tomorrow will be the official 13 year anniversary of one of the costliest tornadoes in US history and in my opinion, one of the strongest Fall/Winter time tornadoes of all time. The 2013 Washington, IL tornado!

Some impressive damage photos above showing some extreme vehicle damage, intense debris granulation, copious amounts of homes swept away, and considerable amounts of wind rowing and tree debarking present. While officially rated high end EF4, I have absolutely no doubt that this would’ve gotten an F5 back in the day.