CheeselandSkies
Member
Out of all the many, many tornado events from January through June in 2008, I admit I had entirely forgotten about this one.
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Significant Tornado Events
- Thread starter locomusic01
- Start date
Central Ohio Wx
Member
Oddly it wasn't that strong despite the appearance; I have a personal survey done on this event (I'll post it when images come back up) and the maximum DI I was able to find was high-end EF2. Not sure where the EF3 rating (even more surprised at 155 mph) came from. Aside from Regent Road there really wasn't that-bad damage.
Central Ohio Wx
Member
NWS ILX just removed a few EF3 DIs from the Robinson, IL EF3, I wonder if they’re doing something with that tornado? Was almost certainly EF4+ based on absolutely incredible tree damage in a grove.
I recall Robinson had multiple slabs that went unsurveyed, think it was on the Indiana side but can't remember. Similar situation to Linton where it should be EF4 but oh well, at least one of the offices surveying might be trying to find EF4 level damage.
Central Ohio Wx
Member
MIC at ILX is now directly aware of both the 221-mph cycloidal estimates and EF4-range hardwood tree damage (somebody was contacted to look at that and confirmed it was >165 mph); I really do think we're about to see something major happen with this event. Watching DAT and PNS very, very closely.
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slenker
Member
Do you think an EF5 rating is on the table here? I haven’t seen any imagery of damage from Robinson that I would consider to be that caliber, so unless I’ve missed some really impressive damage photos, I’m not really on the side of giving it an EF5 rating. I would definitely support an upgrade to a 4 though.
Central Ohio Wx
Member
It's very unlikely but nothing's impossible. As usual I can't post the worst image (or any, for that matter) but an entire grove is absolutely shredded to high heck and back. It's some of the most extreme tree damage I've ever seen documented.
I'm betting on an EF4 upgrade; probably 167-170 mph. Doubt it'd go higher. ILX doesn't strike me as a particularly progressive office.
Regarding Robinson, the unsurveyed stuff was in Illinois and was given a rough survey via available imagery later on. The main one was a large home that was mostly leveled and swept away near North White Tail Hollow, but it was later revealed that it actually still had one wall left standing and was rated high-end EF3 as a result.
With Linton though, while it was likely violent, the main unsurveyed slab was not really an EF4 candidate. It was a very small, likely cottage type home of weak construction and ground photos do not show any evidence of sufficient anchoring. So while an upgrade there is likely appropriate, it would be to EF3 rather than EF4.
TH2002
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It wasn't just rated high-end EF3 because of the wall standing, it was also constructed like crap. Pretty typical Illinois tract home with a (presumably) bolted subfloor and little to no anchoring on the actual walls. A section of the roof/top floor also landed intact a short distance away, a dead giveaway of a slider. I don't think any WFO would have rated this damage violent.
WeathermanLeprechaun
Member
Robinson was a very, very interesting event. It occurred in near zero instability if I remember correctly, and given the cyclodial evidence, was a very high end tornado given near no thermodynamic support besides itself. I've always wondered what the upper end of a discrete supercell in such low instability is, and can it breach >200 mph if the kinematics are so intense? I'm not going to speculate on any upgrades but it is interesting to see the office reconsidering this one. I'm betting Robinson was probably the upper end tornado I've always wondered about, in like 300 SBCAPE at minimum and was still able to be very violent.
Unrelated, but if I remember correctly, the North Alabama EF4s on 2/6/08 were also in near no instability but were moreso due to the MCS nudge and terrain effect in that area. Who knows if they're considering upping it even a tiny bit?
Unrelated, but if I remember correctly, the North Alabama EF4s on 2/6/08 were also in near no instability but were moreso due to the MCS nudge and terrain effect in that area. Who knows if they're considering upping it even a tiny bit?
Huh, I never actually realized how unimpressive this was. That’s definitely not a strong EF4 candidate, wall standing or not. Goes to show how hard it is to ascertain anything conclusive from aerial imagery.It wasn't just rated high-end EF3 because of the wall standing, it was also constructed like crap. Pretty typical Illinois tract home with a (presumably) bolted subfloor and little to no anchoring on the actual walls. A section of the roof/top floor also landed intact a short distance away, a dead giveaway of a slider. I don't think any WFO would have rated this damage violent.
This post is Referencing the post over in the Severe Weather 2026 thread of a possible “undocumented” tornado in the Crane Hill/Smith Lake area of Alabama during the 1974 super outbreak.
Without the posting of pictures, I can’t really drive my point home, but this aligns with a study I previously read of hook echos on 4/3/1974. Essentially, they plotted “tornadic” hook echos vs hook echos where no evidence of a tornado was found. There’s a distinct line of a non-tornadic hook echo directly over the area highlighted in the post.
Not really surprising, it’s a given there were probably a vast amount of tornados undocumented from that outbreak that were either short lived or extremely rural.
Without the posting of pictures, I can’t really drive my point home, but this aligns with a study I previously read of hook echos on 4/3/1974. Essentially, they plotted “tornadic” hook echos vs hook echos where no evidence of a tornado was found. There’s a distinct line of a non-tornadic hook echo directly over the area highlighted in the post.
Not really surprising, it’s a given there were probably a vast amount of tornados undocumented from that outbreak that were either short lived or extremely rural.
Central Ohio Wx
Member
HUN has been contacted about this; definitely an undocumented tornado. There’s another SE of Guin that was additionally sent in.
Yep, in the study, there are three specific “non-tornadic” hook echos listed that are between the Jasper AL F4 and the Guin F5. That would make sense that there are more.
Now that we can post attachments, you can see those 3 dashed lines right smack dab between Guin and Jasper:
Central Ohio Wx
Member
Are the dashed ones the "non-tornadic" hook echoes? If so every track through that area needs to be thoroughly looked through via satellite to see if there is a visible scar. 4/3/1974 is one of those days where almost every storm probably had an attached tornado.
Also, could you possibly send me that .pdf? I'm going to forward it to Sekai Chandra, who found the undocumented Guin-area scar (NOT the F5; it's southeast of that one's path).
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Correct. Dashed are non-tornadic hook echoes. I’ll dm you the PDF.
DanLarsen34
Member
I think this is an interesting point to explore as well.
The immediate examples that came to mind, for me, were the Eastern Kentucky tornadoes (Salyersville and West Liberty) from the March 2, 2012 outbreak. Both of those tornadoes were high-end, quite long-tracking, and occurred in an environment with insane helicity values, but with almost no surface based CAPE.
Another example that came to mind was the February 26, 2023 Oklahoma event that produced some strong tornadoes near Norman, though none of those tornadoes were quite as intense as Robinson or the ones I mentioned above.
Kds86z
Member
Bump. Not sure
Was found via research by locomusic01 and it’s in his Stormstalker blog entry on this tornado. No photo of it exist though.