Lake Martin EF4
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I may have the next EF5 on my list. Should probably wait for more info to come in before making a final judgement though.
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Decoupling and tossing a railcar 80 yards certainly does it for me. I noticed the box cars were full of grain. Does that mean the tanks were full of liquid too?
Tanner
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The Enderlin tornado certainly reached EF5 intensity. I would put it on my list if I had a definitive one.
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- Columbus, OH
I haven’t seen anything that points to potential EF5 intensity aside from the tossed train car - any impressive ground/grass scouring or tree debarking? I’m also aware of the slabbed homes but they did not look structurally good enough for even an EF4 rating.
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Here's some of the strongest evidence I've found
This picture shows clearly the tank was lofted rather than rolled.
Here's three separate destroyed structures with very little debris left in the area. Lots of flattened, partially debarked trees and ground scouring as well.
The slab in the background was the home, and in the foreground was a shed. No debris remaining. Can see completely nubbed/debarked trees and scouring here as well.
Another house swept clean with debarked trees in the immediate vicinity. It's the house with the brown roof in this overhead pic
Here's a large truck axle all alone surrounded by scouring in a ditch. We typically only see this type of vehicle destruction with upper echelon tornadoes. Pieces of the mangled frame can be seen scattered in the field next to it, along with more intense scouring (notice the clumps of grass left behind).
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Here's a good image of the scar left behind by the tornado.
And here's a good video showing completely debarked trees.
Do I believe this tornado will be rated EF5? No. Is it an EF5 by the current impossible standards and precedent set over the last 20 years? Also no. However, if we're actually going to reasonably lower those standards at some point so tornadoes are no longer underrated so significantly, this should be a slam dunk EF5. The scale isn't about engineering and building standards. It's about categorizing tornadoes by their wind speeds and overall strength. This is a 5/5 in that regard.
And here's a good video showing completely debarked trees.
Do I believe this tornado will be rated EF5? No. Is it an EF5 by the current impossible standards and precedent set over the last 20 years? Also no. However, if we're actually going to reasonably lower those standards at some point so tornadoes are no longer underrated so significantly, this should be a slam dunk EF5. The scale isn't about engineering and building standards. It's about categorizing tornadoes by their wind speeds and overall strength. This is a 5/5 in that regard.
joshoctober16
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seems like it was rolled first then thrown , the thrown distance i think is half the real distance.
I've watched enough of his videos to know he doesn't strive for factual accuracy.
Most of his research is conducted solely on the Tornado Archive, which is a great starting point, but he rarely cross-checks it with other sources.
He has also made entire videos that not only fail to dispel, but blatantly perpetuate false rumors, including that "Vince Rupert died filming the 1953 Warner-Robins tornado" and "The 1976 Kiana, AK tornado is the northernmost report of a tornado ever".
He also has an asinine habit of completely mislabeling tornado photographs, a problem that users other than myself have pointed out.
That's not to say he's wrong 100% of the time, but his videos have thrown up enough red flags for me to not trust his so-called "research".
Lake Martin EF4
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- Oakland, Tennessee
Hmmm..... Curiouser and curiouser.
I take it you no longer consider Perryville 2017 an EF5 candidate?
Also, if New Harmony is on there, I'd argue the similarly contextually catastrophic Askewville, Barnesville and Canton Lake tornadoes should also be on there with hyphens next to them. I have all three as EF5 on my personal list. Ditto for Sterling City of 2024.
My earlier question regarding what made you give Cordova and Ringgold the italics treatment still stands, and has an additional bullet point - did any EF5 damage, structural, contextual or otherwise, occur in Georgia with Ringgold, or was all the EF5 candidate damage in Tennessee?
EDIT: Also curious about Flat Rock. That one had one particular house that (IIRC) got what was essentially the "fencepost" excuse from Goldsby applied to it which got it rated EF4. Even the surveyor Tornado Talk interviewed felt it could've/should've been rated EF5.
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Aaron Rider
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So what does everyone consider the violent tornado contenders of 2025 so far?
Ones that come to mind:
March 14:
Bakersfield, MO
Larkin, AR
Diaz, AR
March 15: Tylertown, MS
April 2: Lake City, AR
May 16:
Marion, IL
London, KY
May 18:
Plevna, KS
Grinnell, KS
June 21: Enderlin, ND
Still curious about Linton, IN on May 16. Never saw much from that.
Overall, in terms of producing violent tornadoes, this year may have surpassed last year's (I have about 10 or so contenders last year) and may have had the most violent ones since 2013 (a good 11 contenders that year).
Ones that come to mind:
March 14:
Bakersfield, MO
Larkin, AR
Diaz, AR
March 15: Tylertown, MS
April 2: Lake City, AR
May 16:
Marion, IL
London, KY
May 18:
Plevna, KS
Grinnell, KS
June 21: Enderlin, ND
Still curious about Linton, IN on May 16. Never saw much from that.
Overall, in terms of producing violent tornadoes, this year may have surpassed last year's (I have about 10 or so contenders last year) and may have had the most violent ones since 2013 (a good 11 contenders that year).
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Tomcats Forever!
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Was Linton the one with the scatter spike? I don't remember.
Tanner
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Linton and the Bloomington tornado both had potential violent presentation, but very limited info came out from them. I would personally like to see more.
OH-IOan
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- Franklin County, Ohio
These are my three:
- London produced "worst-of-the-year" tree damage between the two towns; it's a miracle it didn't hit much while at peak intensity.
- Grinnell also produced extreme vegetation damage of violent caliber.
- Plevna similarly produced extreme tree damage.
Regarding Perryville, I had it on my list originally but eventually removed it. The house it swept away was very well-built but the contextual damage just didn't cut it.
Canton Lake may have reached EF5 intensity over the lake but I don't think it caused any EF5 damage, structurally or contextually. The debarking and pavement scouring were definitely violent but not reliable enough EF5 indicators. Same thing for Askewville, violent contextual damage but not quite enough for EF5 (this is just my opinion)
Probably should have put Barnesville on the list (I'll update the post accordingly). I think HE EF4 would be appropriate there but a case for a lower end 5 can be made.
Ringgold: I don't think any genuine EF5 structural damage occurred in Georgia except for maybe one home I haven't been able to find ground level views of. I do think it meets the structural and contextual criteria for EF5 (by 2011 standards at least) in Tennessee though.
Cordova: a newly built, plausibly well constructed home was swept away in Cullman County that was missed in the survey. That, plus the contextual damage is enough for EF5 imo.
Flat Rock: will add it to my list with a hyphen since it possibly reached EF5 intensity, but I don't think it's an EF5 candidate. The home the surveyor is referring to was on a block foundation and the bolted down subfloor remained. EF4 is fine.
Not too familiar with Sterling City. Can you tell me more about it?
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I'm not sure swegle is really aiming to be an expert or reliable source of information. He seems to be more focused on entertainment for a casual audience, which I can't fault him for.
Do you watch any high risk Chris? He's been slowly becoming my favorite and seems to do a ton of research for his videos.Definitely over dramatic, but so were the Weather Channel documentaries back in the day and I ate those up as a kid. His animations are also really solid.
Lake Martin EF4
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Aaron Rider
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When I say violent, I mean EF/F4 or higher. Bakersfield and Lake City were clearly two of those, for example.
Especially Lake City. That tornado getting EF3 rather than EF4 gets a Charles Barkley "come on, man" from me.
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Good Guy Moriarty crunchin those numbers
OH-IOan
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Is this the Enderlin one? Unlike other obviously-violent EF3 tornadoes like Grinnell, this one seems to have a good chance at an upgrade.
AJS
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I think in terms of the damage they produced, these have been the strongest of the year:
Diaz, AR
Bakersfield, MO
Lake City, AR
London/Somerset, KY
Grinnell, KS
Plevna, KS
And then some of the tornadoes that have occurred over the last week.
Diaz, AR
Bakersfield, MO
Lake City, AR
London/Somerset, KY
Grinnell, KS
Plevna, KS
And then some of the tornadoes that have occurred over the last week.