Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition

[bjdeming]

Also, the Wikipedia page about tornadic events in Brazil (in Portuguese unfortunately) seems to have consolidated a lot of events pointed out in research papers over the years. Some states only go up until 2010. link

I run into this language issue a lot when blogging about volcanoes. It is easily worked around by copying the foreign-language page URL, heading over to translate.google.com, selecting "website" and pasting the URL. That not only translates the page's text but also that of any links you click on there PLUS you can copy that URL (I think) to share an autotranslated link.

Like this (hopefully).

Anyway, just wanted to jump in here and share this Twitter thread, if it hasn't been posted already.

 

[TH2002]

Video of the 2021 Czech F4 near its peak intensity in Mikulčice. Bears an uncanny resemblance to the Smithville tornado as it was in the Shottsville, AL area:

 

[buckeye05]

Surprised nobody has mentioned what was likely China's first strong tornado of the 2023 season. Struck the Linyi area in Shandong Province. Damage looks EF2-ish.

 

[WxChristo]

Bulgaria - the 2008 Senovo tornado was definitely EF2+ and the 1989 Bohot tornado was probably EF3+, although Bulgarian tornadoes in general are rather poorly documented. Here is also a PDF, probably the best source of information on tornadoes in Bulgaria outside of the ESWD: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324913585_Tornado_Climatology_of_Bulgaria
Greece - there are a handful of official F2's in the ESWD database, although I haven't been able to find much information on them (again, the language barrier plays a part).
Lithuania - I'm not sure I disagree with the F2 rating of the 2011 tornado, because there was at least one house that sustained partial collapse of its exterior walls (photo in this PDF)
Slovakia - I feel like the 2021 Bystré tornado could go either way (high end EF1 to low end EF2) so I would say EF1+ personally.

And might as well mention these countries too:
Russia - EF4+. Moscow 1904, Ivanovo 1984 (originally F5 but later downgraded to F4) and the 2017 Maloe Pes'yanovo F4.
Turkey - EF2+. Two official F3's in the ESWD database although both of them are questionable. Regarding Ankara June 19, 2004, the claim that houses were "destroyed to the foundation walls" appears to be unsubstantiated, with some sources listing the tornado as an F2 and only mention roofs torn from houses. The November 19, 2017 Finike tornado may have been an F3, although I could only find one house that lost any upper floor exterior walls, and it may have been poorly constructed at that. Most of the damage appears to be flattened greenhouses.
Algeria - Northern Algeria is within the area served by the ESWD. There have been a few tornadoes reliably documented there including this large tornado near Djelfa in 2013:



All that said, great job on the map and research!

2008 Senovo was not EF2+, it only took roofs off and blew down signs. Haven't been able to spot a scar on satellite.
Bohot tornado was F3, maybe F4, but there isnt enough information. When i first reported it to ESSL, they added it to ESWD but never gave it a rating.

 

[TH2002]

2008 Senovo was not EF2+, it only took roofs off and blew down signs. Haven't been able to spot a scar on satellite.
Bohot tornado was F3, maybe F4, but there isnt enough information. When i first reported it to ESSL, they added it to ESWD but never gave it a rating.

Thanks for the info. Do you know of any damage photos from Senovo by chance? The tornado itself was certainly massive, but haven't been able to find any damage imagery.

 

[WxChristo]

All that i have been able to find is this knocked down sign. They are not at all the strongest, and often very old +im not at all sure if its done by the tornado or if its just a random image thrown into the news article. It also is said to have left 100 homes without their roofs, but i have been in that area, and roofs in those villages are not at all the strongest, so even higher end (E)F1 winds could destroy them.
https://dariknews.bg/novini/bylgariia/tornado-ostavi-200-semejstva-bez-pokriv-v-zavet-246098 <-- source for all of this

 

[TH2002]

Japan kind of has a thing when it comes to gorgeous waterspouts, and this 2008 waterspout off the coast of Isumi City is no exception:



Although, this one is particularly interesting to me because Isumi was later damaged in the 2011 tsunami. On the opposite end of things, Ishinomaki (arguably the hardest hit location by the 2011 disaster) was later hit by a weak but still notable F1 tornado in 2013.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Japan kind of has a thing when it comes to gorgeous waterspouts, and this 2008 waterspout off the coast of Isumi City is no exception:



Although, this one is particularly interesting to me because Isumi was later damaged in the 2011 tsunami. On the opposite end of things, Ishinomaki (arguably the hardest hit location by the 2011 disaster) was later hit by a weak but still notable F1 tornado in 2013.

I wonder if Japan have any footages of photogenic supercells

 

[WxChristo]

Here is a collection of the tree damage caused by the South Moravia IF4. The blowdown is some of the most violent I have seen from a drill bit, debarking is nuts. If there is a study done on the tree fall that occurred in some areas, I wouldn't be surprised for estimates to be in the 200+ range

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here is a collection of the tree damage caused by the South Moravia IF4. The blowdown is some of the most violent I have seen from a drill bit, debarking is nuts. If there is a study done on the tree fall that occurred in some areas, I wouldn't be surprised for estimates to be in the 200+ range View attachment 20011View attachment 20012View attachment 20020View attachment 20018

What I can't understand is how the majority of buildings are still standing and the cars, while damaged are still in one piece. What exactly was the basis for the F4 rating?
That said, this is probably the most violent damage tree damage I've seen in Europe and some of the most violent outside the USA.

 

[buckeye05]

What I can't understand is how the majority of buildings are still standing and the cars, while damaged are still in one piece. What exactly was the basis for the F4 rating?
That said, this is probably the most violent damage tree damage I've seen in Europe and some of the most violent outside the USA.

European F4s don’t need to level buildings to get a violent rating due to the extremely sturdy, rigid concrete and reinforced masonry construction utilized there. Even then, this tornado still managed to flatten a few masonry homes in the town of Mikulcice. The F4 rating was based on a combination of major damage to very well-built masonry structures, and extreme debarking of trees. It very much deserved an F4 rating, as it produced the most violent tornado damage in Europe I have seen during my lifetime.

Had this tornado occurred in the US, we’d have seen lots of slabbed homes and many more fatalities.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

European F4s don’t need to level buildings to get a violent rating due to the extremely sturdy, rigid concrete and reinforced masonry construction utilized there. Even then, this tornado still managed to flatten a few masonry homes in the town of Mikulcice. The F4 rating was based on a combination of major damage to very well-built masonry structures, and extreme debarking of trees. It very much deserved an F4 rating, as it produced the most violent tornado damage in Europe I have seen during my lifetime.

Had this tornado occurred in the US, we’d have seen lots of slabbed homes and many more fatalities.

Wow, just goes to show how poorly built so many homes (or any buildings, really) are in the US.

 

[TH2002]

European F4s don’t need to level buildings to get a violent rating due to the extremely sturdy, rigid concrete and reinforced masonry construction utilized there. Even then, this tornado still managed to flatten a few masonry homes in the town of Mikulcice. The F4 rating was based on a combination of major damage to very well-built masonry structures, and extreme debarking of trees. It very much deserved an F4 rating, as it produced the most violent tornado damage in Europe I have seen during my lifetime.

Had this tornado occurred in the US, we’d have seen lots of slabbed homes and many more fatalities.

I firmly believe the Moravia tornado had F5/EF5 level winds in Mikulčice, based on some of the incredible contextual damage (debarking, scouring and displacement of concrete slabs) and the fact that an F5 rating was actually considered there, but like Rolling Fork it didn't really leave behind the structural damage to support an F5 rating. Same with the vehicle damage (at least IMO), which while impressive I don't recall seeing anything totally mangled in F5 fashion. In any case I agree that its high end F4 rating was well deserved.

 

[TH2002]

I wonder if Japan have any footages of photogenic supercells

Not sure if it qualifies as "photogenic" but this one came to mind; a supercell passed over Tokyo's Nerima Ward on August 26, 2011. It produced a stout wall cloud and some brief funnels, and considering the highly populated area it's fortunate none of the funnels touched down:

 

[Sawmaster]

Wow, just goes to show how poorly built so many homes (or any buildings, really) are in the US.

Not really, it's more that we have different resource available and a different focus on everything involved. And while their typical wall systems are stronger, their roof systems are not. Because of the different resource availability and costs, each region optimizes it's homes differently. With wood generally being plentiful and cheap here it becomes the most-used material, and the methods of it's use augment it's most outstanding properties. We can and do build buildings cheaper here which would simply be unaffordable in Europe at a similar size.

In some of the older towns here you can find structural brick construction similar to Europe's, as it was common in larger buildings built before the Depression. As best I can find, the church in downtown Mayfield which was mentioned as "well-constructed masonry" in the preliminary survey but completely omitted in the final version was apparently built of structural brick, as were some other buildings downtown which fared better than would have happened with modern construction techniques. These would be comparable to European construction but still suffered so much damage that rebuilding, not repair, would be called for.

There's also the issue of scaling and assessment. F4/F5 is achieved at lower true windspeeds than EF4/EF5 and when you compare only windspeeds, you'll find that our "well built and properly anchored" houses fare well compared to theirs in the "4" range. It's just that this type of home didn't really exist until 40 years ago which leaves the vast majority of homes here far more susceptible to wind damage and tornadoes. And there's also assessment, which seems to be extremely cursory in Europe with a tendency toward high ratings versus what happens where for all intents and purposes the last EF5 in history has already occurred and anything hinting otherwise is simply ignored.

Our older wood-framed houses are weaker than typical European construction, where our newest homes are nearly as strong overall. Buildings of structural brick and concrete are pretty much equal, but more common there than here. We spend roughly 50% for a detached home versus European costs and that shows up somewhere. They also have far fewer detached homes which adds inherent design strength to a row of homes. Save for places where violent tornadoes are common, I don't think there's a strength or durability issue with American homes.

 

[WxChristo]

Here is one of the IF4 rated homes. It is pure bricks for the 2nd floor, and the bottom floor is massive stones over a foot thick, which were literally eaten away by the debris hitting them. Then there are the small concrete slabs which were moved. Also the multiple brick homes (very well build with Tomas Pucik stating that some walls did not fail even when encountering winds of 160 mph+. In another image you can also see how damn thick the walls are (all again purely brick). Also, the tornado had insane vortex breakdowns, and some beautiful helical vortices. It was like a weaker version of Elie.
PS. That slab there was not a home.

 

[pohnpei]

What I can't understand is how the majority of buildings are still standing and the cars, while damaged are still in one piece. What exactly was the basis for the F4 rating?
That said, this is probably the most violent damage tree damage I've seen in Europe and some of the most violent outside the USA.

Another thing may need to be append here is some tree species in Czech may very likely different than what we commonly see in US.
For the before/after view of Hrusky, that incredible grove of debarked trees can be seen in the middle of the pic, too far that hard to really tell the specie. But all other trees, shurbs had most leaves left and all houses nearby only had their roofs partially damaged, which shouldn't be considered impressive even for sturdy houses in EU, just that whole groves of trees were completely debarked. I think it should be mentioned that tree species are different in different continent and different species can be more or less prone to be debarked by tornado.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Not sure if it qualifies as "photogenic" but this one came to mind; a supercell passed over Tokyo's Nerima Ward on August 26, 2011. It produced a stout wall cloud and some brief funnels, and considering the highly populated area it's fortunate none of the funnels touched down:

It looks like some touched down but very briefly

 

[WxChristo]

Reminder that it was a drillbit. Very small IF4 core, which was also not consistent due to often occurring vortex breakdowns. It can only throw cars, and even then, there are a few very impressive examples of car damage.
Also, in one of the pictures of the tree damage, where it's an aerial showing the blow down, you can see one tree getting lighter and lighter the closer to the center it was, and it was also broken kn hundreds of pieces at the end, while being completely debarked

 

[TH2002]

Reminder that it was a drillbit. Very small IF4 core, which was also not consistent due to often occurring vortex breakdowns. It can only throw cars, and even then, there are a few very impressive examples of car damage.
Also, in one of the pictures of the tree damage, where it's an aerial showing the blow down, you can see one tree getting lighter and lighter the closer to the center it was, and it was also broken kn hundreds of pieces at the end, while being completely debarked

The 1990 Plainfield tornado caused extremely impressive vehicle damage in its drillbit stage.

To be fair about the Moravia tornado I've only seen photos of vehicle damage from near the factory in Lužice, where it had probably already weakened slightly. Haven't seen any photos of vehicles in Mikulčice.