Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition

[TH2002]

Damage looks potentially violent.

Agreed. If I'm seeing this correctly, this appears to be a masonry home leveled and partially slabbed, with nearby trees significantly debarked.

In addition, the tornado itself (video here) had an appearance similar to some classic violent Plains and Dixie tornadoes (Albion 1990 and Cullman 2011 immediately came to mind) and was also deadly, with one confirmed fatality so far. Either way, this tornado season is lining up to be a historic one for Paraguay.

 

[UK_EF4]

Is this a contender for most intense damage ever caused by a tornado in the UK?

On record - probably not, as there are some descriptions of more intense damage though this is before photos were available and I suspect that some exaggeration took place. But in terms of photographed damage, the tree stuff is the most intense I've ever seen and building damage probably up there though not as significant as the Wales tornado in 1913 or the Birmingham 2005, as examples.

 

[FelipeFreitas]

Tornado Lavino, Bulgaria

 

[UK_EF4]

The tornado in Jersey, was rated T6 on the torro scale - equivalent to an EF3 and the strongest tornado since 1954 in the British Isles.

TORRO | Events on 01 November 2023

TORRO is a privately-supported research body specialising in severe convective weather in Britain and Ireland

www.torro.org.uk

 

[TH2002]

On June 6, 2012 an EF1 tornado hit the Perth, Western Australia suburbs of Morley and Dianella. Local residents filmed the tornado from close range as it sent light debris flying high into the air:



Multiple homes lost shingles, and a few had sections of roofing torn away as well. Many trees were downed and fencing was blown apart.

Multiple businesses were also affected, but one in particular bore the brunt of the storm. Setting a perfect example for what was happening to the company at the time, a Blockbuster Video store was severely damaged, with much of its front glass smashed in and tin roof peeled away.

Five people were inside the store at the time; thankfully, none of them were injured. According to a story from Perth Now, one customer asked after the tornado's passage "Do you mind still putting through my DVD?"

(Also, FWIW this Blockbuster was repaired and, ironically, became the last one left standing in Australia.)

 

[buckeye05]

Got overshadowed by the Tennessee Valley tornado outbreak in the US, but there was an IF2 tornado in Ireland. Was strong enough to unroof buildings, knock down thick masonry walls, and toss boats around. Can anybody tell me when the last time a strong tornado occurred in Ireland? I can't think of any in my lifetime besides this recent one.

 

[TH2002]

Obviously there's the typical "mini tornado" media trope with the Leitrim F2, but it turns out it may have actually been something else after all - "fairy wind" as this Facebook commenter puts it. And from what I can tell, he's being completely serious...

 

[buckeye05]

Obviously there's the typical "mini tornado" media trope with the Leitrim F2, but it turns out it may have actually been something else after all - "fairy wind" as this Facebook commenter puts it. And from what I can tell, he's being completely serious...
View attachment 22534

There’s ignorance, then there’s willfull ignorance. All it takes is quick google search to see the difference between a whirlwind and tornado. But no, this guy just has to default straight to the baseless “nah I’m right” dig your heels in with zero evidence approach. Some day there will be a freakishly strong IF3 UK tornado that will still get misreported or downplayed because of how tornado-ignorant the UK/Europe is. “Fairy wind”…sheeesh

That’s not a dig at other countries, just an observation on how hard it is to shake the “It’s only a tornado if it’s in the US” mindset across the pond.

 

[TH2002]

There’s ignorance, then there’s willfull ignorance. All it takes is quick google search to see the difference between a whirlwind and tornado. But no, this guy just has to default straight to the baseless “nah I’m right” dig your heels in with zero evidence approach. Some day there will be a freakishly strong IF3 UK tornado that will still get misreported or downplayed because of how tornado-ignorant the UK/Europe is. “Fairy wind”…sheeesh

That’s not a dig at other countries, just an observation on how hard it is to shake the “It’s only a tornado if it’s in the US” mindset across the pond.

Interestingly enough there actually was a T6/F3 rated tornado in St. Clement, Jersey last month (wasn't sure if you saw @UK_EF4's post towards the top of this page). Some initial media reports did simply refer to it as "high winds" or a "suspected tornado" but thankfully, by the time TORRO released their report most articles called it for what it was - an intense tornado.

 

[UK_EF4]

Got overshadowed by the Tennessee Valley tornado outbreak in the US, but there was an IF2 tornado in Ireland. Was strong enough to unroof buildings, knock down thick masonry walls, and toss boats around. Can anybody tell me when the last time a strong tornado occurred in Ireland? I can't think of any in my lifetime besides this recent one.

I am pretty sure one occurred last year in November. Its annoying that TORRO and European severe weather databases are very reluctant to publish their data although we are seeing small progress on this.

But regarding the tornado last year:
Was rated T4 based on some tree damage and significant damage to one home.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

OTD in 1990. A violent tornado struck Mobara, Japan. Windspeed of 208mph (93m/s) were recorded from a photogrammetry analysis by Kazuo Watanabe, 60 were injured and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed. Ted Fujita rated this tornado as F4 while JMA rated this tornado as F3.

 

[buckeye05]

Does anybody else think that the 2005 Birmingham, England tornado may have warranted an F3 rating? There were a lot of masonry buildings with multiple collapsed walls. High-end F2 is fine, but it seems pretty consistent with other F3s in Europe.

 

[UK_EF4]

Does anybody else think that the 2005 Birmingham, England tornado may have warranted an F3 rating? There were a lot of masonry buildings with multiple collapsed walls. High-end F2 is fine, but it seems pretty consistent with other F3s in Europe.

I would agree F3 would be more appropriate. TORRO and the Met Office did rate it T5/6 which is equivalent with an F3, but I think the ESWD went with Tim Marshall’s F2 rating.

 

[TH2002]

On July 25, 2021, a significant tornado struck multiple villages in the Bang Kla District of Thailand. This large tornado became a wedge in its mature stage, something pretty uncommon for this part of the world. Many trees and power poles were downed, with some trees being nearly denuded, multiple homes sustained loss of their roofs and attached garages with some being completely leveled, and at least three people were injured. Based on available damage photos, this tornado may have been an F2.

I haven't been able to find any Thailand tornadoes that come even close to the appearance and damage intensity of this storm, however...

[minor rant incoming]

Doing research on tornadoes in Thailand has proven to be somewhat difficult for the obvious reasons concerning the language barrier and lack of documentation of these storms in Western media sources, but I'd have to say it's been mostly due to the good ole "it's only a tornado if it happens in the US" misconception that is still rife in many other countries. The Thai word most commonly used to refer to tornadoes literally translates as "trunk storm" in a phenomenon not dissimilar to almost every tornado in the UK and Australia being referred to as a "mini tornado". So don't bother typing "tornado" in an English to Thai translation because it won't get you anywhere, and on top of this, YT and Facebook Watch's search features still suck.

 

[TH2002]

Also, FWIW I took that vertical video of the 2021 Thailand tornado and 4:3 aspect ratio'd it. Sorry about the mouse cursor that's visible in the first three seconds of the footage, but it's a small price to pay IMO:


After the storm, a 90-year old resident interviewed in a Thai news article said he had never seen anything like it.

Also, unrelated event but I came across this footage a while ago. This is from Nepal and while it is obviously a legitimate tornado, I didn't do more digging until recently:


The footage was uploaded in April 2019, so I thought this was the 3/31/19 tornado at first, but something didn't add up since the 3/2019 event was clearly strong to violent and this footage is of an obviously weaker tornado. I thought "maybe fluctuating intensity" but that explanation still seemed iffy, so I continued to put the pieces together - the date on the title of this upload is written in the Nepali Calendar, so converting that to the Gregorian Calendar actually places this event on April 27, 2013.

Of course, trying to find any media coverage of this event has been like trying to find a unicorn - even taking the language barrier into consideration, it basically doesn't exist and I can't find any other record of this tornado's existence. This is likely at least partially due to how tornado-oblivious Nepal is, and it makes sense that a weaker tornado would simply be misreported and/or fade into obscurity - at least until footage of it just so happened to surface after a completely unrelated tornado years later.

With that said, it's great to know that the Nepali government is taking steps to increase the country's tornado preparedness, including the 2019 tornado being the first to have an extensive study done on it, and the construction of at least one Doppler radar the same year.

 

[bjdeming]

Just saw this in the news -- it came up in my volcano news search actually, due to a reporter's online gaffe.

Is there more information on the Manchester, UK tornado?

 

[buckeye05]

Just saw this in the news -- it came up in my volcano news search actually, due to a reporter's online gaffe.

Is there more information on the Manchester, UK tornado?

An IF2/T5 tornado has been confirmed in the Manchester suburb of Stalybridge, England. It hit at night so there isn't really any good video of it, but here's the damage.

 

[buckeye05]

So I'm not sure if this has been posted already, but the Corderilla, Paraguay wedge that completely destroyed houses and debarked trees in October has been rated "between F1 and F2"....huh?

Paraguay: Tornado en Departamento Cordillera tuvo una fuerza de entre F1 y F2, confirma Meteorología

El tornado que afectó a Mbocayaty del Yhaguy, Departamento de Cordillera, tuvo una fuerza de entre F1 y F2 de la escala de Fujita, con vientos en torno a los

noticiasdel6.com

 

[TH2002]

So I'm not sure if this has been posted already, but the Corderilla, Paraguay wedge that completely destroyed houses and debarked trees in October has been rated "between F1 and F2"....huh?

Paraguay: Tornado en Departamento Cordillera tuvo una fuerza de entre F1 y F2, confirma Meteorología

El tornado que afectó a Mbocayaty del Yhaguy, Departamento de Cordillera, tuvo una fuerza de entre F1 y F2 de la escala de Fujita, con vientos en torno a los

noticiasdel6.com

The one that debarked trees was actually a second tornado that hit the outskirts of San Estanislao a few days after the first wedge. The first tornado (the one described as "F1-F2") hit the village of Mbocayaty del Yhaguy. Both of them leveled masonry homes, and the Estanislao tornado actually partially slabbed some of them which makes me believe the tornadoes should have been rated F3 and F4, respectively.

 

[buckeye05]

The one that debarked trees was actually a second tornado that hit the outskirts of San Estanislao a few days after the first wedge. The first tornado (the one described as "F1-F2") hit the village of Mbocayaty del Yhaguy. Both of them leveled masonry homes, and the Estanislao tornado actually partially slabbed some of them which makes me believe the tornadoes should have been rated F3 and F4, respectively.

Do you have any articles that mention both tornadoes separately, particularly the second one? I've only been able to find info on the Mbocayaty del Yhaguy tornado so far.

Edit: Never mind I found some