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Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition

SouthFLwx

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At the very least I could see an argument for a contextual F5 rating for the Moravia tornado. It certainly reached that intensity at some point; the contextual damage is incredible.

I think if this tornado had hit a subdivision of US homes, particularly tract homes, we would be seeing rows of slabs. Pembroke is a good comparison IMO; the contextual damage wasn't nearly as intense as the Moravia tornado yet well built (by US standards) homes were still slabbed.
What I find most interesting about this tornado is the striking difference the damage leaves between how US homes are built and how European homes are built.
 

buckeye05

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Agreed, the contextual damage truly showed how violent this one was.

Also, I'm having a hell of a hard time finding that collapsed structure with the blue and yellow cars on top of the rubble. I know its in Mikulcice, but I can't seem to narrow it down beyond that. Anyone have any idea how I can find it? I just want to see a "before" photo.
 

TH2002

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I would say this tornado was definitely stronger than both the 2017 Russian F4 and the 2015 Mira F4. This was likely the strongest European tornado in many decades.
Definitely the strongest since Hautmont, which leveled multiple similarly well-built brick homes and reportedly caused intense vegetation damage (though I haven't been able to find photos of this).

What I find most interesting about this tornado is the striking difference the damage leaves between how US homes are built and how European homes are built.
Off hand I don't know much about the construction practices of European homes other than that they're often constructed with much heavier materials than US homes, usually thick masonry walls. I would imagine ideas such as "anchor bolts" (at least with traditional anchor bolted sill plating as seen in US construction) and "wall studs" immediately get thrown out the window.

With that said, Japan also has many wood-framed structures similar to what is seen in the US because that type of construction is better than masonry structures to withstand the shaking from earthquakes. Not so much for tsunamis unfortunately, as the 2011 tsunami swept those buildings off their foundations in a matter of seconds.

I do have to wonder how the house I live in currently will fare when the not-so-distant S.A.F. finally ruptures; from my understanding the part of the house facing the mountain has reinforced concrete exterior walls meant to serve as a barrier against floods, but most of the rest of the house consists of more traditional wood framing.
 

Sawmaster

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European construction is much different than ours, stronger in some ways while weaker in others. Their brick walls are structural, being 2 layers wide with "bond" coursing, where bricks tie both walls together. The same construction is used for many or all interior walls too. Their fenestration is also stronger and the latching mechanisms more robust. And many of their homes are poured concrete, usually reinforced though that may be to a lesser standard than what we do. They also still use plaster in most homes, and it offers a lot more stiffness to a ceiling than drywall as well as having far more mass to add to the weight of ceiling joists, helping prevent them from being blown away. Often those joists will be set in "pockets" in those strong masonry walls, with floors being done similarly.. So essentially the "box" below the roof is very wind resistant. Their roofs are frequently tile, and those are far less wind resistant than ours; we've all seen aftermath pics with only the roof framing left behind. This might be an advantage since once the tiles blow away there's almost no wind loading to deal with in the roof system. I'm not sure how well those tiles carry in the wind- I certainly wouldn't want to be hit by one.

To build a house like theirs over here would cost double or more and you really couldn't do it as those roofs don't meet code. A car being thrown into either one will level it, so you decide.

Phil
 

buckeye05

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Tornado in West India today.

Interesting seeing this region producing again. Hasn’t been much in that area since Brahmanbaria 2013. Not saying this this one is going to be nearly as violent as that one, but it does look somewhat similar.
 

buckeye05

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This is pretty anomalous, as the Netherlands isn't really in European tornado alley so to speak (then again, neither is Czechia). I honestly can't think of a tornado fatality in the Netherlands during my lifetime besides this. While I'm sure there have been a few others, the only significant Netherlands tornado I can recall would be an F2 that damaged some farms in a rural area back in August of 2015.
 

buckeye05

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While on the topic of European tornadoes, I think I finally narrowed down the location of that leveled brick home in Mikulcice. Turns out it was closer to the center of town than I had thought. Took me a while to find it, but unfortunately, the street it is on doesn't have street view on google maps.
Mikulcicecollapse1.jpg
mikulcicecollapse2.PNG
mikulcicecollapse3.PNG
 
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MNTornadoGuy

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buckeye05

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What’s the street name?
Street names aren't showing up for some reason, but here's the exact location. Also a second photo where if you look closely, you can just barely see the yellow car on top of the rubble, confirming it is the building in question.
Mikulcicecollapselocation1.PNG
mikulcicecollapselocation2.PNG

Another one I'd like to know about is this almost completely leveled brick structure in eastern Mikulcice. Only one corner of the building was left partially standing. If this was a brick home, this is among the most "textbook" F4 damage that the tornado produced. However, there were multiple brick wine storage buildings also destroyed at the east edge of Mikulcice, so this could be one of those, which were not well-built enough for an F4 rating. Anyone have any other angles or info on this one?
11752_9a2f1a14ccee8da92d83884adf1f29d2.png
 

buckeye05

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OK I'll stop posting about the Moravia F4 after this, but here's a few more interesting finds.
The survey mentions that the largest and most intense segment of F4 damage occurred in eastern Mikulcice, where trees were completely debarked and brick homes were destroyed. Some of the most violent damage in this area appears to have occurred just northeast of where a road goes under the railroad tracks via a small bridge.
mikulcicerailroadtrackarea.PNG

A yellow masonry home, visible in the upper left hand corner, seems to have suffered the most intense damage here, totally collapsing and being left mostly leveled.
7066573.jpg


Another white masonry home mostly collapsed nearby, though not to the extent of the yellow house. This one is harder to see, but visible in the center between the two homes that are severely damaged but still standing. The masonry row houses shown in the survey that sustained F4 damage were hit just beyond the horizon in this photo.
media%3Ab24708a3a9264e11a4d06f1498f4e101APTOPIX_Czech_Republic_Europe_Weather_94411.jpg


Closer view of the three homes that sustained F4 damage right as the tornado entered Mikulcice. The survey mentions that one of them was completely destroyed (the one on the right I presume), however, the one on the left looks essentially flattened to me as well, save for a tiny part of a brick wall left standing around the front doorway.
mikulcicethreehomes.PNG
 
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Since we're discussing Moravia, I'm gonna post stuff on Hautmont, France as it caused arguably the only tornado damage in Europe on par with Moravia. What's remarkable about this thing is how narrow its damage path and how violent it got. Some meteorologists believed the tornado deserved an F4 rating, but the ever-conservative French meteorological board gave the tornado an F3 rating.

Damage pics:

hautmont-tornado-damage-panel.png

2 fatalities occurred in the home on lower right.



hautmont-panel.png

A two-story home that was obliterated. Homes in France are likely built with stronger materials and require much stronger winds to be destroyed, like with the Czech Republic. This thing should've been rated F4 based on the home damage alone.

Tree damage:
Tree 2.png



Screenshot 2022-06-27 at 17-03-06 Tree 1.png (PNG Image 789 × 527 pixels).png



Some PDFs on it:
 

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MNTornadoGuy

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OK I'll stop posting about the Moravia F4 after this, but here's a few more interesting finds.
The survey mentions that the largest and most intense segment of F4 damage occurred in eastern Mikulcice, where trees were completely debarked and brick homes were destroyed. Some of the most violent damage in this area appears to have occurred just northeast of where a road goes under the railroad tracks via a small bridge.
View attachment 14734

A yellow masonry home, visible in the upper left hand corner, seems to have suffered the most intense damage here, totally collapsing and being left mostly leveled.
7066573.jpg


Another white masonry home mostly collapsed nearby, though not to the extent of the yellow house. This one is harder to see, but visible in the center between the two homes that are severely damaged but still standing. The masonry row houses shown in the survey that sustained F4 damage were hit just beyond the horizon in this photo.
media%3Ab24708a3a9264e11a4d06f1498f4e101APTOPIX_Czech_Republic_Europe_Weather_94411.jpg


Closer view of the three homes that sustained F4 damage right as the tornado entered Mikulcice. The survey mentions that one of them was completely destroyed (the one on the right I presume), however, the one on the left looks essentially flattened to me as well, save for a tiny part of a brick wall left standing around the front doorway.
View attachment 14735
Screenshot 2022-06-27 at 17-27-02 24-June-2021-violent-tornado-damage-assessment-.pdf.png
Looks like that building is within the F4 swath.
 

MNTornadoGuy

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OK I'll stop posting about the Moravia F4 after this, but here's a few more interesting finds.
The survey mentions that the largest and most intense segment of F4 damage occurred in eastern Mikulcice, where trees were completely debarked and brick homes were destroyed. Some of the most violent damage in this area appears to have occurred just northeast of where a road goes under the railroad tracks via a small bridge.
View attachment 14734

A yellow masonry home, visible in the upper left hand corner, seems to have suffered the most intense damage here, totally collapsing and being left mostly leveled.
7066573.jpg


Another white masonry home mostly collapsed nearby, though not to the extent of the yellow house. This one is harder to see, but visible in the center between the two homes that are severely damaged but still standing. The masonry row houses shown in the survey that sustained F4 damage were hit just beyond the horizon in this photo.
media%3Ab24708a3a9264e11a4d06f1498f4e101APTOPIX_Czech_Republic_Europe_Weather_94411.jpg


Closer view of the three homes that sustained F4 damage right as the tornado entered Mikulcice. The survey mentions that one of them was completely destroyed (the one on the right I presume), however, the one on the left looks essentially flattened to me as well, save for a tiny part of a brick wall left standing around the front doorway.
View attachment 14735
That house in the 4th photo might have been the one under construction.
 

buckeye05

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Since we're discussing Moravia, I'm gonna post stuff on Hautmont, France as it caused arguably the only tornado damage in Europe on par with Moravia. What's remarkable about this thing is how narrow its damage path and how violent it got. Some meteorologists believed the tornado deserved an F4 rating, but the ever-conservative French meteorological board gave the tornado an F3 rating.

Damage pics:

View attachment 14736

2 fatalities occurred in the home on lower right.



View attachment 14737

A two-story home that was obliterated. Homes in France are likely built with stronger materials and require much stronger winds to be destroyed, like with the Czech Republic. This thing should've been rated F4 based on the home damage alone.

Tree damage:
View attachment 14738



View attachment 14739



Some PDFs on it:
Yeah Hautmont was definitely comparable, and its "in the books" as an F4 by now. I have heard that about the F3 rating, but that is no longer the case from what I understand. It is currently listed as an F4 by the European Severe Weather Database, ESSL, and every other recent study and publication on it I can find. Sounds like the initial call of F3 was overruled, and with the ESSL and ESWD on board, it doesn't really get more official than that.
 
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