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Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition

MNTornadoGuy

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Does anybody know what in the world a "clear sky tornado" is? I've never heard of anything remotely like this, and I am honestly pretty skeptical if its even a real phenomenon. This posts claims it was equivalent to an F3. Not sure I buy that but interesting none the less.


Are they talking about a landspout?
 

OHWX97

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Does anybody know what in the world a "clear sky tornado" is? I've never heard of anything remotely like this, and I am honestly pretty skeptical if its even a real phenomenon. This posts claims it was equivalent to an F3. Not sure I buy that but interesting none the less.


What's got me scratching my head is the description of this phenomenon.
The phenomenon is actually a severe horizontal wind vortex with no visible condensation, associated with evaporative cooling of air due to virga from altocumulus and selective wavelength filtering of sunlight through particularly uniform cirrocumulus clouds. The vortex is tilted vertically by dense local fog layer breaking the capping inversion.
This obviously wouldn't be an actual tornado, but doesn't fit the description of a landspout, or dust devil, or just about anything I've ever heard of. It's baffling and a little frustrating because I've done a bit of digging around to find any other mention of such an occurrence, but unless I've missed something, it's only this Facebook post. Until I've seen this phenomenon acknowledged by an official source, I'm just as skeptical as you are.
 
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What's got me scratching my head is the description of this phenomenon.

This obviously wouldn't be an actual tornado, but doesn't fit the description of a landspout, or dust devil, or just about anything I've ever heard of. It's baffling and a little frustrating because I've done a bit of digging around to find any other mention of such an occurrence, but unless I've missed something, it's only this Facebook post. Until I've seen this phenomenon acknowledged by an official source, I'm just as skeptical as you are.
I've said it before: that sounds somewhat like what DePauw looked like at some points of its path (no visible condensation funnel but damage is still ocurring).
 

OHWX97

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I've said it before: that sounds somewhat like what DePauw looked like at some points of its path (no visible condensation funnel but damage is still ocurring).
The DePauw tornado developed from the mesocyclone of a parent supercell, making it a true tornado. The lack of condensation seen in photos was due to its massive, multiple-vortex structure. I didn't get the impression this "clear sky tornado" was associated with any thunderstorm.
 
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buckeye05

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"The phenomenon is actually a severe horizontal wind vortex with no visible condensation, associated with evaporative cooling of air due to virga from altocumulus and selective wavelength filtering of sunlight through particularly uniform cirrocumulus clouds. The vortex is tilted vertically by dense local fog layer breaking the capping inversion."

So basically an invisible tornado, like DePauw was for some parts of its life.
Everyone knows that some tornadoes lack a condensation funnel, but that isn't what's in question. Read the description of the alleged formation of this event. The post seems to be describing some kind of vortex that occurred independent of any kind of thunderstorm or mesocyclone.
 

TH2002

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Tornadoes are very rare in Iceland. The vast majority of reports in the ESWD database (excluding non-landfalling waterspouts) are reports of the tornado-like vortices that form from the ground up and connect to the base of pyrocumulonimbus clouds after volcanic eruptions. I'm on the fence as to whether these should be considered true tornadoes, as the way they form may actually have more in common with dust devils, but I'll leave that to open discussion. There is a dedicated thread for these volcanic eruption-induced vortices here: https://talkweather.com/threads/volcanic-tornadoes.1633/

But just because tornadoes are rare, that doesn't mean they haven't been observed. In August 2018, the country saw at least two true tornadoes spawned from thunderstorms. Even thunderstorm spawned tornadoes in Iceland are more often than not landspouts, though one of the storms that year was a true mesocyclonic tornado spawned from a supercell.

August 1, 2018 - Þorákshöfn
A landspout tornado touched down in rural areas, changing appearance several times during its lifecycle. The tornado did not impact any structures. It was estimated to have wind speeds of 30 meters per second (67 mph), making it an F0 tornado. For some reason this event is not listed in the ESWD database.
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August 24, 2018 - Norðurhjáleiga
A supercell thunderstorm spawned at least one tornado in south Iceland. Multiple funnel clouds were observed, and some locals reported that a second tornado touched down in the area. A farm sustained extensive damage, with seven outbuildings heavily damaged or destroyed. Roof panels were found 100+ meters away, and a 4x4 and attached trailer were overturned and thrown into a ditch. The damage was awarded an EF1 rating.
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gregassagraf

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Incredible storm structure and tornado that accompanied the severe weather streak affecting regions around the La Plata Basin, more specifically around the Missiones region.

Yesterday was the second day in a week with tornadic activity. Earlier on the 15th of august, multiple tornadic damage were reported throughout the states of Rio Grande do Sul and some yet to be confirmed as tornadic in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.


 

TH2002

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It's time for International Tornado Videos: Volume II

A weak, but fatal F0 tornado in the Tyoply Stan district of Moscow, June 30 2013. One person was killed by a falling tree, and two others were injured.


Multiple vortex F1 tornado in downtown Fukuoka, Japan, August 21 2011. This video was filmed at the Fukuoka Airport, where the tornado reportedly left debris on a runway. Twenty buildings were damaged or destroyed and one person was injured. Multiple vortex tornadoes are rare in Japan, and this was the fourth documented instance of such (the infamous Tsukuba tornado occurred a little less than a year later.)


F1 tornado that hit Hondular and Gücü in Turkey, on October 10 2011. One person was killed and ten others were injured. 15 homes were damaged and one was destroyed along the 14 km path. It may have been an F2; in fact, a second tornado touched down near Kayacik on the same day, causing damage to forested areas and destroying one farmhouse.


F3 tornado in Taquarituba, Brazil on September 22, 2013. Three people were killed and 64 were injured.

Some damage photos from this tornado
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Indonesia is not known for tornadoes but they do get quite a few each year. One of the most significant tornadoes in the nation's history is the Feb 2012 Wette'e Panca Lautang Village tornado. Poorly-built homes were completely destroyed and trees were stripped of foliage. 5 people were killed by this tornado.
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I could assume that this is where the tornado reached its peak intensity (likely high-end F3 intensity) but due to poor construction and no offical rating given, i'm not so sure about it
 

TH2002

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I could assume that this is where the tornado reached its peak intensity (likely high-end F3 intensity) but due to poor construction and no offical rating given, i'm not so sure about it
Somewhat unrelated, but do you know of any old(er) tornado footage from Indonesia by chance? Particularly interested in stuff from the mid to late 2000's-early 2010's. I'm sure there's at least something out there but of course, the language barrier...
 
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Speaking of Indonesian tornadoes, they are no stranger to significant tornadoes like the ones that occured on December 31, 2017 and November 22, 2017. Both of these tornadoes occured in Central Java, an area which is no stranger to tornadoes occurence.

December 31, 2017 Pemalang tornado
Now for this tornado, it is unknown where it touched down but i can assume it started over open farmland. The tornado itself appears as almost narrow stovepipe tornado and for most of its lifespan, the tornado remains not fully condensed to the ground but suction vortices and debris cloud hinted its presence, the tornado also turned into "almost waterspout" when it tracked over wet farmland. The some of the damage that the tornado did are seen in this photo :received_289918266569674.jpegreceived_641672827095795.jpegreceived_213344980947265.jpeg
 
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For the November 22, 2017 Tambak Rejo, Sidoarjo tornado.
The tornado itself basically almost have no funnel at all but videos of this tornado shows evidence of suction vortices and a debris cloud underneath a large rotating wall cloud, the damage that it did was pretty significant but there is one footage that stands out as my pick on unique tornado footage, the footage shows the approaching tornado recorded by someone at rooftop (?) And there is some vortices visible in that video including the one that i can estimate is at the same height as a dump truck
 

TH2002

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Serbia isn't known for tornadoes but at least 24 did occur there during the 2010's, some of them including the 2013 Golubinci tornado and 2016 Jagodina tornado showed very well defined condensation funnels.

But I came across this clip and I have to admit I'm not exactly sure what this is. Based on how the winds noticeably change direction as they pass over the vehicle (and how the wind gusts continue after the initial burst but noticeably not as strong) I'm going to say this is a weak tornado embedded in a downburst, but I could be wrong. The ESWD database is of no help here due to there being absolutely no reports of any kind in the database for September 2017 in Serbia.
 

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First time poster here, i haven't seen much info on the 1934 Kiuruvesi F4 in Finland so i'm gonna post what i know here for anyone who might want to know. Eyewitnesses say it started over the lake with "quickly forming funnel-like vorticies" it then moved NW along the coast of Kiuruvesi where it ripped off roofs "throwing one 3 km", "flattened" a park, threw cars and destroyed old trees, it had a width of 100-200 meters and lasted for about 10 minutes.

Here are the pictures i found of the damage.

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The path it took.
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Simple recreation of that path in google earth.
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I also found this picture of tree damage caused by the Pulkkila F3 that happened on the same day.
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Thing of note is that this is the northernmost F4 rated tornado in the world.

All this info was gathered from archived newspapers.
 
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