Significant Tornado Events

pohnpei · May 9, 2020

I always found this video from 2011 El Reno EF5 was quite impressive

Based on the coordinates provided by the video, I can locate it in Google Earth as the follow picture:

And it was really close to the main tornado cirulation! The tornadic flow in this footage was strong enough to spin and move the vehicle.
It was about 1 minutes after it the tornado strike the Cactus-117 station and do increible damage and also 10 minutes before that the peak measurement of 295.5mph made by RaxPol radar. (then tornado moved away from radar)
About 10 minutes after the end of the video, the tornado hit a weather station having a 151mph wind record 620m south of tornado center and a 17 hpa drop of pressure.

buckeye05 · May 9, 2020

pohnpei said:
Interesting damage from Greensburg tornado, Fire hydrant was pulled out of the ground
View attachment 3289

This was a result of debris impacts, not the force of the wind itself. The split metal piping visible in this photo makes it pretty obvious.

andyhb · May 10, 2020

I'm pretty sure the peak wind measurement of 295 mph is from a sub-vortex within the 2013 El Reno tornado and not the 2011 one. The 2011 one peaked at somewhere around 125 m/s (280 mph) IIRC. Of course, this may not (and probably isn't) the actual peak ground-relative velocity achieved since the radar only observed the tornado for a short time in its long lifespan. Both velocities are also well into not only the EF5 windspeeds, but the old F5 windspeeds.

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

andyhb said:
I'm pretty sure the peak wind measurement of 295 mph is from a sub-vortex within the 2013 El Reno tornado and not the 2011 one. The 2011 one peaked at somewhere around 125 m/s (280 mph) IIRC. Of course, this may not (and probably isn't) the actual peak ground-relative velocity achieved since the radar only observed the tornado for a short time in its long lifespan. Both velocities are also well into not only the EF5 windspeeds, but the old F5 windspeeds.

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/WAF-D-14-00026.1

the small vortex from 2013 El reno was between 130m/s-150m/s during 232525-232534UTC.
The peak measurement of 132.1m/s from 2011 El Reno was around 210039UTC.

andyhb · May 10, 2020

pohnpei said:
https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/WAF-D-14-00026.1
the small vortex from 2013 El reno was between 130m/s-150m/s during 232525-232534UTC.
The peak measurement from 2011 El Reno was around 210039UTC.

Thanks for this. It's worth noting that measurements of "peak V" in these tornadoes can vary. Instantaneous gusts (which I believe is what that 132 m/s measurement is) are different than 2 or 4 second averaged gusts. The three second gust is usually standard for measuring wind speeds in tornadoes. Even the four second gust there is 110.8 m/s -> close to 250 mph. The other issue comes with dealiasing, which leads to ambiguity, especially when you have intense gradients in Doppler velocities like those present in strong tornadoes.

With that said, I have little doubt that the 2011 El Reno tornado had peak winds AGL well in excess of 200 mph, probably at several portions or even the majority of its lifespan. That tornado was a true monster.

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

andyhb said:
Thanks for this. It's worth noting that measurements of "peak V" in these tornadoes can vary. Instantaneous gusts (which I believe is what that 132 m/s measurement is) are different than 2 or 4 second averaged gusts. The three second gust is usually standard for measuring wind speeds in tornadoes. Even the four second gust there is 110.8 m/s -> close to 250 mph. The other issue comes with dealiasing, which leads to ambiguity, especially when you have intense gradients in Doppler velocities like those present in strong tornadoes.

With that said, I have little doubt that the 2011 El Reno tornado had peak winds AGL well in excess of 200 mph, probably at several portions or even the majority of its lifespan. That tornado was a true monster.

[/QUOTE]

Yes, and many cases have showed that tornado winds can peak at very low ground level even below 10AGL like 1998 Spencer, 2005 Jayton, 2009 Goshen, 2012 Russell and so on. In most cases radar can't scan such low level.

The Three-Dimensional Structure and Evolution of a Tornado Boundary Layer

<section class="abstract"><h2 class="abstractTitle text-title my-1" id="d5110098e61">Abstract</h2><p>The finescale three-dimensional structure and evolution of the near-surface boundary layer of a tornado (TBL) is mapped for the first time. The multibeam Rapid-Scan Doppler on Wheels (RSDOW)...

journals.ametsoc.org

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/MWR-2856.1

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00114.1

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

It also should be noted that in most cases DOW radar wind measurements have a tendency to underestimate the actual wind inside tornados for many reasons. for example, radar manage to get a spectrum of velocities with the greatest amount coming from the most power. These power comes from large objects like rain drops, hail and debris which can travel way below the acutal wind speed inside the tornado and radar can't know how large these objects are and how much lower it travels than the actual wind.

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

A collection of car damages made by 2011 El Reno EF5, but what impress me of this tornado was some increible tree damages it made.

In this aerail photo you can some cars was completely disassembled and utterly unrecognizable.

Juliett Bravo Kilo · May 10, 2020

pohnpei said:
A collection of car damages made by 2011 El Reno EF5, but what impress me of this tornado was some increible tree damages it made.
View attachment 3309 View attachment 3310 View attachment 3311 View attachment 3312 View attachment 3313 View attachment 3315 View attachment 3316
In this aerail photo you can some cars was completely disassembled and utterly unrecognizable.

El Reno also impaled a car to a tree via a 2x4

Also, it threw a tanker truck an entire mile through the air:

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

andyhb said:
Thanks for this. It's worth noting that measurements of "peak V" in these tornadoes can vary. Instantaneous gusts (which I believe is what that 132 m/s measurement is) are different than 2 or 4 second averaged gusts. The three second gust is usually standard for measuring wind speeds in tornadoes. Even the four second gust there is 110.8 m/s -> close to 250 mph. The other issue comes with dealiasing, which leads to ambiguity, especially when you have intense gradients in Doppler velocities like those present in strong tornadoes.

With that said, I have little doubt that the 2011 El Reno tornado had peak winds AGL well in excess of 200 mph, probably at several portions or even the majority of its lifespan. That tornado was a true monster.

I find that the simulation made by Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Leigh Orf and his team showed quite good consensus with not only the measurement of RaxPol radar but also your estimation of majority of its lifespan wind speed exceed 200mph(based on damage also).In this simulation, the storm relative wind inside tornado peaked at 320mph and having 38 minutes over EF5 stanard.(moving at ~35mph)
I once saw Kelton Halbert said in twitter that they later simulated wind speed well over 150m/s inside this tornado can he personally believe this was the strongest one in the histroy.
By the way, when the weather station measured 151mph outside of the main tornado circulation, it have been given EF2 rating based on SBO damage.

source:https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00073.1?af=R&mobileUi=0

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

A collection of tree damage made by 2011 El Reno EF5 , some near I-40 and some near Piedmont.

pohnpei · May 10, 2020

There was an tornado on April 21 2007 struck Tulia TX and rated EF2. A mobile mesonet vehicle measured a pressure deficit of 194 hPa which made the new worlf record in terms of pressure drop inside tornado. But this was not a an open field tornado that lack of DIs, it struck the town do basically EF1-EF2 damage. The tangential wind calculated by this pressure deficit was well over 135m/s which seems impossible to achieve based on damage nearby. You can find lots of damage images in NWS website:https://www.weather.gov/lub/events-2007-20070421_tornadoes
We all know that Tim had a measurement of 100hpa pressure drop inside Manchester SD F4 in 2003, the point of this measurement was likely not the peak of its life based on visual appearance estimation but still very intense obviously. The damage nearby can also validate it. It made the pressure measurement inside Tulia tornado seems more impossible to understand. Please correct me if I am wrong.

source:https://www.researchgate.net/public...ions_of_the_21_April_2007_Tulia_Texas_Tornado

Juliett Bravo Kilo · May 10, 2020

pohnpei said:
A collection of tree damage made by 2011 El Reno EF5 , some near I-40 and some near Piedmont.
View attachment 3326 View attachment 3327 View attachment 3328 View attachment 3329 View attachment 3330 View attachment 3331 View attachment 3332 View attachment 3333 View attachment 3334 View attachment 3335

Man, that thing did some impressive low-lying vegetation damage as well as ground scouring. I'm trying to find this one picture of a house it hit and plastered mud and soil all over the remains, it almost turned the house into mulch, basically.

Shakespeare2016 · May 10, 2020

This tornado was probably as strong or stronger than the Andover and the Bridge Creek tornadoes. I know the Andover tornado turned the wind rowed debris from homes into mulch or finely granulated pieces. The Bridge Creek tornado did more impressive scouring and low lying tree debarking. I feel all three of them had winds over 300 mph at some points and we know one for sure did.

warneagle · May 10, 2020

I think the El Reno EF5 was the strongest tornado of 2011. It might be close between it and Smithville.

Juliett Bravo Kilo · May 10, 2020

warneagle said:
I think the El Reno EF5 was the strongest tornado of 2011. It might be close between it and Smithville.

Well of course there is also Hackleburg/Phil Campbell. I think a case could be made that it was the single most violent and strongest tornado of the 2010s.

Shakespeare2016 · May 10, 2020

Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
Niles/Wheatland did some extreme granulation and wind-rowing as well.

View attachment 3337
View attachment 3338

Yes, I agree you with on that as well. That was also a very violent tornado and it deserved an F5 rating.

Shakespeare2016 · May 10, 2020

warneagle said:
I think the El Reno EF5 was the strongest tornado of 2011. It might be close between it and Smithville.

I think the Chicksha and Goldsby tornado that day were probably near similar intensity to the El Reno tornado. I think both the Chickasha and Goldsby tornado probably should have been rated EF5 as well.

Brice · May 10, 2020

The Piedmont tornado, in my opinion, is the scariest tornado i've ever seen. The motion of it was beyond violent, at some cases you didn't even know if it was a car or just sheet metal, houses we're completely swept away, and the tree damage is some of the worst i've ever seen.

buckeye05 · May 10, 2020

Anyone notice that MEG deleted all of their 2011 Smithville, MS damage pics? That is really unfortunate. That office never seems to be interested in photographing and documenting tornado events. Their summaries are always brief and vague, and they usually don't even post pics. It just seems that it isn't very important to them.

Thankfully I have like 30 pics of the EF5 Smithville damage saved. I can post them if you guys want to see them.

Significant Tornado Events

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