Significant Tornado Events

[Marshal79344]

Several rare aerial views of Udall I came across just now. These had been labeled under "Blackwell," where the damage was less intense IMO than it was at Udall.



Here's a ground-level photo of Udall I found very impressive

 

[andyhb]

To follow up on Fargo, I have this image from it. While it would certainly qualify for an F4 rating, I doubt it would be considered for an F5 rating today.

The damage picture posted here from Fargo would undoubtedly be considered for high end EF4/EF5 damage nowadays pending construction. I'm not exactly sure what you all are looking for.

Also, every tornado pre-1950 is going to have that "questionable construction" tag attached to it. Peer reviewed reanalysis studies from some of the foremost experts on severe convective storms regarding the Tri-State tornado declared it an F5. If we're going to throw out "anecdotes from Fujita", then fine, but overlooking some things like the extreme contextual damage that the Andover tornado produced is equally egregious.

 

[Marshal79344]

I also came across several rare photos of damage from the Blackwell Tornado, which came from the same, cyclic supercell.



You can see cycloidal scouring marks in the open field beyond Blackwell

 

[andyhb]

Also those overhead shots of Udall, holy smokes.

 

[Marshal79344]

To be fair, some of the contextual evidence at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park was clearly evident of an extremely violent tornado. Trees were completely debarked and there was a video showing debris grinded to extremely small pieces. There have been several cases of tornadoes decimating trailer parks, such as Adel 2017, Camilla 2000, and Evansville 2005, but none of them produced tree debarking anywhere near the caliber of Andover.

 

[Casuarina Head]

Upon further review, I think I overcompensated on the basis of others’ critique, including back-and-forth. (See also this.) Previously I had regarded a bunch of pre-1950 and post-1950 tornadoes as being among the strongest on record, including Tristate, Tupelo, Andover, and Philadelphia, only to retreat under pressure over my reliance on anecdotal evidence, i.e., descriptions and photographs. So I grew wary. I hadn’t previously seen the above image of the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park from that perspective, so the degree of debarking and shredding involved, along with video of the tornado itself, adds a bit more context that points to a solid E/F5 tornado. Additionally, the pictures shown here from Rainsville, especially that of the school bus, add more confidence to the tornado’s having attained solid E/F5 intensity, given the damage to the bus and the pronounced debarking of mature trees. I am still a bit skeptical about Philadelphia being more than a low-end E/F5, but I’ve now revised my views on Andover and Rainsville. I should probably restore several of the events that I removed from my list(s) of consideration.

 

[ARCC]

I actually have no idea if anyone was in it or not. I agree with you as well Juliett. No one actually knows how incredible that feat of damage is. We’ve all heard safe rooms having their doors damaged by flying debris or knocked open, but we’ve never seen this happen in any other tornado

I’m not actually sure if it was or not. I used to think it was jaw dropping but now that I own a house with the same type of storm shelter I can see it could be compromised. My storm shelter is largely CMU block that is below ground level however the roof is poured steel re-enforced concrete. I actually don’t believe it is anchored any way to the block. The roof is also not covered with soil and before I completely over hauled the door, it was a weak wooden door that would easily fail. In other words if this storm shelter/root cellar is like mine, I completely believe a EF 5 tornado could take the roof off.

I chalk it up with other instances of damage that is incredible but may not be related to needing a maxi tornado to do it such as the fire hydrants pulled up in Joplin and the damage to Smithville’s water system.

 

[speedbump305]

I’m not actually sure if it was or not. I used to think it was jaw dropping but now that I own a house with the same type of storm shelter I can see it could be compromised. My storm shelter is largely CMU block that is below ground level however the roof is poured steel re-enforced concrete. I actually don’t believe it is anchored any way to the block. The roof is also not covered with soil and before I completely over hauled the door, it was a weak wooden door that would easily fail. In other words if this storm shelter/root cellar is like mine, I completely believe a EF 5 tornado could take the roof off.

I chalk it up with other instances of damage that is incredible but may not be related to needing a maxi tornado to do it such as the fire hydrants pulled up in Joplin and the damage to Smithville’s water system.

there were fire hydrants ripped up in Joplin?

 

[ARCC]

I’m not actually sure if it was or not. I used to think it was jaw dropping but now that I own a house with the same type of storm shelter I can see it could be compromised. My storm shelter is largely CMU block that is below ground level however the roof is poured steel re-enforced concrete. I actually don’t believe it is anchored any way to the block. The roof is also not covered with soil and before I completely over hauled the door, it was a weak wooden door that would easily fail. In other words if this storm shelter/root cellar is like mine, I completely believe a EF 5 tornado could take the roof off.

there were fire hydrants ripped up in Joplin?

Yes, but mostly likely not pulled up but broke off. Fire hydrants have either breakaway bolts or a breakaway flange that is designed to allow the top to rip off yet keep the seal in the bottom intact in incase of impact from a car.

 

[speedbump305]

Yes, but mostly likely not pulled up but broke off. Fire hydrants have either breakaway bolts or a breakaway flange that is designed to allow the top to rip off yet keep the seal in the bottom intact in incase of impact from a car.

honestly i feel like They were knocked off hthe debris

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The 1883 Rochester tornado was far from a questionable or borderline F5.
https://www.tornadotalk.com/rochester-mn-f5-tornado-august-21-1883/

 

[speedbump305]

The 1883 Rochester tornado was far from a questionable or borderline F5.
https://www.tornadotalk.com/rochester-mn-f5-tornado-august-21-1883/

OHHHH i thought you were talking about the Worchester F4 in 1953

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

There is little photographic evidence for the Tristate tornado’s having produced E/F5 damage, other than an image showing a Model-T motor lying amidst (scoured?) cropland. Of course, the tornado did level and/or sweep away numerous homes, but the quality of construction is uncertain, especially in mining communities such as Annapolis MO and West Frankfort IL. I do think that E/F5 damage occurred in pockets along the path, but so far I haven’t seen anything to indicate that it was above “low-end” E/F5 status, though it certainly could have been. I am being conservative.

The same applies to the Tupelo tornado: it mostly levelled substandard housing in portions of Tupelo, including the section beside Gum Pond, and trees in that area did not show pronounced debarking. The main evidence for Tupelo possibly being more than a marginal E/F5 comes from reliable reports of very long-distance debris-lofting, but little else that would support more than a marginal E/F5 tornado can be discerned from what I have been made aware of to date.

As far as Andover is concerned, it did produce rather extreme damage to vehicles and trailers, along with notable wind-rowing at one location, but aerial and ground photography indicate only a small area of possible E/F5 damage to well-built, single-family structures, shortly prior to the tornado’s passage through the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park.

The unusual depth and degree of scouring in Philadelphia’s case is likely related, at least in part, to the soil being loose, given that large clumps were torn out, and other DIs in the area weren’t really supportive of more than a marginal E/F5 tornado.

Rainsville’s DIs were also notably less extreme than the numerous high-end ones recorded in the Hackleburg and Smithville EF5s.

Finally, apart from damage to mature corn, which is dubious an indicator of high-end tornado intensity, the Jordan IA tornado doesn’t really stand out in terms of extreme DIs. (Anecdotal quotes from “Dr. Fujita” don’t count.)

In one of your previous posts, you mentioned Fargo ND ‘57 as having produced some extreme damage, yet photographs posted thus far don’t really show clear evidence of even low-end E/F5 damage, though it could have occurred elsewhere (though the images do cover the Golden Ridge subdivision, which I believe is the location of the most intense damage).

According to p. 2 of this presentation, the steel drainage culvert had already been dug up by police shortly after the tornado:

Uh have you seen some of the damage photographs from the Tri-State Tornado on this thread or on the StormStalker article, it is definitely not low-end F5 damage. Also when people refer to the pipe being ripped out of the ground it is not that drainage pipe but another pipe that was ripped out of the ground by the tornado. Also, the scouring from Philadelphia is not marginal EF5 stuff, it is extremely rare to get trenches scoured into the ground especially 2-ft deep ones.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Also those overhead shots of Udall, holy smokes.

My dad and his family actually saw the damage from the Udall when they were in their teens.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

To be fair, some of the contextual evidence at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park was clearly evident of an extremely violent tornado. Trees were completely debarked and there was a video showing debris grinded to extremely small pieces. There have been several cases of tornadoes decimating trailer parks, such as Adel 2017, Camilla 2000, and Evansville 2005, but none of them produced tree debarking anywhere near the caliber of Andover.

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I think the Andover, KS tornado was as violent as the Bridge Creek/Moore/OKC tornado on May 3, 1999. A lot of people would probably disagree with me although.

 

[speedbump305]

I think the Andover, KS tornado was as violent as the Bridge Creek/Moore/OKC tornado on May 3, 1999. A lot of people would probably disagree with me although.

i agree with you so much

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

101 years ago, one of the most violent tornado outbreaks in US history struck the Deep South and Ohio Valley. At least 8 F4s occurred according to Grazulis but there might have been as many as ~11-12 violent tornadoes.

Book by someone who did in-depth research on the tornado outbreak and gave them ratings similar to what Grazulis does.
https://www.google.com/books/editio...Sunday_Tornado_Outb/I6V2DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

To be fair, some of the contextual evidence at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park was clearly evident of an extremely violent tornado. Trees were completely debarked and there was a video showing debris grinded to extremely small pieces. There have been several cases of tornadoes decimating trailer parks, such as Adel 2017, Camilla 2000, and Evansville 2005, but none of them produced tree debarking anywhere near the caliber of Andover.

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Some Andover damage photographs. What this thing did to cars is unbelievable:



Some aerials and a ground zero view of the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park:

 

[locomusic01]

Speaking of Tri-State, I recently came across some more photos that I don't think I've ever posted here. Most aren't overly impressive, but still pretty neat. This one is from a home at 536 N 15th St. in Murphysboro:

These are also from Murphysboro - showing "Grandma Batson" and where she rode out the storm - but I haven't had a chance to look up exactly where yet:

Couple random shots from Griffin:

And from West Frankfort. If memory serves, the home at left in the foreground is where one of the victims was reportedly thrown a mile and a half:

One of the machine shops at the mines:

And from early in the path in Perry County, MO (I realize I'm sort of going reverse order here lol). This is the Ridge Parochial School that I mentioned in my article:

Claus Steuve's home, where probably the most intense damage in the area occurred:

Another home nearby:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Some more Andover pics from Storm Data and assorted documentaries:

Speaking of Tri-State, I recently came across some more photos that I don't think I've ever posted here. Most aren't overly impressive, but still pretty neat. This one is from a home at 536 N 15th St. in Murphysboro:

These are also from Murphysboro - showing "Grandma Batson" and where she rode out the storm - but I haven't had a chance to look up exactly where yet:

Couple random shots from Griffin:

And from West Frankfort. If memory serves, the home at left in the foreground is where one of the victims was reportedly thrown a mile and a half:

One of the machine shops at the mines:

And from early in the path in Perry County, MO (I realize I'm sort of going reverse order here lol). This is the Ridge Parochial School that I mentioned in my article:

Claus Steuve's home, where probably the most intense damage in the area occurred:

Another home nearby:

Claus Steueve's is on your blog article, but I've never seen the rest of these before. I'm always looking for more photos from the Missouri portion of the path, partly cuz I'm a Missouri native and partly because this portion of the path wasn't as well documented.