Significant Tornado Events

[speedbump305]

Who’s ready for the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Super Outbreak...

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Who’s ready for the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Super Outbreak...

Don't forget, this year will also be the 30th anniversary of the 1991 Great Plains Outbreak (Andover and the like).

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I’ve often wondered about that for years. The NWS Huntsville Survey says this:

“The tornado weakened or may have lifted very briefly across northeast Madison County before strengthening again as it entered Franklin County Tennessee.”

They also have a long stretch of EF0 damage. I always figured that the whole meso may have been on the ground and caused intermittent weak damage based on the track info, but have found the NWS survey interesting.

That quote you mention is interesting as lots of older tornado reports mention similar things, a tornado "lifted", "hopped", "skipped", "reformed" or "reorganized" and changed its appearance before it entered some other county or community. You see this a lot in the reports with tornado with path lengths 100+ miles, sometimes 200+ miles. Amazing that this kind of mistake might still be occurring in this day and age.

 

[locomusic01]

Here’s a really REALLY tough question! El Reno 2011 VS Bridge Creek

5/3/99 would make a pretty good topic for a blog post. I mean.. if someone were so inclined.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

5/3/99 would make a pretty good topic for a blog post. I mean.. if someone were so inclined.

YES, YES, YES and YESSSSSS!!!

I'd love to at least see 5/3/99, 4/26/91 and both Super Outbreaks before you pack it in, although all of them were so prolific they would require extensive research. The trouble with them wouldn't be so much tracking down photos and information like with the older events, but with deciding what to include and what to omit. That said, as we just saw with Hackleburg there may still be inaccuracies/discrepancies in the data that may warrant additional investigation.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/95/7/bams-d-11-00229.1.xml
Closest thing I can think of to that

I've seen that before and it's a great read, but it's not quite what I was describing in terms of a supercell-by-supercell breakdown of radar imagery at key moments (most significant tornado production, interesting structures, etc). It might also be the kind of thing to analyze previously unknown (at least, not officially) tornado cycles like Hackleburg/Huntland and possibly Cordova.

 

[speedbump305]

Juliett do you think El Reno 2011 or Bridge Creek was stronger?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

YES, YES, YES and YESSSSSS!!!

I'd love to at least see 5/3/99, 4/26/91 and both Super Outbreaks before you pack it in, although all of them were so prolific they would require extensive research. The trouble with them wouldn't be so much tracking down photos and information like with the older events, but with deciding what to include and what to omit. That said, as we just saw with Hackleburg there may still be inaccuracies/discrepancies in the data that may warrant additional investigation.

Both Super Outbreaks might be a bit too much for Stormstalker as TornadoTalk has articles on some tornadoes from those outbreaks (and is working on more) that will likely be on par with the Stormstalker blog in terms of quality.
I'm not opposed to your other suggestions for his blog, though, in fact I'd also recommend 5/31/85 and 2/21/1971 for his blog as they're not that well known and exceptional events given the time of year (1971) and the unusual location (1985).

 

[speedbump305]

5/3/99 would make a pretty good topic for a blog post. I mean.. if someone were so inclined.

HELL YEAH BRO!!! YESSSSS

 

[TH2002]

On May 22, 2013 (literally 2 days after the EF5 Moore tornado) a tornado of (E)F2 intensity hit Efremov, Russia. Video taken at close range reveals the tornado had a complex multiple vortex structure, which is something fairly uncommon (but not unheard of) outside of the US and Canada. This is honestly one of the best videos I've ever seen of subvortices within a multiple-vortex tornado:



Some of the damage:

Roofs ripped from buildings

Damaged home

Brick building which lost most of its roof and suffered shattered windows

Another photo showing the scope of damage in this area

 

[locomusic01]

YES, YES, YES and YESSSSSS!!!

I'd love to at least see 5/3/99, 4/26/91 and both Super Outbreaks before you pack it in, although all of them were so prolific they would require extensive research. The trouble with them wouldn't be so much tracking down photos and information like with the older events, but with deciding what to include and what to omit. That said, as we just saw with Hackleburg there may still be inaccuracies/discrepancies in the data that may warrant additional investigation.

I'd started an article on 5/3/99 years ago, so I decided a few days ago I might as well try to finish it. Turns out I thought I had a lot more written than I actually do, but whatever. I've got a lot of research and interviews and stuff done at least. Come to think of it, I started on 4/26/91 as well, but I was only in the very early stages w/that.

I never did anything with the Super Outbreaks just because of the sheer scale. I'd need like five years and 100k words to cover them in the kind of detail I'd like to lol. I've got a bunch of others I've started on over the years (1955 Blackwell–Udall, 1913 Omaha, 1966 Topeka, 1945 Antlers–OKC Metro, 1942 Pryor, 1899 New Richmond, 1883 Rochester, etc) but most are just piles of research + quick outlines/notes.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The evening Cordova tornado probably did quickly cycle as per chaser reports. Brian Peters was on it and noted that it looked as though the first dissipated and a second quickly developed and began immediately intensifying right as the cell crossed I-22; the survey noted only low end EF0 threshold level tree damage along the interstate where the cycle would have taken place in an otherwise strong to violent path so this certainly seems possible. While that could just be a phase of its clear multiple vortex life cycle, the very low end damage there in the in-between and the fact it was Brian Peters (former WCM at BMX) suggesting it lends credence to it

I'm starting to wonder if the Raleigh, MS/Uniontown, AL F4 of that day was also a series of 2 or 3 tornadoes, as it supposedly was on the ground for nearly 3 hours but it didn't really do much in the way of exceptional damage despite being on the ground for so long.

 

[speedbump305]

I'm starting to wonder if the Raleigh, MS/Uniontown, AL F4 of that day was also a series of 2 or 3 tornadoes, as it supposedly was on the ground for nearly 3 hours but it didn't really do much in the way of exceptional damage despite being on the ground for so long.

i heard it had a very high injury to fatality ratio

 

[buckeye05]

What about the Tuscaloosa tornado? That's the one that I always have suspected was more than one tornado. I seem to remember a large stovepipe being streamed live from a spotter southwest of the city, but only a lowering was visible by the time the meso moved into range of the Tuscaloosa area tower cams. Then some multiple vortices started going nuts under the lowering, and it quickly took off into another violent stovepipe as it moved into the city. Anyone else remember it this way too?

 

[locomusic01]

I'm sure it's been mentioned here before, but the 1/22/57 Gans, OK tornado has always been really interesting to me. It struck at a very unusual time – early on a January morning – but it's best known for "digging" a series of trenches a la Philadelphia, MS. Someone over on Stormtrack got their hands on the official report a couple years ago and they posted several photos:

1957-01-22 Gans, OK tornado

Special collections and archives at OSU was kind enough to allow me to come in today and read Raw Data Report : Gans, OK 1957 Tornado. This report contains data from a damage survey conducted by the meteorology department at then "Oklahoma A&M" and was headed by Don R. Dickson. It also contains...

stormtrack.org

Can't make out a ton of detail, but a couple of the photos do look rather Philadelphia-esque. The event was preceded by very heavy rain, which may have been a factor of note. The tornado was very narrow but seems to have been quite intense, destroying several (poorly built) homes and killing multiple people in two of them.

The tornado probably reached its peak intensity fairly early in its path, as it completely destroyed the home of Tim Jenkins. All five family members were thrown at least 200 yards, killing all but one. The family's refrigerator was found "crushed" in a ditch more than a half-mile away, and little debris remained in the vicinity of the home:

This is also just downstream from where the "holes/trenches" were dug, and a number of mature cottonwood trees were reportedly "twisted off" low to the ground and debarked. I'm far from an arborist, but in my limited personal experience, cottonwoods are pretty tough.

A bit further along, the home of Bryan Tinney was also blown over:

Nearby, a man named Bill Davis had his home blown across the road, with part of it landing on top of a neighbor's car:

After that, the tornado "blew away" the home of Joe Johnson, killing him and his three sons (taken from a bit of an odd perspective):

The family had a shelter, but sadly they didn't have a chance to reach it:

Next door, it also killed a man named Jimmie Meeks when it "mostly" swept his home away:

The death toll may well have been higher if it hadn't been for Billy Bryant, an engineer of a freight train that happened to be passing through the area at the time. He saw the tornado approaching and blasted his whistle as he rolled through town minutes before it struck, waking several families up and giving them just enough time to reach their storm cellars.

The damage in the photos doesn't necessarily scream high-end violent tornado, but as usual, it seems the visually interesting stuff is documented much better than the very worst damage. It's also a bit hard to assess such a narrow tornado (the most intense damage was probably less than 100 ft wide) since the odds of it actually striking anything substantial head-on are so slim.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I’ve often wondered about that for years. The NWS Huntsville Survey says this:

“The tornado weakened or may have lifted very briefly across northeast Madison County before strengthening again as it entered Franklin County Tennessee.”

They also have a long stretch of EF0 damage. I always figured that the whole meso may have been on the ground and caused intermittent weak damage based on the track info, but have found the NWS survey interesting.

Another idea of mine is that the tornado was transitioning into a different phase (single-vortex, perhaps) and changing shape so that would cause a lack of clear damage indicators on the ground for quite a while but that's a stretch. Perhaps there was a downburst between the two tornadoes that made them appear to be a single tornado? No clue.

 

[pohnpei]

What about the Tuscaloosa tornado? That's the one that I always have suspected was more than one tornado. I seem to remember a large stovepipe being streamed live from a spotter southwest of the city, but only a lowering was visible by the time the meso moved into range of the Tuscaloosa area tower cams. Then some multiple vortices started going nuts under the lowering, and it quickly took off into another violent stovepipe as it moved into the city. Anyone else remember it this way too?

Yes, I also remember this the same way. The damage of the path section before it went into Tuscaloosa was largely minimal so I feel definitely there was a chance to be two seperate tornado with one short track and one violent long track tornado.

 

[Marshal79344]

Here’s a really REALLY tough question! El Reno 2011 VS Bridge Creek

El Reno 2011 takes the cake here, but not by too much

 

[Equus]

What about the Tuscaloosa tornado? That's the one that I always have suspected was more than one tornado. I seem to remember a large stovepipe being streamed live from a spotter southwest of the city, but only a lowering was visible by the time the meso moved into range of the Tuscaloosa area tower cams. Then some multiple vortices started going nuts under the lowering, and it quickly took off into another violent stovepipe as it moved into the city. Anyone else remember it this way too?

Yeah I remember that too, I always chalked it up to perhaps some rain ahead of it obscuring the funnel until it got closer but there was definitely only a lowering then a wild multivortex phase before the stovepipe. I seem to remember chaser videos also catching the lowering to multivortex phase as well. Might be worth checking survey information to see what kind of damage was dealt southwest of the city to see if there's a potential switchover point

 

[Marshal79344]

Yeah I remember that too, I always chalked it up to perhaps some rain ahead of it obscuring the funnel until it got closer but there was definitely only a lowering then a wild multivortex phase before the stovepipe. I seem to remember chaser videos also catching the lowering to multivortex phase as well. Might be worth checking survey information to see what kind of damage was dealt southwest of the city to see if there's a potential switchover point

Aerial imagery showed a classic, consistent path of damage into the city that seemed to suddenly increase in intensity as the tornado entered the city. There was a consistent damage path before it entered the city, but the intensity rapidly increased as it moved through downtown Tuscaloosa. Weirdly, something similar was observed with the Northport Tornado of March 21, 1932.

Aerial Imagery from the Tuscaloosa Tornado's path through Tuscaloosa




Newspaper account describing that the 1932 Northport Tornado rapidly condensed as it entered the city, and also seemed to rapidly intensify before striking Northport.