Significant Tornado Events

[MNTornadoGuy]

Some of the oldest recorded tornadoes in history:

44 BCE Rome: Tornado detached bronze plaques from the Temple of Fede.

60 BCE Rome: Unroofed homes, destroyed a wooden bridge, and uprooted trees in the countryside.

152 BCE Rome: Struck "Campo Marzio" where it demolished a column with a golden statue.

156 BCE Rome: Possible tornado unroofed a home near the Temple of Jupiter.

182 BCE Rome: Possible tornado wrecked buildings in the city.

205 BCE River Ebro: What might have been a tornado struck during one of the Punic Battles. Described as a snake that "demolished everything in its path with a swirling mass of water that kept on coming.”

The Ancient Greeks were also clearly aware of the existence of tornadoes but there are no surviving records of specific events in Greece then.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Some of the oldest recorded tornadoes in history:

44 BCE Rome: Tornado detached bronze plaques from the Temple of Fede.

60 BCE Rome: Unroofed homes, destroyed a wooden bridge, and uprooted trees in the countryside.

152 BCE Rome: Struck "Campo Marzio" where it demolished a column with a golden statue.

156 BCE Rome: Possible tornado unroofed a home near the Temple of Jupiter.

182 BCE Rome: Possible tornado wrecked buildings in the city.

205 BCE River Ebro: What might have been a tornado struck during one of the Punic Battles. Described as a snake that "demolished everything in its path with a swirling mass of water that kept on coming.”

The Ancient Greeks were also clearly aware of the existence of tornadoes but there are no surviving records of specific events in Greece then.

Where'd you find records of these events? Also, given how narrow the Italian peninsula is, quite a few of these were probably waterspouts that came ashore. Obviously waterspouts are tornadoes just thought I'd mention that.
I know Malta was hit by a tornado that began as a waterspout in either 1551 or 1556, and it killed at least 600 people, mainly who were in Naval galleys out at sea.

Grand Harbour of Malta tornado - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

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

View attachment 8767


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

View attachment 8768

Interesting, I think a similar phenonema was observed with the 1896 St. Louis tornado, it increased it intensity as it went through the town. I really do wonder about the link between local terrain/landmarks and tornado intensity. Perhaps passing through an urban area can increase the strength of tornadoes in some way?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wcas/11/4/wcas-d-19-0057_1.xml

Welcome

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251529893_Tornadoes_and_severe_storms_in_Spain

 

[ARCC]

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.

The same type of thing happened as the tornado left Mt Hope. It went from the over mile wide monster to almost no damage to a smaller very intense tornado as it hit Moulton. As I said a while ago, the Sellerphoto pictures show this clearly, but you could only find these pictures when you could view their “map” which doesn’t work anymore. Very interesting to think the Hackleburg tornado may have been three separate tornadoes.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The same type of thing happened as the tornado left Mt Hope. It went from the over mile wide monster to almost no damage to a smaller very intense tornado as it hit Moulton. As I said a while ago, the Sellerphoto pictures show this clearly, but you could only find these pictures when you could view their “map” which doesn’t work anymore. Very interesting to think the Hackleburg tornado may have been three separate tornadoes.

The damage was still pretty intense in those areas, it still could have been a single tornado as some tornadoes will change their appearance if on the ground long enough (particularly if interacting with another boundary or transitioning to multi-vortex) but yeah, who knows? Really makes me wonder about quite a few VLT events in the past few decades.

 

[pohnpei]

The same type of thing happened as the tornado left Mt Hope. It went from the over mile wide monster to almost no damage to a smaller very intense tornado as it hit Moulton. As I said a while ago, the Sellerphoto pictures show this clearly, but you could only find these pictures when you could view their “map” which doesn’t work anymore. Very interesting to think the Hackleburg tornado may have been three separate tornadoes.

That tornado talk article have an large aerial damage photo along the tornado's entire path. It seems that it weakened to mainly EF1 level for a brief time after it went out of MT Hope before strengthening again.

 

[ARCC]

That tornado talk article have an large aerial damage photo along the tornado's entire path. It seems that it weakened to mainly EF1 level for a brief time after it went out of MT Hope before strengthening again.

That would definitely show a better path then. It’s been years since the other pictures were up.

Any close in looks of the Moulton area? That area isn’t talked about much, but it was very impressive.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

That would definitely show a better path then. It’s been years since the other pictures were up.

Any close in looks of the Moulton area? That area isn’t talked about much, but it was very impressive.

TornadoTalk is splitting the Hackleburg tornado into several different summaries with detailed information about each segment. They will probably have the Moulton area too.

 

[zvl5316]

Some of the oldest recorded tornadoes in history:

44 BCE Rome: Tornado detached bronze plaques from the Temple of Fede.

60 BCE Rome: Unroofed homes, destroyed a wooden bridge, and uprooted trees in the countryside.

152 BCE Rome: Struck "Campo Marzio" where it demolished a column with a golden statue.

156 BCE Rome: Possible tornado unroofed a home near the Temple of Jupiter.

182 BCE Rome: Possible tornado wrecked buildings in the city.

205 BCE River Ebro: What might have been a tornado struck during one of the Punic Battles. Described as a snake that "demolished everything in its path with a swirling mass of water that kept on coming.”

The Ancient Greeks were also clearly aware of the existence of tornadoes but there are no surviving records of specific events in Greece then.

There are some possible tornado accounts in China before 286 BCE such as shofar-like whirl wind hung on the clouds. However, the author contributes them to giant birds in acient myths. There is also theory that Chinese dragon which is the most important totem in Chinese culture just comes from tornadoes. The plains in central and northern China were much wetter thousands of years ago. There might be much more frequent tornado events on these today's semiarid areas.

 

[zvl5316]

There are some possible tornado accounts in China before 286 BCE such as shofar-like whirl wind hung on the clouds. However, the author contributes them to giant birds in acient myths. There is also theory that Chinese dragon which is the most important totem in Chinese culture just comes from tornadoes. The plains in central and northern China were much wetter thousands of years ago. There might be much more frequent tornado events on these today's semiarid areas.

I guess that the first accounts of tornadoes in the world could be found in Mesopotamia. Acient Mesopotamia was much wetter than nowadays. Tornadoes could be much more frequent in Babylon or Assyria ages. There are also many documents with details of their life found. And even the climate is much drier, tornadoes still happen in Iraq today （the 2016/4/16 event）:

 

[pohnpei]

Hackleburg (Marion County) AL EF5 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

The first part of Hackleburg torndao's article in Marion County mentioned that there were at least three underground storm shelters were destroyed in Hackleburg including one solidly constructed. There were people sucked out of the basement and killed.
I am also very interested in that likely dried-out five-acre large pond. There were five cars and one tractor left at the bottom of the pond. Was there any ground view photo in this place?
It is also weird to heard there was root canal injure due to the pressure drop of the tornado.

 

[speedbump305]

Hackleburg (Marion County) AL EF5 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

The first part of Hackleburg torndao's artcile in Marion County mentioned that there were at least threee underground storm shelters were destroyed in Hackleburg including one soildly consturcted. I am also very intrested about that likely dried-out five-acre large pond. There were five cars and one tractor left at the bottom of the pond. Was there any ground view photo in this place?
View attachment 8769

THREE?

 

[speedbump305]

I’ve heard that Hackleburg produced “ Intense ground scouring “ in Limestone county when it was extremely violent again, but the only scouring from Hackleburg i’ve seen was on Hillsides

 

[pohnpei]

One vehicle around Hackleburg area. I have no idea of the exact location.

I’ve heard that Hackleburg produced “ Intense ground scouring “ in Limestone county when it was extremely violent again, but the only scouring from Hackleburg i’ve seen was on Hillsides

There was severe scouring in the town of Hackleburg. You can judge this from the aerial video and ground view. You can also judge it from the muddy feature from many objects inside the town.

 

[speedbump305]

One vehicle around Hackleburg area. I have no idea of the exact location.
View attachment 8823

There was severe scouring in the town of Hackleburg. You can judge this from the aerial video and ground view. You can also judge it from the muddy feature from many objects inside the town.
View attachment 8824
View attachment 8825

That vehicle damage is very high end and honestly on par with Smithville. and WOW i never knew hackleburg produced severe scouring in the town and the bottom image shows severe granulation and scouring too...

 

[TH2002]

Hackleburg (Marion County) AL EF5 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

The first part of Hackleburg torndao's article in Marion County mentioned that there were at least three underground storm shelters were destroyed in Hackleburg including one solidly constructed. There were people sucked out of the basement and killed.
I am also very interested in that likely dried-out five-acre large pond. There were five cars and one tractor left at the bottom of the pond. Was there any ground view photo in this place?
It is also weird to heard there was root canal injure due to the pressure drop of the tornado.
View attachment 8770

Looks like the storm shelters are visible in that photo? Hard to tell.

 

[locomusic01]

Hackleburg (Marion County) AL EF5 Tornado – April 27, 2011 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

The first part of Hackleburg torndao's article in Marion County mentioned that there were at least three underground storm shelters were destroyed in Hackleburg including one solidly constructed. There were people sucked out of the basement and killed.

It's been a while since I read FEMA's Mitigation Assessment Team report on the event, but it's puzzling that I don't recall any mention of this. The team did a pretty extensive evaluation of shelters and safe rooms throughout the area, but the only thing I remember them mentioning was one basement shelter in which the concrete floor above collapsed and killed someone inside. I think that was near Birmingham.

I'm not saying this information isn't legit (I'm not a member so I haven't read the article) - just weird that it wasn't mentioned in any of the reports. It's hard for me to imagine that happening to a purpose-built shelter, though I've learned not to rule anything out when it comes to the most violent tornadoes.

 

[buckeye05]

Hmmm the storm shelter thing is interesting and this is the first time I’ve heard of it as well. To be honest, I’m gonna need to see the primary source for that tidbit of info to abate my skepticism.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

One vehicle around Hackleburg area. I have no idea of the exact location.
View attachment 8823

There was severe scouring in the town of Hackleburg. You can judge this from the aerial video and ground view. You can also judge it from the muddy feature from many objects inside the town.
View attachment 8824
View attachment 8825

Wow, that tornado sure took care of that vehicle. I never saw vehicular damage that intense with the Hackleburg tornado. Good find!!