Significant Tornado Events

[Marshal79344]

If there has ever been a clear-cut, violent tornado damage path through the Mid-Atlantic states, it was produced by a tornado that occurred near Askewville, North Carolina on April 16th, 2011. This was one of several EF3's (officially) to occur on that day, which was extraordinarily high-end for that region. However, there was significant tree debarking present, and poorly-built homes were leveled to the ground and swept away, killing 11 people. That area is known for having poorly constructed homes (i.e. the frame home and mobile home park hit by the Windsor, NC EF3 from Isaias last year), which only helped to contribute to the high fatality rate.

The tornado itself. You can see a textbook lowering and curvature into the wall cloud of the tornado.



This tornado produced severe tree debarking along its path. The worst area of debarking was along a highway east of town.





A poorly-built home that was wiped out. Note the significant debarking in the background.



Another instance of significant tree debarking

 

[buckeye05]

If there has ever been a clear-cut, violent tornado damage path through the Mid-Atlantic states, it was produced by a tornado that occurred near Askewville, North Carolina on April 16th, 2011. This was one of several EF3's (officially) to occur on that day, which was extraordinarily high-end for that region. However, there was significant tree debarking present, and poorly-built homes were leveled to the ground and swept away, killing 11 people. That area is known for having poorly constructed homes (i.e. the frame home and mobile home park hit by the Windsor, NC EF3 from Isaias last year), which only helped to contribute to the high fatality rate.

The tornado itself. You can see a textbook lowering and curvature into the wall cloud of the tornado.

View attachment 8918

This tornado produced severe tree debarking along its path. The worst area of debarking was along a highway east of town.

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A poorly-built home that was wiped out. Note the significant debarking in the background.

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Another instance of significant tree debarking

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This is a perfect example of how construction doesn’t always tell the whole story. I hope that more surveyors put more weight on contextual damage in the future.

 

[Marshal79344]

Going back to the Wichita Falls conversation, little to no attention goes to the 1964 Tornado, which was rated F5, that hit the town directly. There is definite evidence of violent tornado damage indicators. Here's some rare video I found.

The Tornado touches down outside of the city



The tornado intensifies into a violent, raging column of air as it strikes the town



Damage Photos I have on standby:

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Ten years ago we were in the midst of the April 14-16, 2011 tornado outbreak sequence which was one of the most prolific outbreaks in U.S. history by tornado count until it was eclipsed in extreme fashion less than two weeks later. In its breadth it reminds me somewhat of the November 1992 outbreak sequence, although the hardest-hit areas were somewhat different. It produced killer tornadoes from eastern Oklahoma to the mid-Atlantic, although IIRC none were officially rated in the violent range, some likely should have been including the Askewville, NC one posted above.

Tuscaloosa and Geiger, AL were hit on the 15th, the Tuscaloosa tornado I believe closely paralleled the path of the December 16, 2000 F4 or a few miles southeast of the area that would be devastated on the 27th. Another EF3 just missed Geiger on the 27th, produced by a supercell that would soon be choked off and absorbed by the one that would go on to produce Tuscaloosa-Birmingham.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Regarding Wichita Falls - given how often it seemed to happen in the mid-20th Century, it's remarkable how long most of the cities in the Plains (apart from, for some reason, the Moore/Newcastle/Norman region of the OKC metro) have been spared devastating tornado hits.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

View attachment 8912
Ahh the Crosstown F4 tornado this occured in Missouri, September 22nd, it's pretty unusual but not unheard of for a potent system to be this far north, it was also the last F4 tornado

Interesting fact about that tornado, it crossed the Mississippi river into Southern Illinois and traveled just north of Gorham and dissipated not that far from Murphysboro, where the Tri-State tornado went through.

 

[pohnpei]

Regarding Wichita Falls - given how often it seemed to happen in the mid-20th Century, it's remarkable how long most of the cities in the Plains (apart from, for some reason, the Moore/Newcastle/Norman region of the OKC metro) have been spared devastating tornado hits.

I think Omaha also been hit by devastating tornados in 1913/1975. But all these big cities still count for very small proportion of overall area in the plain and high end violent tornado was rare phenomenon which accounts for the main reason I think.

 

[pohnpei]

Going back to the Wichita Falls conversation, little to no attention goes to the 1964 Tornado, which was rated F5, that hit the town directly. There is definite evidence of violent tornado damage indicators. Here's some rare video I found.

The Tornado touches down outside of the city

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The tornado intensifies into a violent, raging column of air as it strikes the town

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Damage Photos I have on standby:

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Based on pictures available, the 1964 tornado seems to be stonger than 1979 tornado to me. despite of much monstrous apperance of 1979 tornado than 1964 one.

 

[TH2002]

I'm sure all of you know about the 1984 Soviet Union tornado outbreak that produced the Ivanovo and Kostroma tornadoes, but what you may not know is that Kostroma was hit by another tornado in 2003:


The tornado reportedly downed trees and power lines and destroyed buildings, causing three injuries. Have not been able to find any damage pics unfortunately as the event seems to be rather poorly documented.

 

[Brice]

Interesting fact about that tornado, it crossed the Mississippi river into Southern Illinois and traveled just north of Gorham and dissipated not that far from Murphysboro, where the Tri-State tornado went through.

Here's the track for a closer look
The red track is the more accurate track

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's the track for a closer look
The red track is the more accurate track
View attachment 8930

Given how crooked the red one is I'm starting to wonder about the accuracy of it. Makes me believe it may have been two separate tornadoes. Not sure.

 

[Brice]

Given how crooked the red one is I'm starting to wonder about the accuracy of it. Makes me believe it may have been two separate tornadoes. Not sure.

That's what I was thinking at first cause it just didn't seem normal for a tornado to take that sharp of a turn so quickly

 

[Brice]

Given how crooked the red one is I'm starting to wonder about the accuracy of it. Makes me believe it may have been two separate tornadoes. Not sure.

Ah yes it was two tornadoes, look where the tornado symbols end and start.

 

[pohnpei]

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

Strong multi vortex tornado recorded in video is definitely rare outside of US. Here were several cases that I remembered
2015 India tornado


2019 Luxemburg tornado


2020 Russian tornado

 

[Brice]

Crosstown tornado 9/22/06
"The Crosstown tornado was 27 miles long." (First of this long track supercell that later produced a long-track F3 tornado)
"In Perry County: 62 homes were destroyed, 17 had major damage. Numerous vehicles were tossed."

"In Jackson County: 6 homes were destroyed/severely damaged."

 

[eric11]

Going back to the Wichita Falls conversation, little to no attention goes to the 1964 Tornado, which was rated F5, that hit the town directly. There is definite evidence of violent tornado damage indicators. Here's some rare video I found.

The Tornado touches down outside of the city

View attachment 8924

The tornado intensifies into a violent, raging column of air as it strikes the town

View attachment 8925

Damage Photos I have on standby:

View attachment 8927View attachment 8928View attachment 8929View attachment 8926

Both the 1964 and the 1979 were well-documented, both of which were very rare events considering such a violent tornado entering such a big city with so many witnesses and documentation.The 1964 one, however, maybe a little bit more profound and lasting one than the 1979 one in tornado photographing and broadcasting field since it's might have been the first tornado to be live-broadcasting on TV. Cornel Elton had some great footage which captured the entire lifecycle of tornado,from wall cloud, to funnel, to stove pipe, to long rope and then dissipated.The rope stage was so unique that it's hard for me to find another one to rival it.

This typical "Great Plains" lifecycle reminds me of a lot of violent candidate like Union City OK 1973 and Alpena SD 2014, but with regard to Wichita Falls 64, it lifespan maybe a little shorter than the latter two.

 

[eric11]

I've seen this pic long long time ago, and I once misinterpreted it was came from the 1979 wichita falls, however, after a little deep dig into the event, I'm convinced it was actually came from the Union city OK tornado during the Red River valley Outbreak

But I still couldn't make out which tornado passed near Union City

Here's the detailed rating in downtown Wichita Falls, I believe Fujita did quite careful and complete research and the F4 rating was applied properly with close inspection.The damage area extended north further than South along its track and some subvortices/satellite tornadoes merging/microburst accompanied by the tornado can be found in the city.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I've seen this pic long long time ago, and I once misinterpreted it was came from the 1979 wichita falls, however, after a little deep dig into the event, I'm convinced it was actually came from the Union city OK tornado during the Red River valley Outbreak
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But I still couldn't make out which tornado passed near Union City
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Here's the detailed rating in downtown Wichita Falls, I believe Fujita did quite careful and complete research and the F4 rating was applied properly with close inspection.The damage area extended north further than South along its track and some subvortices/satellite tornadoes merging/microburst accompanied by the tornado can be found in the city.
View attachment 8938

Union City, OK was in 1973, not 1979. This photo was on the old NWS page for Wichita Falls with the caption:
"While the damage to this car came from the Union City, Oklahoma tornado and not the Wichita Falls tornado, this photo shows just how devastating a tornado can be. Date: 5/24/1973."
Not sure why they put that picture on that page.
Also, I haven't been able to find many Union City damage photographs, come to think of it.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The Union City tornado was extremely violent. The NSSL gave the Union City an F5 rating in its report on the tornado but it was downgraded to an F4 for unknown reasons. Farm fields were scoured, a car was separated from its engine with the engine block being carried 328 yards while the frame was carried 874 yards, mobile home frames were wrapped around poles, two homes were completely swept away, a 2000 gallon gasoline tank was carried 874 yards, a 132-154 pound steel container was carried over a mile, trees were debarked and a steel I-beam was carried a long distance.

 

[andyhb]

Re: the Askewville tornado from 4/16/11, I'd like to see more damage pics from that since I certainly have some suspicion it should've been an EF4.