MNTornadoGuy
Member
I still doubt that tornado wind speeds are supersonic.Well, the pickup truck that was thrown ~1.7 mi in the New Wren MS “EF3” of 27 Apr 2011 was also relatively undamaged: except for a segment, it was largely intact, based on photographs posted on Tornado Talk. The incident was fairly well documented, so I assume that a similar occurrence is quite possible. Regarding intensity: the El Reno OK “EF3” on 31 May 2013 caused far less intense DIs near the location of the peak Doppler velocities of ~270 knots than the Jarrell TX F5 did as it obliterated Double Creek Estates on 27 May 1997. Given that the El Reno tornado was moving at a speed comparable to Jarrell and far more slowly than Bridge Creek (to not mention the tornadoes of 27 Apr 2011), one has to wonder whether wind speeds in Jarrell or Bridge Creek were in fact in excess of 305 knots. Maybe those “absurd” estimates of peak tornado winds from the 1950s and ‘60s were not so absurd after all.