Significant Tornado Events

[andyhb]

Based on Grazulis' details on it and the damage photographs available if definitely seems to have been really intense and yet another poorly documented outbreak in the Southern United States. Arkansas has had a surprising amount of violent tornadoes and yet no official F5s.

Yeah... well...

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah... well...

I know, I know....Vilonia lol

 

[locomusic01]

Not related to Bakersfield Valley, but to 5/31/85. The comment from user "coriolis" is of interest, as he mentions having taken photographs from the storm and apparently went up to the Moshannon State Forest area after the tornado went through and saw the mangled fire tower. Perhaps you could track him down and get him to share his photo collection..

Are you talking about a member here? I searched the username and didn't come up with anything.

I'm wondering if lots of this was just layers of loose sand and desert dirt/mud/rock that was blown away, so perhaps not exactly ground scouring? Not sure.
I guess there's no way to colorize the Storm Data photographs? It seems like so many of their publications had low-quality B&W photos, wonder why?
I think what contributed to a lot of this tornado's incredible damage is the lack of structures in the area, objects could be thrown as far as possible and extremely wide instances of damage could occur.
Also, that photo on the left, the scouring is the white patch near the top, right? What are the narrow white lines below?

Witnesses + news reports both specifically mention a very wide strip of scouring with "green grass and shrubs" on either side. It looks like the environment is more sort of desert scrub than traditional grassland, but still. I'm assuming the soil would be more conducive to scouring but I don't know without seeing it up close. I did talk to one guy who was there who said the tornado looked more like a dust storm, which suggests there was a huge amount of dirt hoovered up into the funnel. Also makes sense with the horrific Jarrell-like mutilations to some of the animals in the area.

The white lines are various roads/paths - you can see it a bit in the background here:

 

[locomusic01]

This event (and honestly April 1929 as a whole) is probably worth more investigation than it gets. There was also the F4 that hit Princedale.

Yeah, I'd love to dig deeper into April 1929 at some point. Not all that often you see swarms of massive, violent tornadoes basically once a week for the whole month covering everywhere from the Southern Plains to the Upper Midwest to the Deep South.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are you talking about a member here? I searched the username and didn't come up with anything.


Witnesses + news reports both specifically mention a very wide strip of scouring with "green grass and shrubs" on either side. It looks like the environment is more sort of desert scrub than traditional grassland, but still. I'm assuming the soil would be more conducive to scouring but I don't know without seeing it up close. I did talk to one guy who was there who said the tornado looked more like a dust storm, which suggests there was a huge amount of dirt hoovered up into the funnel. Also makes sense with the horrific Jarrell-like mutilations to some of the animals in the area.

The white lines are various roads/paths - you can see it a bit in the background here:

I edited the comment about the username, I provided the link to the thing below, I guess the URL didn't go through the first time around.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah, I'd love to dig deeper into April 1929 at some point. Not all that often you see swarms of massive, violent tornadoes basically once a week for the whole month covering everywhere from the Southern Plains to the Upper Midwest to the Deep South.

Another notable Arkansas outbreak is June 1916, with numerous tornadoes all over the Southern United States; 112 fatalities were recorded overall, with the Arkansas area of the outbreak being exceptionally vicious with 76 fatalities alone.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are you talking about a member here? I searched the username and didn't come up with anything.


Witnesses + news reports both specifically mention a very wide strip of scouring with "green grass and shrubs" on either side. It looks like the environment is more sort of desert scrub than traditional grassland, but still. I'm assuming the soil would be more conducive to scouring but I don't know without seeing it up close. I did talk to one guy who was there who said the tornado looked more like a dust storm, which suggests there was a huge amount of dirt hoovered up into the funnel. Also makes sense with the horrific Jarrell-like mutilations to some of the animals in the area.

The white lines are various roads/paths - you can see it a bit in the background here:

If the scouring from this really was as wide as reported, it's likely the widest swath of it ever reported, although I think Jarrell's was pretty wide too. Not often you see tornadoes with cores that are that wide, Joplin and Marion, ND being the only other examples I can think of. The descriptions of this thing being obscured with dust/dirt and partially rain-wrapped remind me of the Tri-State tornado, although obviously this was nowhere near the scale of that thing.

 

[locomusic01]

Was sorting through my files a bit and came across these so I figured I'd post them. March 14, 1933 is usually known for the tornado that struck Nashville and killed 15 people, but a (probably) more intense tornado also devastated the mining town of Pruden:

A wrecked coal tipple:

Another tornado (more accurately, tornado family) swept through the Cherry Hill area of Kingsport, among other places, and killed another 16 people:

The wreckage of a church:

 

[locomusic01]

I edited the comment about the username, I provided the link to the thing below, I guess the URL didn't go through the first time around.

Cool, thanks! I'll check it out.

If the scouring from this really was as wide as reported, it's likely the widest swath of it ever reported, although I think Jarrell's was pretty wide too. Not often you see tornadoes with cores that are that wide, Joplin and Marion, ND being the only other examples I can think of. The descriptions of this thing being obscured with dust/dirt and partially rain-wrapped remind me of the Tri-State tornado, although obviously this was nowhere near the scale of that thing.

Yeah, the scouring in Jarrell maxed out at around 0.6 mi wide or so if memory serves. Bridge Creek was similar but a bit narrower.

 

[andyhb]

I believe I have found a color photograph of the 6/15/1990 Stratton/Trenton NE wedge + vault. Holy sh*t.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I believe I have found a color photograph of the 6/15/1990 Stratton/Trenton NE wedge + vault. Holy sh*t.

Be really cool when we get color photos of the damage it did

 

[locomusic01]

I'm starting to go through my photos for the sections of my 5/31/85 article that I have written so far and sort of pruning out the ones I'm not going to use. I don't wanna clog up the thread if people aren't interested, so I'll just post a few for now. These are all from the Beaver Falls F3.

The Big Beaver Plaza:

In the far background here you can see part of Fox Run Golf Course that was damaged, as well as a garage that was obliterated.

A before and after view of a home that was destroyed a little further along near the Spotlight 88 in North Sewickley Township:

Another home next door that was blown away:

And several other pictures of another home in the same area:

Haven't figured out a location for this one yet, but it's somewhere along the Beaver Falls path (probably in the Evans City area if I had to guess):

 

[locomusic01]

And from Albion, a few aerial shots that are too low-res & too far away to be very useful:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

And from Albion, a few aerial shots that are too low-res & too far away to be very useful:

Albion looks to be pretty narrow in terms of the severe damage; was it narrow like Wheatland or not that extreme?

 

[locomusic01]

Albion looks to be pretty narrow in terms of the severe damage; was it narrow like Wheatland or not that extreme?

Yeah, pretty similar but not as extreme a gradient. Although the quality is poor, WSEE's aerial video shows most of the town. The very first shot also shows Kennedy's Trailer Court, which is where the three Cranesville fatalities occurred:



I've got a ton of aerial shots from Albion so I'll probably post some higher-quality ones later after I figure out which ones I need for my article. There's some very clear wind rowing and some areas of enhanced vegetation damage, and the overall damage pattern is pretty suggestive of multiple vortices. That also fits with the descriptions given by some of the people I talked to.

 

[andyhb]

Enhanced Fujita Ratings Debate Thread

http://204.227.127.200/images/gld/pdf/newsletter0710.pdf#page=13 There are controversy over on how wide this tornado was but if I were to estimate I would say around a mile-wide. Grazulis has it as 1500 yards wide and others have it as a mile to a mile and a half wide.

talkweather.com

Linking back to this post from @locomusic01 to reference the other color photos of Stratton that I've seen. Man it would be nice to get the whole collection up. Have kind of lost hope in the idea of Dean Cosgrove uploading them, so perhaps the original photographer – who seems to be the one who started that Reddit thread (or knows them) – can provide them.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Enhanced Fujita Ratings Debate Thread

http://204.227.127.200/images/gld/pdf/newsletter0710.pdf#page=13 There are controversy over on how wide this tornado was but if I were to estimate I would say around a mile-wide. Grazulis has it as 1500 yards wide and others have it as a mile to a mile and a half wide.

talkweather.com

Linking back to this post from @locomusic01 to reference the other color photos of Stratton that I've seen. Man it would be nice to get the whole collection up. Have kind of lost hope in the idea of Dean Cosgrove uploading them, so perhaps the original photographer – who seems to be the one who started that Reddit thread (or knows them) – can provide them.

I remember when Dean's chasetours.com was still up and he had some photographs from that damage on there but now it's gone the way of the buffalo. I'm not sure what his problem is with sharing damage photos. I managed to salvage this photo of the automobile remains from this tornado that were collected for insurance purposes by the owner:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Looks like Dean posted some of his photos from it on a Stormtrack forum:

Top 5 storms you wished you were on.

April 15, 2006 - KC Metro Area Where in the world was I? Several tornadoes reported near Bonner Springs, Kansas and in Ray County, Missouri. February 28, 2007 - Mound City, Kansas Nothing beats a local chase, and I was in Gardner at the time; at most an hours drive from the action. April 23...

stormtrack.org

A link to the damage pics on his old site, photos don't show up on my computer but perhaps someone can get them to show up on their computer and put them on this thread:

Windswept Chase Tours

Windswept Chase Tours is offering a new

web.archive.org

 

[locomusic01]

Enhanced Fujita Ratings Debate Thread

http://204.227.127.200/images/gld/pdf/newsletter0710.pdf#page=13 There are controversy over on how wide this tornado was but if I were to estimate I would say around a mile-wide. Grazulis has it as 1500 yards wide and others have it as a mile to a mile and a half wide.

talkweather.com

Linking back to this post from @locomusic01 to reference the other color photos of Stratton that I've seen. Man it would be nice to get the whole collection up. Have kind of lost hope in the idea of Dean Cosgrove uploading them, so perhaps the original photographer – who seems to be the one who started that Reddit thread (or knows them) – can provide them.

Have you (or anyone else) reached out to this redditor to see what else they might have? If not, I will later on.

 

[andyhb]

Have you (or anyone else) reached out to this redditor to see what else they might have? If not, I will later on.

Not yet, I don't usually use Reddit, but I might start after seeing that photo pop up there haha.