Significant Tornado Events

[TH2002]

Let's not forget Delmont SD tornado May 10 2015...and New Wren MS 2011

As for New Wren, WOW. Really makes me think about how many lowballed tornadoes some of us are missing.

 

[TH2002]

Only video I could find of the Wren tornado. Disclaimer for being filmed vertically:

 

[buckeye05]

Oh btw, here are some completely ridiculous surveys from From 5/1/2017 NWS Springfield.

The Wheaton, MO tornado was a large, multiple vortex tornado that inflicted severe damage to
homes, including one home that was blown off its foundation, with only its heavily damaged second floor left intact. Was rated high-end EF1


Later that night, a strong tornado impacted the towns of Ozark, MO and Rogersville, MO. Multiple homes sustained loss of roofs and collapse of walls. One house was almost completely leveled, with debris strewn through a field and only a few walls left partially standing. They went with high-end EF2.
Absolutely absurd. The only thing consistent about NWS Springfield’s survey team, is that they consistently do a terrible job.

Also, I’m lazy and don’t want to dig up pics but there was a clear-cut EF4 near Southwest City, MO on the same day as Joplin. It completely leveled a large, well-built, slab foundation brick home. A vehicle parked at the home was found 200 yards away, completely mangled beyond recognition. They deemed it EF3.

 

[TH2002]

Oh btw, here are some completely ridiculous surveys from From 5/1/2017 NWS Springfield.

The Wheaton, MO tornado was a large, multiple vortex tornado that inflicted severe damage to
homes, including one home that was blown off its foundation, with only its heavily damaged second floor left intact. Was rated high-end EF1
View attachment 10314

Later that night, a strong tornado impacted the towns of Ozark, MO and Rogersville, MO. Multiple homes sustained loss of roofs and collapse of walls. One house was almost completely leveled, with debris strewn through a field and only a few walls left partially standing. They went with high-end EF2. View attachment 10316
Absolutely absurd. The only thing consistent about NWS Springfield’s survey team, is that they consistently do a terrible job.

Also, I’m lazy and don’t want to dig up pics but there was a clear-cut EF4 near Southwest City, MO on the same day as Joplin. It completely leveled a large, well-built, slab foundation brick home. A vehicle parked at the home was found 200 yards away, completely mangled beyond recognition. They deemed it EF3.

I'll bet they would have gone along with the NIST and ASCE giving Joplin a low end EF4 rating if it weren't for Tim Marshall stepping in. Unbelivable incompetence!

 

[buckeye05]

It’s been mentioned before, but the clearly violent Cisco, TX tornado of 5/19/21 was given the ridiculous rating of LOW-END EF3. This thing flattened a house, completely shredded and debarked countless trees, and threw farm machinery and cars MORE THAN A MILE!

In my opinion, NWS Springfield, NWS Memphis, and NWS Dallas/Fort Worth have by far the worst three survey teams utilized by the National Weather Service. They just don’t care, and you can tell. A perfect example of this is the Copeville, TX tornado of 12/26/2015. The DAT survey photos show motion blur and odd glare/reflections. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, but I figured it out.

The photos were taken through the window of a moving car. They didn’t exit their vehicle to inspect the damage. Totally unacceptable. It was rated EF2, but some of the damage looked EF3, especially to a gas station/convenience store that was totally obliterated and flattened. But we’ll never know because NWS Dallas/Fort worth decided to half-@ss it.

If a NWS employee is apathetic about surveying and the EF scale, then they shouldn’t be involved in that aspect of the job. Plain and simple.

 

[TH2002]

It’s been mentioned before, but the clearly violent Cisco, TX tornado of 5/19/21 was given the ridiculous rated of LOW-END EF3. This thing flattened a house, completely shredded and debarked countless trees, and threw farm machinery and cars MORE THAN A MILE!

In my opinion, NWS Springfield, NWS Memphis, and NWS Dallas/Fort Worth have by far the worst three survey teams utilized by the National Weather Service. They just don’t care, and you can tell. A perfect example of this is the Copeville, TX tornado of 12/26/2015. The DAT survey photos show motion blur and odd glare/reflections. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, but I figured it out.

The photos were taken through the window of a moving car. They didn’t exit their vehicle to inspect the damage. Totally unacceptable. It was rated EF2, but some of the damage looked EF3, especially to a gas station/convenience store that was totally obliterated and flattened. But we’ll never know because NWS Dallas/Fort worth decided to half-@ss it.View attachment 10317

If a NWS employee is apathetic about surveying and the EF scale, then they shouldn’t be involved in that aspect of the job. Plain and simple.

Say what you will about "armchair surveying" done by us tornado nerds, but seeing pretty much the same thing done by NWS offices, let alone their SURVEY TEAMS, is disgraceful.

 

[locomusic01]

Here's a random photo I may not be able to use because the person who sent it to me didn't know where it was from. On first glance it looks similar to a few of the homes I've seen in aerial shots on the outskirts of Atlantic, but I haven't pinned down a location yet.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Say what you will about "armchair surveying" done by us tornado nerds, but seeing pretty much the same thing done by NWS offices, let alone their SURVEY TEAMS, is disgraceful.

Honestly, it seems like some of us on here do a better job of surveying than many NWS offices, especially in terms of being consistent with ratings.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's something different (and a little humorous):

My (Subjective) List of The WORST TORNADO DAMAGE SURVEY FAILS OF ALL TIME

Joplin MO 2011 (NIST and ASCE) - At least the official damage survey conducted by NWS Springfield and Tim Marshall was good, and thankfully appropriately assigned an EF5 rating. NIST and ASCE on the other hand can take their 175MPH EF4 rating and go kick rocks.
Westminster TX 2006 (Tim Marshall and NWS Fort Worth) - High end F3 for a tornado that rips dirt clumps out of the ground, obliterates low lying vegetation, sweeps away well-constructed homes and tears vehicles to pieces. Okay.
Barnesville GA 2011 (NWS Peachtree City) - Pretty much the same story as Westminster. Maybe this tornado wasn't quite as violent, but was at least deserving of a high end EF4 rating. Why does it sometimes seem like some NWS offices are so unbelivably hesitant to go above high end EF3?
Smithfield NY 2014 (NWS Binghamton) - There is absolutely NO situation I can EVER think of where a well-bolted three story home swept away should be rated 135MPH EF2. Ever. The current constraints of the EF Scale don't even allow swept away FR12 homes to be rated lower than EF3!
Vilonia AR 2014 (NWS Little Rock) - Enough said.
Jarrell TX 1997 (NIST and ASCE) - Jarrell and F3. It makes so little sense, it's incomprehensible. At least the official damage survey VERY appropriately assigned an F5 rating.
Spencer SD 1998 (NWS Sioux Falls) - Marginal F4 huh? This tornado certainly deserved a high end F4 rating, if not a low end F5 rating. For those who don't know, a two story apartment complex was nearly leveled to the ground killing five people, and numerous homes (some of which were well-bolted to their foundations) were swept away in town.
Louisville MS 2014 (NWS Jackson) - While not the worst lowball on this list, generally speaking, a tornado that sweeps away two very large well constructed brick homes and mows down and completely debarks entire swaths of trees should not be rated 185MPH EF4. I guess a 200MPH EF4 rating would have been more understandable, but they could have easily gone with an EF5 rating.
Capitol MT 2018 (NWS Bismarck) - What this thing did to farm equipment and other vehicles almost defies logic, and quite frankly the 136MPH EF3 rating is an insult.
Chapman KS 2016 (NWS Topeka) - What the tornado did to those railroad tracks was unbelievable, not to mention the well-constructed homes swept away. At least one of the foundations was severely cracked in the process and it seems other homes were left out of the survey entirely.
Bridgton ME 2017 (NWS Caribou) - Trees of up to two feet in diamater were snapped literally inches above the ground and "no significant debarking" kept the rating at high end EF1. What?
Muitos Capões Brazil 2005 - So many Brazilian tornadoes are poorly rated but this one possibly takes the cake as THE worst lowball ever? High end F1/marginal F2 for a tornado that levels masonry homes, debarks large trees and tears vehicles to pieces. I'll let that speak for itself.

Honorable Mentions:
Bakersfield Valley TX 1990 (NWS Midland) and Culbertson NE 1990 (NWS Goodland) - Unfortunately little information is available about these tornadoes, but what is available indicates they were no-brainer F5 candidates. That being said, it's quite possible they were so violent the survey teams had little left to go off of.
Rochelle IL 2015 (NWS Chicago) and Washington IL 2013 (NWS Chicago) - You're free to debate whether these tornadoes were rated appropriately, or were worthy of an EF5 rating.
Bassfield MS 2020 (NWS Jackson) - High end EF4 for this tornado isn't the worst lowball ever, but incredible context makes this tornado an easy EF5 candidate.

I'm not sure if this was from a survey or a bureaucratic glitch but this thing deserves mention. It was a brief tornado from Palm Sunday 1965 that did near-F4 level damage (Grazulis lists it as an F4) yet it is officially classified it as an F1.
Here's the post on it:

Significant Tornado Events

Damage from the 1883 Rochester tornado likely the strongest tornado in MN history, only tied with the 1919 Fergus Falls tornado.

talkweather.com

Some damage photos:








Yeah, F1. Lol.

 

[buckeye05]

I'm not sure if this was from a survey or a bureaucratic glitch but this thing deserves mention. It was a brief tornado from Palm Sunday 1965 that did near-F4 level damage (Grazulis lists it as an F4) yet it is officially classified it as an F1.
Here's the post on it:

Significant Tornado Events

Damage from the 1883 Rochester tornado likely the strongest tornado in MN history, only tied with the 1919 Fergus Falls tornado.

talkweather.com

Some damage photos:


View attachment 10321

View attachment 10323

View attachment 10324

Yeah, F1. Lol.

Yeah I forgot about this one! There’s definitely some pretty ridiculous calls from the F-scale era of tornado damage surveying as well.

Honestly, it seems like some of us on here do a better job of surveying than many NWS offices, especially in terms of being consistent with ratings.

I know it’s unlikely and impractical, but sometimes I wish the NWS would set up a volunteer damage surveyors program, like they do with spotters, albeit a more stringent and intensive program. NWS employees already have a very full plate, and there have definitely been surveys that were rushed or not done thoroughly due to time limitations, lack of interest in thorough surveying, or both.

I’ve said it before, but the EF scale is not some ultra complex myriad of extremely in-depth analysis that can only be comprehended by degreed meteorologists. There are now more weather hobbyists than ever who have a solid grasp on how the scale works and is applied, and it’s a shame all that know-how goes to waste, sometimes at the hands of NWS employees who are clearly just not that interested in that part of the job.

Anyway, it’ll probably never happen, and it’d likely be much harder to coordinate than what I’m suggesting, but hey, sometimes I feel like it’d be a good idea.

 

[locomusic01]

Browsing through my files and came across a few random events I figured I'd post. The first one is a pretty remarkable event that, for some reason, seems to be virtually unknown: the June 16, 1944 Sioux County, IA tornado family. A single supercell produced six tornadoes in succession, including two F4s, an F3 and an F2. Grazulis does a good job summarizing the event, so I'll just post a screengrab here:

This is actually one of my favorite sneaky F5 candidates. The photos and captions here speak for themselves, but this doesn't even cover all the crazy things this family of tornadoes did. At some point I'd like to write something on it and go into more detail.

















Less than 24 hours later, a massive F4 struck Florence, SD. This is the Clarence Solum farmstead before and after the tornado, with basically nothing left except the door to the cellar in which the family took shelter:

Just a few pictures for the next event, an F3 ("near-F4" per Grazulis) that struck Milo, IA on August 10, 1939:

 

[locomusic01]

A couple of pictures from the May 30, 1909 Zephyr, TX F4:











And the April 21, 1967 Belvidere, IL F4 (the Oak Lawn outbreak):

 

[locomusic01]

This has probably been brought up here before, but here's the July 18, 1996 Oakfield, WI F5:

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

A couple of pictures from the May 30, 1909 Zephyr, TX F4:











And the April 21, 1967 Belvidere, IL F4 (the Oak Lawn outbreak):

I've always wondered what was the most violent tornado from the Oak Lawn outbreak.

 

[locomusic01]

I've always wondered what was the most violent tornado from the Oak Lawn outbreak.

All three of the Illinois F4s are pretty comparable and legitimately violent (I haven't looked much into the Novelty, MO F4 yet), but if I had to choose one I'd probably go with Oak Lawn.

 

[locomusic01]

Looks like some of them didn't load. Trying again:

 

[TH2002]

Does anyone have any close-up, clear photos of the EF5 rated home damage in Greensburg? A while back buckeye05 made this post with some very impressive photos (including the EF5 rated swept away homes just outside of town) but also mentions there aren't any up close photos of the area:

Significant Tornado Events

Well, cell-merging is a common phenomenon, and I remember one paper shows 64％ cells tend to get stronger with at least one other cell.Cell-merging could feed in more environmental vortices, thus making a high efficient utilization of low-mid level wind shear to the dominat storm.Other finding...

talkweather.com

I do know some homes swept away adjacent to Greensburg High School were given EF5 ratings, but only found these two inconclusive photos:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Looks like some of them didn't load. Trying again:

Amazed this thing wasn't rated F5 based on some of these pics, one of them it looks like some degree of ground scouring may have occurred.

 

[buckeye05]

Does anyone have any close-up, clear photos of the EF5 rated home damage in Greensburg? A while back buckeye05 made this post with some very impressive photos (including the EF5 rated swept away homes just outside of town) but also mentions there aren't any up close photos of the area:

Significant Tornado Events

Well, cell-merging is a common phenomenon, and I remember one paper shows 64％ cells tend to get stronger with at least one other cell.Cell-merging could feed in more environmental vortices, thus making a high efficient utilization of low-mid level wind shear to the dominat storm.Other finding...

talkweather.com

I do know some homes swept away adjacent to Greensburg High School were given EF5 ratings, but only found these two inconclusive photos:
View attachment 10325
View attachment 10326

Yeah the main cluster of EF5 damage in Greensburg was a row of well-anchored homes at the very southern fringes of town. It’s basically impossible to find photos of this area because all the media and photographers drove right past it to document the widespread destruction in the more densely populated sections of town. I too wish I could find close-ups of that area, but have had no luck in doing so over the years.

Also, yes there was a smaller secondary pocket of EF5 damage at and around Greensburg High School, where a few anchor bolted homes were obliterated, cars were severely mangled, and trees were totally debarked. Officially, the damage to the school itself was deemed high-end EF4. However, Tim Marshall stated in a recent presentation that the damage to Greensburg High School was essentially the worst damage to a school building he has seen, and he considers it to be EF5 damage as of today.

The school was extremely well-built, with structural integrity above and beyond what most schools have, as it’s walls were constructed with not one, but THREE layers of very sturdy masonry. It was built like a fortress, and was still mostly leveled to the ground. Here’s a photo of the school:

 

[buckeye05]

Amazed this thing wasn't rated F5 based on some of these pics, one of them it looks like some degree of ground scouring may have occurred.

I saw an episode of some Weather Channel (I think) show years ago where Tim Marshall was analyzing some black and white damage photos from Oak Lawn. He mentioned that while the tornado leveled entire blocks of homes, none were reduced to bare slabs, negating an F5 rating. Same phenomenon was noted by Dr. Fujita with the Wichita Falls, TX F4 of 1979. Whole neighborhood flattened, but no bare slabs.

Strangely enough, if you look at the first two homes that were rated EF5 along the path of Moore 2013, you will see that they were not swept clean at all. I speculate that the surveyors took into consideration the fact that the debris was from neighboring homes was blown onto the empty slabs. I’m not positive about that though.