Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

One of the 5/31/85 tornadoes you rarely hear anything about is the F3 that struck areas north and east of Corbetton, ON. For instance, the outbreak's Wikipedia page (which lists it as Mansfield for some reason) includes the tremendously in-depth description: "Multiple homes were damaged." It turns out that's a bit of an understatement. In reality, at least a dozen farms suffered significant damage. Half a dozen houses were totally leveled and three or four of them (along with a bunch of barns) were "blown away." We almost certainly aren't talking about well-built, F5-type damage, but still.

It's been really freakin' hard to find any photos from the area, but I finally got a bunch from a family that owned a potato + cattle farm immediately west of Conover. They actually got relatively lucky - the center of the tornado seems to have sort of threaded the needle through their property and only dealt glancing blows to the farmhouse and most of the barns and whatnot. Still, some of the damage was rather impressive.

A nearly full 100-ton fertilizer blender (which I was very surprised to find was a thing that exists) was ripped from its base and flipped/rolled/slid a short distance. Several pickup trucks, trailers and pieces of farm machinery were hurled many hundreds of yards and destroyed. Two tractor-trailers were thrown (probably bounced actually) over a quarter-mile and torn apart; pieces of them were found on a neighboring farm slightly less than two miles away. A 70-foot concrete silo was also cut down to about 12 feet.

This had been a van before it hitched a ride into a neighbor's field:

Pickup damage:

The concrete silo:

The field behind the farm - the shiny blob just right of center near the treeline in the distance is one of their potato transport trucks:

I think I've also got pictures of the fertilizer blender but.. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at in some of the pictures lol. I'm waiting to hear back from them to clear up a few things. Anyhow, another farm a couple miles away was apparently just demolished, but I'm still working on finding photos of that. The house had been rebuilt after a fire a few years prior and was pretty substantial, but it was splintered and swept into an adjacent field. A fertilizer plant was also destroyed in the area but I don't have a lot of information on that yet.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

One of the 5/31/85 tornadoes you rarely hear anything about is the F3 that struck areas north and east of Corbetton, ON. For instance, the outbreak's Wikipedia page (which lists it as Mansfield for some reason) includes the tremendously in-depth description: "Multiple homes were damaged." It turns out that's a bit of an understatement. In reality, at least a dozen farms suffered significant damage. Half a dozen houses were totally leveled and three or four of them (along with a bunch of barns) were "blown away." We almost certainly aren't talking about well-built, F5-type damage, but still.

It's been really freakin' hard to find any photos from the area, but I finally got a bunch from a family that owned a potato + cattle farm immediately west of Conover. They actually got relatively lucky - the center of the tornado seems to have sort of threaded the needle through their property and only dealt glancing blows to the farmhouse and most of the barns and whatnot. Still, some of the damage was rather impressive.

A nearly full 100-ton fertilizer blender (which I was very surprised to find was a thing that exists) was ripped from its base and flipped/rolled/slid a short distance. Several pickup trucks, trailers and pieces of farm machinery were hurled many hundreds of yards and destroyed. Two tractor-trailers were thrown (probably bounced actually) over a quarter-mile and torn apart; pieces of them were found on a neighboring farm slightly less than two miles away. A 70-foot concrete silo was also cut down to about 12 feet.

This had been a van before it hitched a ride into a neighbor's field:

Two of the wrecked pickups:

The concrete silo:

The field behind the farm - the shiny blob just right of center near the treeline in the distance is one of their potato transport trucks:

I think I've also got pictures of the fertilizer blender but.. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at in some of the pictures lol. I'm waiting to hear back from them to clear up a few things. Anyhow, another farm a couple miles away was apparently just demolished, but I'm still working on finding photos of that. The house had been rebuilt after a fire a few years prior and was pretty substantial, but it was splintered and swept into an adjacent field. A fertilizer plant was also destroyed in the area but I don't have a lot of information on that yet.

Amazing how difficult it is to find damage photographs from the Canadian section of the outbreak, also amazing how so many of the tornadoes in Ontario that day were underrated.

 

[locomusic01]

Amazing how difficult it is to find damage photographs from the Canadian section of the outbreak, also amazing how so many of the tornadoes in Ontario that day were underrated.

It's actually been even harder to find photos from a few of the more obscure US tornadoes, which surprised me. As an example, I was able to track down a handful of pictures from the Alma, ON F3 (nothing super impressive) but the only thing I've found from the Busti/Jamestown, NY F3 is a single shot of a damaged forest:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

It's actually been even harder to find photos from a few of the more obscure US tornadoes, which surprised me. As an example, I was able to track down a handful of pictures from the Alma, ON F3 (nothing super impressive) but the only thing I've found from the Busti/Jamestown, NY F3 is a single shot of a damaged forest:

That forest damage does look violent, although the quality makes it hard to tell if some debarking occurred. I have a feeling many more tornadoes touched down in New York State that day but likely went unrecorded due to occurring in remote forested areas. First time I've seen any damage photographs from NY state from this outbreak.
On a related note, have you found any other damage photos or accounts from the well-known violent tornadoes (Niles-Wheatland, Atlantic, Grand Valley, Barrie, Moshannon State Forest, and some other F4s I'm likely forgetting) that surprised even you? Don't go into too much detail so that it ruins your article. Or you don't have to say anything at all lol.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

BUCKEYE05, do you have pictures of vehicle damage from the Westminster 2006 tornado? Thank you very much.

 

[buckeye05]

BUCKEYE05, do you have pictures of vehicle damage from the Westminster 2006 tornado? Thank you very much.

I do. Can dig it up tomorrow, but I'm sure others here have the same photos saved as well.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

I do. Can dig it up tomorrow, but I'm sure others here have the same photos saved as well.

Ok, thank you very much!

 

[locomusic01]

That forest damage does look violent, although the quality makes it hard to tell if some debarking occurred. I have a feeling many more tornadoes touched down in New York State that day but likely went unrecorded due to occurring in remote forested areas. First time I've seen any damage photographs from NY state from this outbreak.
On a related note, have you found any other damage photos or accounts from the well-known violent tornadoes (Niles-Wheatland, Atlantic, Grand Valley, Barrie, Moshannon State Forest, and some other F4s I'm likely forgetting) that surprised even you? Don't go into too much detail so that it ruins your article. Or you don't have to say anything at all lol.

I'll have to remember to come back to this tomorrow, but one thing that has really stood out from the beginning is the vegetation damage (and the damage in general tbh) in Barrie. There were several very clear areas of scouring and trees and even low-lying bushes around the Hwy 400 interchange/Barrie Raceway area were stripped bare and/or mowed down:

And the tornado likely wasn't even at peak intensity in this area; that occurred just to the west where multiple homes and the industrial park were completely obliterated. Trees in those areas were also totally debarked. I'll have more photos in my article but these video screenshots are from the general area I'm talking about. The second one especially shows how complete the destruction was - almost reminds me of some of the El Reno vegetation damage:

Honestly the more I researched Barrie the more I wondered why it's so rarely mentioned as an F5 candidate. The homes that were swept away weren't especially well-built, but a lot of the contextual damage is really, really impressive. It's not quite Niles-Wheatland, but IMO it's closer than I would've expected before I started.

 

[buckeye05]

I'll have to remember to come back to this tomorrow, but one thing that has really stood out from the beginning is the vegetation damage (and the damage in general tbh) in Barrie. There were several very clear areas of scouring and trees and even low-lying bushes around the Hwy 400 interchange/Barrie Raceway area were stripped bare and/or mowed down:

And the tornado likely wasn't even at peak intensity in this area; that occurred just to the west where multiple homes and the industrial park were completely obliterated. Trees in those areas were also totally debarked. I'll have more photos in my article but these video screenshots are from the general area I'm talking about. The second one especially shows how complete the destruction was - almost reminds me of some of the El Reno vegetation damage:

Honestly the more I researched Barrie the more I wondered why it's so rarely mentioned as an F5 candidate. The homes that were swept away weren't especially well-built, but a lot of the contextual damage is really, really impressive. It's not quite Niles-Wheatland, but IMO it's closer than I would've expected before I started.

I think it likely just comes down to construction quality. All the contextual support needed for F5 and even EF5 is absolutely there. That one car chassis wrapped around the debarked tree trunk pic posted a while back photo is literally equal to some of the El Reno 2011 vehicle damage. Had there been some larger, well-anchored homes in the path of the Barrie tornado, I think it’d be a different rating.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'll have to remember to come back to this tomorrow, but one thing that has really stood out from the beginning is the vegetation damage (and the damage in general tbh) in Barrie. There were several very clear areas of scouring and trees and even low-lying bushes around the Hwy 400 interchange/Barrie Raceway area were stripped bare and/or mowed down:

And the tornado likely wasn't even at peak intensity in this area; that occurred just to the west where multiple homes and the industrial park were completely obliterated. Trees in those areas were also totally debarked. I'll have more photos in my article but these video screenshots are from the general area I'm talking about. The second one especially shows how complete the destruction was - almost reminds me of some of the El Reno vegetation damage:

Honestly the more I researched Barrie the more I wondered why it's so rarely mentioned as an F5 candidate. The homes that were swept away weren't especially well-built, but a lot of the contextual damage is really, really impressive. It's not quite Niles-Wheatland, but IMO it's closer than I would've expected before I started.

I know that Canadian meteorological boards and damage survey teams are usually quite conservative when it comes to tornado ratings (much more than many ones in the USA). The sheer amount of F5-level contextual damage with this thing is striking.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The Hodonin tornado destroyed a farm in rural areas and the damage was very impressive especially since it is mostly made out of steel and reinforced concrete.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'll have to remember to come back to this tomorrow, but one thing that has really stood out from the beginning is the vegetation damage (and the damage in general tbh) in Barrie. There were several very clear areas of scouring and trees and even low-lying bushes around the Hwy 400 interchange/Barrie Raceway area were stripped bare and/or mowed down:

And the tornado likely wasn't even at peak intensity in this area; that occurred just to the west where multiple homes and the industrial park were completely obliterated. Trees in those areas were also totally debarked. I'll have more photos in my article but these video screenshots are from the general area I'm talking about. The second one especially shows how complete the destruction was - almost reminds me of some of the El Reno vegetation damage:

Honestly the more I researched Barrie the more I wondered why it's so rarely mentioned as an F5 candidate. The homes that were swept away weren't especially well-built, but a lot of the contextual damage is really, really impressive. It's not quite Niles-Wheatland, but IMO it's closer than I would've expected before I started.

That 3rd photo...was it just grass scouring or did some topsoil scouring occur as well? If the latter that's extremely impressive considering I can't of any other instance of topsoil scouring in Canada.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

BUCKEYE05, do you have the damage from the Westminster 2006 tornado which shows a vehicle caked in mud, sandblasted, and left completely mangled beyond recognition. Thank you very much!

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

BUCKEYE05, do you have the damage from the Westminster 2006 tornado which shows a vehicle caked in mud, sandblasted, and left completely mangled beyond recognition. Thank you very much!

I believed it was wrapped around some bushes.

 

[buckeye05]

I believed it was wrapped around some bushes.

I know the photo you are talking about and I know I have it somewhere. Digging around for it right now.

Edit: Here they are!

Also some weird phenomenon noted in Westminster. Grass scoured from the ground with the underlying mud rolled into balls.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

I know the photo you are talking about and I know I have it somewhere. Digging around for it right now.

Edit: Here they are!

Also some weird phenomenon noted in Westminster. Grass scoured from the ground with the underlying mud rolled into balls.

Thank you very much!!

 

[locomusic01]

I think it likely just comes down to construction quality. All the contextual support needed for F5 and even EF5 is absolutely there. That one car chassis wrapped around the debarked tree trunk pic posted a while back photo is literally equal to some of the El Reno 2011 vehicle damage. Had there been some larger, well-anchored homes in the path of the Barrie tornado, I think it’d be a different rating.

Yeah, I think it might be hard to justify an EF5 rating for any of the tornadoes from this outbreak if they were being rated today, not because they didn't reach that intensity (Niles-Wheatland very obviously did, Barrie likely did and you could make a case for Atlantic and/or Tionesta IMO), but because there are just so few really well-built structures.

Regarding Barrie, one place that's interesting is the tire shop in the industrial park. I was told it had been well-built (the man who owned it was a former contractor and apparently a stickler for details) and I found a few photos that show anchor bolts that appear to be appropriately spaced, although that's obviously not enough to conclude it was properly anchored. It was pretty much entirely blown away and a person inside was thrown a few hundred yards and killed.

That 3rd photo...was it just grass scouring or did some topsoil scouring occur as well? If the latter that's extremely impressive considering I can't of any other instance of topsoil scouring in Canada.

Apparently some areas were scoured out to a depth of at least a couple inches. People and objects were also caked in mud. I've got a few better pictures but they're mixed in with a whole batch I haven't sorted yet, so this will have to do for now. Even though it's B&W, you can clearly see one of the areas of deeper/more intense scouring behind the Albarrie plant (just right of middle):

This is also very near where a section of guardrail (I've heard figures ranging from ~20-30 ft up to a couple hundred) was ripped up and carried away. And also where the semi-truck that I think I've mentioned before had its entire sleeper cab torn away and yeeted half a mile into a house.

 

[locomusic01]

Also, I just discovered that there's apparently a huge trove of photo negatives from all around the Grand Valley/Orangeville area at Waterloo University, including a large collection of aerial shots. I reached out to them this morning but haven't heard back yet. Hopefully I don't have to be there in person and/or pay a ton of money to get my hands on them.

 

[buckeye05]

The Barrie industrial park photos reminded me of something. Since we're coming up on November, I wanted to share some damage photos of what I personally consider to be one of Ohio's most violent tornadoes. The Van Wert, OH F4 occurred on November 10, 2002 and was a part of the 2002 Veterans Day Tornado Outbreak. Multiple homes were completely slabbed along the path, though I have been unable to determine the degree of anchoring at any of them. The Van Wert tornado produced some very intense damage to industrial buildings. Large metal-framed warehouses were totally flattened, and in some cases, the metal framing itself was detached and pushed off the slab, Niles-Wheatland style. The one visible in the lower left of the last photo sustained some of the most high-end damage to an industrial building I have seen. Trees and low-lying shrubs were completely shredded and debarked in rural areas too. The second photo also shows what appears to be significant ground scouring, but I can't confirm with 100% certainty.

 

[buckeye05]

Also in that last photo, there’s what also looks to be some discoloration/grass scouring right next to the railroad tracks in the extreme lower right corner. I’m wondering if this is due to track ballast being blasted across the ground?