Significant Tornado Events

[SilentShadow87]

The absolute WORST case of a WFO going "below lower bound" I can think of is Smithfield NY 2014. A three story farmhouse bolted to a CMU foundation was completely obliterated and swept away, with debris thrown downwind. They deemed it 135MPH EF2.'

Moving this over from the other thread. Anyway.

Since vehicle damage isn't officially considered a DI (I have no idea why not, honestly), this is a bit less clear cut, but Camp Crook SD 2018 had arguably some of the worst vehicle damage ever recorded, and also debarked and shredded trees practically down to stumps. It was rated 136 mph EF3. I'm sorry, but a tornado that's only a hair above EF2 strength just does not do something like that. It's been said a lot, but I have to say again that the EF scale doesn't include nearly enough DIs.

 

[TH2002]

Moving this over from the other thread. Anyway.

Since vehicle damage isn't officially considered a DI (I have no idea why not, honestly), this is a bit less clear cut, but Camp Crook SD 2018 had arguably some of the worst vehicle damage ever recorded, and also debarked and shredded trees practically down to stumps. It was rated 136 mph EF3. I'm sorry, but a tornado that's only a hair above EF2 strength just does not do something like that. It's been said a lot, but I have to say again that the EF scale doesn't include nearly enough DIs.

Yeah the minimal EF3 rating for that tornado was completely and utterly absurd. Again one of the worst lowballs I have ever seen. I think it all boils down to how some NWS offices interpret the scale. Some like Billings (responsible for rating that tornado) go for what I call a "brutalist" interpretation of the EF Scale where absolutely nothing that isn't a DI can be rated (even though Jim LaDue says otherwise) while others like Huntsville take pretty much everything into consideration to assign a rating.

 

[tornado examiner]

have you seen the photos of damage from bremen ky?

 

[TH2002]

have you seen the photos of damage from bremen ky?

I have seen enough photos from that tornado to conclude it probably reached EF5 intensity.

 

[tornado examiner]

I have seen enough photos from that tornado to conclude it probably reached EF5 intensity.

same. it was also one of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded on radar

 

[tornado examiner]

this tornado deserves the EF-5 rating more than any tornado

 

[buckeye05]

this tornado deserves the EF-5 rating more than any tornado

Let’s not get carried away. Haven’t seen anything Smithville-level yet. As bad as it is, it can be worse. I do agree that this was an EF5 event overall though.

 

[tornado examiner]

theres an area in bremen where its just slabs as it cut through. one of them having what appears to be parts of the foundation missing. and it was a large brick home. theres this weird looking ground scouring nearby and trees in the area are shredded and debarked

 

[buckeye05]

theres an area in bremen where its just slabs as it cut through. one of them having what appears to be parts of the foundation missing. and it was a large brick home. theres this weird looking ground scouring nearby and trees in the area are shredded and debarked

I’ve seen that tweet, and it looks like whoever posted it likely misinterpreted the image. Maybe I’m wrong, but I see a home that had a part concrete slab/part CMU foundation, and it looks like the floor got torn off the CMU, leaving only the poured section. You gotta be careful with Twitter, as people get really geeked out and see what they want to see in damage photos.

 

[tornado examiner]

I’ve seen that tweet, and it looks like whoever posted it likely misinterpreted the image. Maybe I’m wrong, but I see a home that had a part concrete slab/part CMU foundation, and it looks like the floor got torn off the CMU, leaving only the poured section. You gotta be careful with Twitter, as people get really geeked out and see what they want to see in damage photos.

thats also possible.....but its still EF-5 damage if there were enough proper anchore bolts.

 

[buckeye05]

thats also possible.....but its still EF-5 damage if there were enough proper anchore bolts.

CMU homes are typically not eligible for EF5, so most likely no, unless the survey makes a context-based EF5 rating there, which I haven’t seen since 4/27/2011.

 

[tornado examiner]

they better not give the tornado an EF-4 rating with 200 mph winds though. thats just insulting. and its happened before.

 

[TH2002]

this tornado deserves the EF-5 rating more than any tornado

Did you mean it deserves an EF5 rating more than any other tornado from this outbreak?

 

[tornado examiner]

yes and no

 

[buckeye05]

Any luck with digitizing the Albion tornado video you uncovered?

 

[TH2002]

"135MPH EF2" damage photos from the 2014 Smithfield, NY tornado. I have posted about this tornado before, but here is a second close up photo that very clearly shows the home was bolted to its CMU foundation. Got to be one of the worst lowballs of the EF scale era, and probably in general.

 

[locomusic01]

Any luck with digitizing the Albion tornado video you uncovered?

Still working on the guy, unfortunately. He still won't send me the video or send it to a digitization service, but I did find a library not too far from him that apparently digitizes tapes. I reached out to them a couple days ago but haven't heard back yet; hopefully if they still offer the service he'll be willing to drop by there and let them do it.

On a related note, I think I mentioned a while back there was a guy who had a video camera mounted on a tower above his home near where the tornado entered Erie County. I just recently found out that the camera was, in fact, connected to a recording device, so the whole sequence must have been captured on tape. Of course, I have no idea where the tape is or if it even exists still, so that doesn't help a whole lot. It's exciting to know that it could be out there though, so I'll keep searching.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Stanton was Incredible. There were chasers behind It said "you can feel the ground was rumbling caused by this tornado". It let me remember Roger Edward Once mentioned he can feel El Reno 11 through the ground 1.5 miles away at its peak intensity and It was the only one in his career.
Residents in Smithville also mentioned in interview that "you don't really need to see the tornado because you can feel the ground was shaking before It coming."
It seems like one of the phenomenon you can only feel in face of most violent tornados.
The truck damage was insane. I just can't see how It can be a truck before along with another car or part of the car buried deep into scoured grass nearby.

They told me the same thing. I feel for these people after the debris is gone and FEMA has left and they start rebuilding back. The residents of Smithville needed counseling just as much as anything.

ETA: When I was there last year I got the feeling some people could still use some help. Talking about nightmares, panic attacks... even my Mom said who has lived there since the 70's won't drive on that part of town and said there were still deep scars among everyone who lives there. That's what I think about when I see these storms that create this kind of destruction.

 

[gregassagraf]

As I prepare the second part of the compilation on some of the worse tornadoes of la plata region, I would like to give my opinion about the Dolores tornado from 2016, and how a tornado magnet that town is (at least 3 significant tornadoes truck the city, 1985, 2012 and 2016, two of them were rated as F3/EF3 - 1985 & 2016).
The tornado from 2016, is in my opinion, the closest thing we had to an EF5 since the San Justo tornado, Argentina 1973.
It was extremely violent, the roar it was producing was like anything else I've heard from other tornadoes recorded in South America, and some of the more up close videos of that storm reminds me a lot from the Rochelle tornado from 2015. What a incredible storm! Its literally like you filmed that Illinois tornado and flipped the image.



To be fair, maybe the tornado from September seventh 2009, was as strong, but there is no video from that tornado, since it happened at night in a very unpopulated area from Argentina/Brazil. And also it managed to slab multiple houses and even throw entire constructions with people inside almost 100 yards from the foundation. But man, that storm that hit Dolores was menacing as nothing I've seen from this continent!
In my opinion the EF3 rating it received underestimates the power that storm had.

 

[gregassagraf]

Sorry, if I'm spamming, but since I'm having a insomnia episode, I would like to geek-out about an event (mentioned in the compilation i posted here), that I havent seen being discussed here: afternoon of tornadoes in the west side of state of Parana, Brazil. Novermber 19th 2015


All of them were reported in the municipality of Marechal Candido Rondon.
The first of which, caused a lot of damage to the city, but thankfully it didn't hit the city directly! If it did, I wouldn't be surprised if the city ended up with EF3+ damage:


Take a look at that structure. Simply, incredible!



to be fair, it did hit a small section of the city, as it was weakening, turning into a multi-vortex mess.
But as you can see, the storm did seem to continue its trajectory as the visibility was diminishing due to rain curtains.

Later that day, the same region was hit by another big tornado, this one way less known, because it remained over open area. But for the looks of it, it would be catastrophic if that thing had made a direct hit.



That afternoon was crazy. Very few people know how big this event was.
There was also a third smaller tornado that was seen crossing a road.