Casuarina Head
Member
In his book Warnings: the True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather, Mike Smith considered the Ruskin Heights MO tornado to have produced more intense DIs than either the Greensburg KS or Joplin MO tornadoes. As far as I know the Ruskin Heights tornado did not snap poured concrete basement walls, unlike Joplin, Parkersburg IA, or Brandenburg KY, nor did it destroy solid brick structures (i.e., schools or churches) with interior walls, whereas Udall KS, Greensburg, and Mayfield KY did so. Photographs of the damage in Ruskin Heights show that subfloors and/or tiles remained on several of the foundations. In Significant Tornadoes Thomas P. Grazulis did mention that pilots reported tornado-related debris at up to 30,000 ft in altitude, which may have some bearing on intensity. Does anyone have photographs showing high-end DIs in Ruskin Heights?