Significant Tornado Events

[MNTornadoGuy]

One of the most mysterious 20th-century tornadoes is the May 14, 1923 Lorraine TX F5. This massive (reportedly up to a mile and a half wide) and intense tornado devastated rural areas in the early morning, killing 23 people and injuring 250. One of the largest ranch homes in the county was completely swept away, multiple farms were "wiped out" and bodies were carried up to a half-mile. Despite how deadly and violent this tornado was, there is very little information about and I would like to find out more about this event.

 

[locomusic01]

Does anybody recognize this tornado?

Someone sent it to me and said that it was the 5/31/85 Kane F4, but they didn't have much information to substantiate it aside from a general location where it was (supposedly) taken. The landscape/size of the tornado/general time of day seem to fit, and I don't immediately recognize it as being from any other event, but I'm inherently skeptical about tornado photos w/no provenance. I know there were at least a few photos taken of the Kane tornado but I haven't found any verifiable ones yet.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Does anybody recognize this tornado?

Someone sent it to me and said that it was the 5/31/85 Kane F4, but they didn't have much information to substantiate it aside from a general location where it was (supposedly) taken. The landscape/size of the tornado/general time of day seem to fit, and I don't immediately recognize it as being from any other event, but I'm inherently skeptical about tornado photos w/no provenance. I know there were at least a few photos taken of the Kane tornado but I haven't found any verifiable ones yet.

Looks like it was a tornado in PA but it was a different event that occurred back in 2018 based on what I found via an image search via Yandex:

Yandex Images

Image search for clothes and similar products, text recognition and translation, unique image check, image copy search, identification for items in images. Image and photo search. #yandexvision

yandex.com

 

[locomusic01]

Cool, thanks. I tried Google + Tineye image searches and didn't turn anything up but I didn't think to check Yandex. I thought the picture seemed a bit digital-y (to use the technical term) for something supposedly that old. This tornado was also in northwest PA (although ~100 miles west of Kane), so that explains why the terrain looked so similar.

 

[SilentShadow87]

The SPC posted this on their Twitter a while ago.


What's interesting to me is that, even ignoring 2011 as the obvious outlier, there seems to be a sort of roller coaster pattern of tornado-related fatalities in the US. Also, it doesn't seem to be directly correlated with the number of intense/violent tornadoes per year. I'm honestly not sure why this is. Any ideas?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The SPC posted this on their Twitter a while ago.
View attachment 12155

What's interesting to me is that, even ignoring 2011 as the obvious outlier, there seems to be a sort of roller coaster pattern of tornado-related fatalities in the US. Also, it doesn't seem to be directly correlated with the number of intense/violent tornadoes per year. I'm honestly not sure why this is. Any ideas?

It really depends on many factors such as how active a season is or if a significant tornado goes through a populated area.

 

[andyhb]

The locations where the tornadoes occur is probably the strongest factor. Note that high fatality years tend to have a number of destructive tornadoes/outbreaks east of the Plains (1994, 1998, 2006-2008, 2020-2021). This is where tornado awareness is generally lower, population density is higher, construction standards are lesser, nocturnal tornado frequency is higher, and fast moving tornadoes are more common.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

The locations where the tornadoes occur is probably the strongest factor. Note that high fatality years tend to have a number of destructive tornadoes/outbreaks east of the Plains (1994, 1998, 2006-2008, 2020-2021). This is where tornado awareness is generally lower, population density is higher, construction standards are lesser, nocturnal tornado frequency is higher, and fast moving tornadoes are more common.

2021 was on pace to be well below average then boom, 2 weeks before Christmas...

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

This tornado has been talked about here before but I would like to revisit it. The 1919 Fergus Falls tornado is likely the strongest tornado in Minnesota history, only tied by the 1883 Rochester F5. This tornado cut a winding violent swath through the town. A 3-story brick hotel with 100 rooms was leveled to the ground, trees were severely debarked, many homes were completely swept away with much of the debris being ground up into small pieces, a steel bridge was torn down and thrown 150 ft, and automobiles were tossed.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Views of possible F5 damage from the aerial video of the Tri-State Tornado.

 

[buckeye05]

This tornado has been talked about here before but I would like to revisit it. The 1919 Fergus Falls tornado is likely the strongest tornado in Minnesota history, only tied by the 1883 Rochester F5. This tornado cut a winding violent swath through the town. A 3-story brick hotel with 100 rooms was leveled to the ground, trees were severely debarked, many homes were completely swept away with much of the debris being ground up into small pieces, a steel bridge was torn down and thrown 150 ft, and automobiles were tossed.
View attachment 12156
View attachment 12157

I’ve always considered this to be Minnesota’s most violent tornado. In addition to all the incredible phenomenon described above, it also swept away a train station and a section of railroad track.

Also, the house foundation in photo #10 appears to be well-built and of poured concrete construction. There were multiple houses like this throughout the town. Do you think they were anchor-bolted? They definitely have that look.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I’ve always considered this to be Minnesota’s most violent tornado. In addition to all the incredible phenomenon described above, it also swept away a train station and a section of railroad track.

Also, the house foundation in photo #10 appears to be well-built and of poured concrete construction. There were multiple houses like this throughout the town. Do you think they were anchor-bolted? They definitely have that look.

Considering it is the pre-1950 era I doubt it was bolted.

 

[Austin Dawg]

The SPC posted this on their Twitter a while ago.
View attachment 12155

What's interesting to me is that, even ignoring 2011 as the obvious outlier, there seems to be a sort of roller coaster pattern of tornado-related fatalities in the US. Also, it doesn't seem to be directly correlated with the number of intense/violent tornadoes per year. I'm honestly not sure why this is. Any ideas?

Statistically you would need more data. There is a noticeable pattern but there have been so many changes in the overall climate in the world that it would probably skew anything you tried to grab for more data. He would definitely need somebody better at math than myself.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Does anyone here have the CSV file that contained damage points from the Tri-State tornado? It was used in this study:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...rnado_Damage_Path_and_Associated_Storm_System

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Many violent tornadoes have occurred in Canada. What was one of the strongest tornadoes to occur in the county and likely the strongest one to occur on the Canadian Prairie is the July 22, 1920 Alameda SK F5. This massive, long-tracked, and extremely violent tornado carved a 50-mile long swath through southern Saskatchewan. Several or more “splendid” farmhouses of “15-20 years development” were completely swept away with nothing but “the cellars of houses or the bare spots of barns” to mark their locations. Timbers, clothing, housing utensils, and heavy farming machinery such as large threshing machines were scattered for miles from these farms. The ironwork of tractors was twisted "to make people gasp in astonishment," a large flywheel of a "huge separator" was reportedly nearly carried 2 miles, a piano was carried 100 ft and "choked with tightly packed soil", and a 1600-1800 lb stallion was supposedly carried a half-mile. Sadly four people were killed by this tornado with bodies reportedly being carried a half-mile.

 

[locomusic01]

I spent entirely too long today staring at this, but it's just super fascinating. If you open it full-size, you can really see the complex terrain interactions and how the winds sort of swirled and flowed like eddies as they were channeled through the valleys. It looks almost like a watercolor painting. I accidentally cut off a tiny bit of the beginning, but whatever.

This is the Moshannon F4 btw, although that's probably pretty obvious.

 

[TH2002]

I know some of these photos have been posted before, but here is some violent damage from the 2011 Brimfield tornado.

Intense debarking of trees


Sadly, a fatality occurred in the recreational vehicle visible in front of the debarked trees.

Homes swept away

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I know some of these photos have been posted before, but here is some violent damage from the 2011 Brimfield tornado.

Intense debarking of trees
View attachment 12159
View attachment 12160
Sadly, a fatality occurred in the recreational vehicle visible in front of the debarked trees.

Homes swept away
View attachment 12161

View attachment 12162

View attachment 12163

Some of those homes in the bottom photos appear to be sliders.

 

[TH2002]

Some of those homes in the bottom photos appear to be sliders.

I am pretty sure the last two photos show the same home. I do wonder if the home in the first photo is possibly that same home?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Ground view of damage from the 2015 Delmont tornado.