Significant Tornado Events

[Tennie]

I don't know if this has been brought up yet in this thread or its global equivalent, but here's a pretty good website that can be quite useful for looking up historical tornadoes:

Tornado Archive – The Ultimate Tornado Data Viewer

tornadoarchive.com

It has a data explorer (click the link labeled "Data Explorer" near the upper right side of the page to access it) that displays the tracks of various historical tornadoes, and can be searchable by time periods, (E)F-scale ratings, etc.

Here's a couple videos that explain how to use the site. The first video introduces the site and how to use it:



The second video shows off a bunch of new features that were implemented after the first video was made (including the ability to plot certain data based off the ERA5 reanalysis):



I hope you can find this stuff useful!

 

[tornado examiner]

I don't know if this has been brought up yet in this thread or its global equivalent, but here's a pretty good website that can be quite useful for looking up historical tornadoes:

Tornado Archive – The Ultimate Tornado Data Viewer

tornadoarchive.com

It has a data explorer (click the link labeled "Data Explorer" near the upper right side of the page to access it) that displays the tracks of various historical tornadoes, and can be searchable by time periods, (E)F-scale ratings, etc.

Here's a couple videos that explain how to use the site. The first video introduces the site and how to use it:



The second video shows off a bunch of new features that were implemented after the first video was made (including the ability to plot certain data based off the ERA5 reanalysis):



I hope you can find this stuff useful!

ive been using that for a while now

 

[locomusic01]

Think I might've posted this before, but here's an aerial video of the damage from the Corry, PA F4.



Around the 2:30 mark is the famous Wiggers Canoe Shop (and the owner's home next door) where some of the customers' vehicles went for pretty long rides.

The tree damage on the hill behind the property is pretty fascinating; not sure if it was caused by multiple vortices or just the terrain, but it looks almost like a lava flow or landslide or something.

I've heard from a bunch of sources (the Wiggers family, customers who were there, people who lived near the lake, newspaper reports, etc) that at least one canoe from the shop was found wrapped around a tree - or sitting in/against a tree, depending on the source - on the shore of Chautauqua Lake, which is ~23 miles away in New York. I honestly have no idea if that's even possible, although canoes seem like the right combination of lightweight and large surface area to be carried pretty far under the right circumstances.

 

[buckeye05]

As we are on Hackleburg topic
Here's some Incredible debarking to even hardwood outside of Hackleburg
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Vehicles were mangled into unrecoginizable fashion near this place.
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Incredible damage inside the town
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Before and after view of Mount Hope EF5 rating Restaurant
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That Hackleburg area debarking is some of the worst I’ve seen photographed. I knew it was bad, but not that bad. That’s well into Bridge Creek/Moore/Joplin territory.

 

[buckeye05]

I know I haven't been able to shut up about Hackleburg lately, but I found some new stuff people might find interesting.

First of all, I am aware that this photo has been posted before, but to compliment the scouring, this is apparently the brick home along Hwy 237 that allegedly had its basement walls caved in and carport dislodged. No way to tell for sure without an extreme close up, but no doubt this home experienced some extremely violent winds. If so, this is likely some Brandenburg-esque damage.
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Remains of the Phil Campbell Church of God; the church itself was reduced to its slab, and extensive ground scouring occurred.
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Large home that was reduced to its foundation between Hackleburg and Phil Campbell
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General destruction in Phil Campbell; note what looks like a slabbed home in the background.
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Yet another swept away home in Phil Campbell, interesting how this one got an EF4 rating attached to it considering some of the DI's that got EF5.

Finally, a return label from Phil Campbell that reportedly traveled over 100 miles:

Regardless of construction (I think it was CMU), that first Phil Campbell photo has always impressed the hell out of me, especially the hillside that appears to have been scoured down to bare soil. The comparison to Brandenburg is spot on.

 

[buckeye05]

Here's some more Hackleburg stuff. I can't remember if I've shared these yet. Most were taken just minutes after the tornado hit, so no cleanup here.

Shredded trees and car. I actually didn't even notice the car the first time I looked at this photo.

Completely bizarre damage to a series of metal fence posts in town. How does this even happen?

Total destruction and plowed up earth in Hackleburg, possibly from trees getting ripped out of the ground imo.

Debris granulation

Wooded ravine completely decimated

Poured concrete torn up. I can't exactly tell what this was, but I strongly suspect that its a driveway or garage slab.

What I believe to be a piece of concrete stemwall thrown into the base of a tree and shattered

And just for posterity, here's some awesome Oak Grove before and after pics. I'm particularly intrigued by the second one, as it looks like a small piece of concrete was ripped from the driveway in the "after" photo. It could also be a piece of debris on the concrete though. I can't tell definitively, but we already know this tornado did crazy things to poured concrete in multiple areas along its path. What do you guys think it is?

 

[TH2002]

Regardless of construction (I think it was CMU), that first Phil Campbell photo has always impressed the hell out of me, especially the hillside that appears to have been scoured down to bare soil. The comparison to Brandenburg is spot on.

Closest view I could find does show evidence that the foundation was likely CMU, you can see some cinder blocks. However the same comment on extremeplanet also mentioned that the carport slab was dislodged, and if that's what this photo actually shows, damn:


Finally found a ground level view of one of the slabbed homes in Hackleburg. If you look closely it does at least appear to have sill plates, so it was probably well built.



Aerial of additional homes/buildings swept away near the Wrangler plant, some pretty incredible wind rowing here:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's some more Hackleburg stuff. I can't remember if I've shared these yet. Most were taken just minutes after the tornado hit, so no cleanup here.

Shredded trees and car. I actually didn't even notice the car the first time I looked at this photo.

Completely bizarre damage to a series of metal fence posts in town. How does this even happen?

Total destruction and plowed up earth in Hackleburg, possibly from trees getting ripped out of the ground imo.

Debris granulation

Wooded ravine completely decimated

Poured concrete torn up. I can't exactly tell what this was, but I strongly suspect that its a driveway or garage slab.

What I believe to be a piece of concrete stemwall thrown into the base of a tree and shattered

And just for posterity, here's some awesome Oak Grove before and after pics. I'm particularly intrigued by the second one, as it looks like a small piece of concrete was ripped from the driveway in the "after" photo. It could also be a piece of debris on the concrete though. I can't tell definitively, but we already know this tornado did crazy things to poured concrete in multiple areas along its path. What do you guys think it is?

That stuff with the poles reminds me of stuff in other events:

Jarrell:



Tri-State Tornado:





Apparently something similar happened in Joplin (steel fence posts around the high school were bent in opposite directions) but I can't find a picture of it.

 

[Sawmaster]

Yep- the pics don't lie. How you can get this kind of destruction with maximum winds of 210 MPH affecting any particular homesite for maybe 3-4 seconds is beyond belief- for a reason. This damage is equal to or greater than that of Bridge Creek and El Reno where winds were measured at about 50% higher, so clearly the "official" wind speeds listed for Hackleburg are very very wrong. But the NWS doesn't think so...

Phil

 

[locomusic01]

Completely bizarre damage to a series of metal fence posts in town. How does this even happen?

Man, that really is odd. I've seen plenty of instances where the posts are flattened in opposite directions on either side of the tornado's centerline, but not alternating back and forth like that. Curious whether some kind of local topographical feature might've affected the flow there. Pretty neat.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Yep- the pics don't lie. How you can get this kind of destruction with maximum winds of 210 MPH affecting any particular homesite for maybe 3-4 seconds is beyond belief- for a reason. This damage is equal to or greater than that of Bridge Creek and El Reno where winds were measured at about 50% higher, so clearly the "official" wind speeds listed for Hackleburg are very very wrong. But the NWS doesn't think so...

Phil

That’s because that is how the current EF-scale works. Keep in mind the EF-scale is a damage scale not a wind scale.

 

[buckeye05]

Closest view I could find does show evidence that the foundation was likely CMU, you can see some cinder blocks. However the same comment on extremeplanet also mentioned that the carport slab was dislodged, and if that's what this photo actually shows, damn:
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Finally found a ground level view of one of the slabbed homes in Hackleburg. If you look closely it does at least appear to have sill plates, so it was probably well built.
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Aerial of additional homes/buildings swept away near the Wrangler plant, some pretty incredible wind rowing here:
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That photo with the red oval. Damn. I think that shows exactly what we think it shows. That's incredible.

 

[TH2002]

42 years ago today, one of the most unusual tornado events in history took the lives of five people when seven separate tornadoes hit the Grand Island, Nebraska area in the span of just 2 hours and 45 minutes.

R.I.P. to Robin Larson, 17, Charles Peterson, 66, Ronnie Leece, 30, Denise Behring, 19, and Danny Davenport, 25.

Arguably one of the most iconic tornado photos of all time, taken by Rod Gartner. The smaller "gustnado-looking" tornado on the left is the second tornado (rated F1) and the larger tornado on the right is the third tornado (rated F3).

These tornadoes took very unusual paths, often twisting and even looping over themselves. In some cases this doubled the tornado path lengths; three of the tornadoes were also anticyclonic.

Damage from the first tornado (F3). Homes (though likely poorly constructed) were swept away in northwestern Grand Island.

The fifth tornado caused F4 damage as it tracked along Locust St in Grand Island.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Man, that really is odd. I've seen plenty of instances where the posts are flattened in opposite directions on either side of the tornado's centerline, but not alternating back and forth like that. Curious whether some kind of local topographical feature might've affected the flow there. Pretty neat.

Something similar happened at Joplin but for the life of me I can't find the pic of it.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

42 years ago today, one of the most unusual tornado events in history took the lives of five people when seven separate tornadoes hit the Grand Island, Nebraska area in the span of just 2 hours and 45 minutes.

R.I.P. to Robin Larson, 17, Charles Peterson, 66, Ronnie Leece, 30, Denise Behring, 19, and Danny Davenport, 25.

Arguably one of the most iconic tornado photos of all time, taken by Rod Gartner. The smaller "gustnado-looking" tornado on the left is the second tornado (rated F1) and the larger tornado on the right is the third tornado (rated F3).

These tornadoes took very unusual paths, often twisting and even looping over themselves. In some cases this doubled the tornado path lengths; three of the tornadoes were also anticyclonic.

Damage from the first tornado (F3). Homes (though likely poorly constructed) were swept away in northwestern Grand Island.

The fifth tornado caused F4 damage as it tracked along Locust St in Grand Island.

The track map was also something else.

 

[locomusic01]

Something similar happened at Joplin but for the life of me I can't find the pic of it.

At the high school, you mean? They were flattened in a (mostly) circular-ish pattern around the tornado's centerline.

 

[locomusic01]

So here's something. I wasn't aware of any photos having been taken of the Barrie tornado (aside from the wide shot of the storm that may or may not show the rain-wrapped funnel), but I got a call this morning from a man who lived in Allandale Heights, which is the neighborhood overlooking the Hwy 400/Essa Rd interchange where some of the worst vegetation damage happened.

Anyway, someone I'd talked to a few weeks ago told him I was asking around about the tornado and he called to tell me that his girlfriend at the time was in their front yard snapping photos as the tornado came through. Apparently they broke up a while after and didn't keep in touch, so it may be tricky finding her if she's married and changed her name now. She may not even have the photos anymore, or they may not show much (cloud bases were rather low and there was quite a bit of precip). Who knows. The guy did say you could see the funnel and clouds of debris though.

Either way, at least it's a potential lead. I'm not gonna let it hold up my article since I can always add it later, but it's pretty exciting.

 

[locomusic01]

Oh, one other thing. In Wheatland, the roof of R&J Trucking was torn off almost entirely in one massive piece, thrown over a quarter-mile and dumped in the front yard of a home in a big crumpled ball. I think that may be what the big piece of debris is next to the funnel in this photo. I can't say for sure since there was an insane amount of debris being kicked up from a bunch of buildings, but it looks like it's in roughly the right place.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Oh, one other thing. In Wheatland, the roof of R&J Trucking was torn off almost entirely in one massive piece, thrown over a quarter-mile and dumped in the front yard of a home in a big crumpled ball. I think that may be what the big piece of debris is next to the funnel in this photo. I can't say for sure since there was an insane amount of debris being kicked up from a bunch of buildings, but it looks like it's in roughly the right place.

You posted this before and you said this was Yourga Trucking then. Of course you might have gotten them mixed up as there were a whole bunch of trucking places that got hit lol

EDIT: Or maybe Yourga and R&J are the same thing? Idk

 

[locomusic01]

You posted this before and you said this was Yourga Trucking then. Of course you might have gotten them mixed up as there were a whole bunch of trucking places that got hit lol

EDIT: Or maybe Yourga and R&J are the same thing? Idk

It was probably this one that I posted. Several of the terminals were pretty close together (along with some of the industrial plants and whatnot) so there's probably no way to know for sure, but I'm basing my speculations on the apparent locations + the fact that R&J Trucking had its roof torn off mostly in one piece while Yourga's was shredded, which is what it looks like is happening here.

(Edit: Or it might've been the same one, I dunno. I don't remember when I learned about the R&J roof.)

I believe this is probably about the time the tornado was moving into the more residential area around the railroad tracks.