Significant Tornado Events

[OHWX97]

@eric11 Thank you for sharing those excellent damage photos. I don't recall ever seeing most of those. I'm also glad you mentioned something about the extreme tree damage near where the Pilger East/Pilger paths intersected. After checking out the DAT tracks, the patch of trees (location circled in black) only received the outer edge of Pilger's circulation, while the violent core of Pilger East moved directly over it, certainly exclusively producing that insane debarking.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

There was at least one house in a rural area outside of Pilger that seemed like an EF5 candidate. It was a well-anchored home with a poured concrete basement foundation. It had closely-spaced anchor bolts, and was totally obliterated and swept clean. The subfloor was torn off and blown away, and extreme contextual damage occurred within the vicinity.

Problem is, the aftermath photo clearly shows a pickup truck that slammed into the foundation stem wall with such force that it bent and cracked the stem wall, obviously resulting in major structural issues. If there’s a classic example of collateral damage ruining a likely upgrade, it’d be that house and truck.

Yeah, this house was literally considered for EF5 by the surveyors, and that truck was the reason they kept it at EF4.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Alright so this one Plainfield screenshot might actually show the literal beginning stage (like, just before touchdown) of the Plainfield tornado.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Alright so this one Plainfield screenshot might actually show the literal beginning stage (like, just before touchdown) of the Plainfield tornado.
View attachment 14627

I'm pretty sure I've seen that before and the consensus seems to be that it was a funnel cloud or brief tornado produced by the supercell before the Plainfield F5 began. Either way, the closest thing to actual tornado footage from that day.

 

[A Guy]

It changed appearance several times during those 71 miles.
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I had a moment a couple of days ago when I realised that the top photo, showing a few spindly multiple vortices, is actually taken after the bottom photo as well as the third photo in the series (not shown here) that shows a chunky wedge. You can tell by the position of the box shaped object and shape of the horizon with the hill and the vegetation protruding slightly on the left.

The change the structure that even a large long tracked tornado can undergo in seconds quite amazes me. I also think it's something to bear in mind when reading old descriptions, as reports of 'multiple funnels' and the like might easily refer not to a tornado family or one tornado dissipating and another forming, but to these very rapid changes in structure. Even today you can see in videos that whenever the condensation funnel weakens people will 'it's breaking up' or when it reforms 'it's coming back down', even for violent tornadoes with a continuous track.

One of the most dramatic examples I can think of is in Skip Talbot's video of the Henryville tornado, where the large condensation funnel completely dissipates leaving a short stumpy funnel cloud, and briefly none at all at about 9:50. (also shown in another video)




I think it means that one needs an open mind when reading old descriptions as they could be referring to all sorts of phenomena.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

as the third photo in the series (not shown here) that shows a chunky wedge.

Can you post said photo, or is that a tad too risky?

 

[locomusic01]

Does anybody have a link to the National Park Service's report on the Carr Fire that was released last year? I thought I'd downloaded it when it came out but I can't find it now.

Edit: Nevermind, found it literally seconds after I posted lol. I forgot it was released through their FOIA portal.

 

[A Guy]

Can you post said photo, or is that a tad too risky?

Why would it be risky? It's from sort of the same series posted above that by @SGFmoTwister in the Ruskin Heights anniversary thread. I say sort of as the two posted on this page are slightly better versions than those posted a couple of years ago, though one's cropped for the caption.

It's taken between the other two, but obviously much closer to the earlier photo.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Why would it be risky? It's from sort of the same series posted above that by @SGFmoTwister in the Ruskin Heights anniversary thread. I say sort of as the two posted on this page are slightly better versions than those posted a couple of years ago, though one's cropped for the caption.

It's taken between the other two, but obviously much closer to the earlier photo.

View attachment 14628

Ah, ok. You didn't post the image in your original post and I thought there might have been something preventing you from doing so.

 

[A Guy]

Ah, ok. You didn't post the image in your original post and I thought there might have been something preventing you from doing so.

I didn't post it because it wasn't in the post I quoted.

 

[tornado examiner]

the pilger tornado is the fastest moving major tornado we know of.

 

[TH2002]

I know I'm a bit late to the Pilger discussion, but here are some Wakefield damage pics

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if ALL of the EF4's in the Pilger family had EF5 potential at some point, and I even think a strong case can be made for all of them (especially Stanton and the Pilger tornadoes). And on a final note, the extreme debarking caused by Pilger East is a literal parallel to South Moravia 2021:

 

[SouthFLwx]

I know I'm a bit late to the Pilger discussion, but here are some Wakefield damage pics
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I honestly wouldn't be surprised if ALL of the EF4's in the Pilger family had EF5 potential at some point, and I even think a strong case can be made for all of them (especially Stanton and the Pilger tornadoes). And on a final note, the extreme debarking caused by Pilger East is a literal parallel to South Moravia 2021:
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You could argue that both the Pilger tornado and the Moravia tornado were EF5s.

 

[buckeye05]

Sorry to derail, but does anyone have that photo from the South Moravia F4 that shows a completely debarked tree with scoured grass plastered to the trunk? I think the photo was taken near Hrusky, and it was one of the most, if not the most impressive photo of vegetation damage from Europe that I’ve seen, and I want to make sure I save it.

 

[TH2002]

Sorry to derail, but does anyone have that photo from the South Moravia F4 that shows a completely debarked tree with scoured grass plastered to the trunk? I think the photo was taken near Hrusky, and it was one of the most, if not the most impressive photo of vegetation damage from Europe that I’ve seen, and I want to make sure I save it.

Maybe this?

 

[buckeye05]

Maybe this?
View attachment 14634

That’s the one. Much appreciated!

 

[SGFmoTwister]

Can you post said photo, or is that a tad too risky?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The Hudsonville outbreak sequence was actually pretty significant. I've got a pretty good start on the 4/3 Michigan tornadoes so that isn't a problem. I've got some stuff on Davenport-Drumright, OK and a little bit on the huge Newkirk-Grenola-Toronto family, but not nearly enough to cover it the way I want. That family alone featured multiple large, violent tornadoes (including a possible F5), and that's not even mentioning the F4 that struck parts of OK-KS-MO, the Berlin, WI F4, the Lexington, TN F4 and a handful of other F3s. It'd be manageable if I knew I could find enough photos and whatnot but I suspect some of those are gonna be really tough.

The only break w/Hudsonville is with the Holland F4, which is officially counted as the same tornado. The Grand Traverse Bay F4 may've had a break southwest of Lake Ann and possibly another up around Lake Leelanau but I'm not sure yet. The Bangor-Lowell F3 probably had a break southeast of Wayland, around where the path gets kinda squirrely.

A bit random, but in terms of pre-1950 Dixie events, what do you think is the most significant in terms of overall violence and fatalities? A bit of a trick question I suppose given how difficult it is to find damage photographs and reliable fatality counts from older events, but just wondering. For me it's a tie between 1884 Enigma and April 1920, due to how obscure they are and yet how historically significant they undoubtedly were.

 

[eric11]

I know I'm a bit late to the Pilger discussion, but here are some Wakefield damage pics
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I honestly wouldn't be surprised if ALL of the EF4's in the Pilger family had EF5 potential at some point, and I even think a strong case can be made for all of them (especially Stanton and the Pilger tornadoes). And on a final note, the extreme debarking caused by Pilger East is a literal parallel to South Moravia 2021:
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NWS OMAHA had made a mistake, Pic one and two were actually from the Pilger tornado, especially Pic two was one of the highest rated damage point through its lifespan which was given a 191mph rating, tornado hit the house around this time I guess(Pilger on the left, Pilger E on the right)

There's a survive story of the leveled house of Pic 1, The family saw both tornadoes came directly at them but only got hit by the latter one(Pilger) while the first one(Pilger E)shifted to the NE.

They hide in the underground shelter and when they came out they found their house was completely leveled, and the foundation was cracked.

This is what it looks like after the tornado near the house.

There're at least four cars parked near the house got tossed, one of the cars was thrown more than 250 yards and severly mangled, people found a debarked branch embedded into the cars' tyre.

 

[eric11]

I know I'm a bit late to the Pilger discussion, but here are some Wakefield damage pics
View attachment 14630
View attachment 14631

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if ALL of the EF4's in the Pilger family had EF5 potential at some point, and I even think a strong case can be made for all of them (especially Stanton and the Pilger tornadoes). And on a final note, the extreme debarking caused by Pilger East is a literal parallel to South Moravia 2021:
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Here's a aerial view of the Wakefield's damage track, clear cut ground scouring and some vague cycloidal marks, definitely violent but the damage extent didn't support for EF5.

There're only two EF4 damage points on kml, one is the Pic three in your post, the other one might be this house