Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

It's events like Greensburg and 5/23/2008 that make me desperately wish we had better documentation on some of the Kansas outbreaks in the distant past. Events like 5/17/1896 and 5/29/1879 immediately come to mind (although the latter is pretty well-documented for its time), but there are lots of others as well. Who knows how many absolute monster tornadoes have gone unrecognized over the years out in the open plains.

May 23, 2008 prior to April 27th set a national state record for tornadoes in a 24 hour period with 69 tornadoes in Kansas. It’s another pretty poorly documented outbreak other than the Quinter tornadoes. Supercells that day were incredibly cyclic and prolific with multiple large-violent wedge tornadoes from single cells. The supercell that spawned the monstrous Clark State Lake 1.8 mile wide EF3 also dropped another likely violent and massive tornado that was pretty much a carbon-copy of the 2007 Hopewell tornado, this time passing west of Hopewell and Macksville. Here’s a picture of that tornado:
View attachment 16356

Was it this or another tornado that threw some vehicles and/or heavy farm equipment so far they were never found (likely into a ravine or something)?
There was another massive wedge spawned on this day that was ranked EF0 because it didn't hit anything, just drifted over open country but it looked real scary, more like a pitch black cloud on the ground than a true tornado.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Was it this or another tornado that threw some vehicles and/or heavy farm equipment so far they were never found (likely into a ravine or something)?
There was another massive wedge spawned on this day that was ranked EF0 because it didn't hit anything, just drifted over open country but it looked real scary, more like a pitch black cloud on the ground than a true tornado.

That was the Buttermilk KS EF3, that tornado also produced some visible ground scouring on google earth imagery a month after the event and was most likely violent. That tornado also came from the same supercell that produced the Fort Supply OK EF3 and the Cairo KS EF3 that threw a car 570 yards off a highway and resulted in the outbreaks only fatalities.
As for this tornado there really is hardly any information on it other than “farms damaged or destroyed, trees debarked” it stayed out in rural areas so doesn’t surprise me. It also had this rather impressive radar presentation:

That whole day was a wedge fest, I believe there was around 13 tornadoes over 1/2 mile in width and 5 of those were a mile or more.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

That was the Buttermilk KS EF3, that tornado also produced some visible ground scouring on google earth imagery a month after the event and was most likely violent. That tornado also came from the same supercell that produced the Fort Supply OK EF3 and the Cairo KS EF3 that threw a car 570 yards off a highway and resulted in the outbreaks only fatalities.
As for this tornado there really is hardly any information on it other than “farms damaged or destroyed, trees debarked” it stayed out in rural areas so doesn’t surprise me. It also had this rather impressive radar presentation:
View attachment 16360
That whole day was a wedge fest, I believe there was around 13 tornadoes over 1/2 mile in width and 5 of those were a mile or more.

Put just a few of those tracks through towns and cities and you have a day that is just as well remembered for all the wrong reasons as 4/26/91 or 5/3/99.

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[Western_KS_Wx]

Put just a few of those tracks through towns and cities and you have a day that is just as well remembered for all the wrong reasons as 4/26/91 or 5/3/99.

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Yeah, Quinter was definitely not the only violent tornado that day and there were a couple of towns that just narrowly avoided disaster.

Greensburg also had some close calls as well with multiple tornadoes in the vicinity and a huge HP Supercell go directly over town.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

That day is really deserving of more extensive research to help determine (if possible) what made it so prolific even compared to past (and succeeding) Plains high-risk days. It was said that 5/20/19 was going to be the Plains' version of 4/27, but this day actually was only few people realize it because so few population centers got hit.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That was the Buttermilk KS EF3, that tornado also produced some visible ground scouring on google earth imagery a month after the event and was most likely violent. That tornado also came from the same supercell that produced the Fort Supply OK EF3 and the Cairo KS EF3 that threw a car 570 yards off a highway and resulted in the outbreaks only fatalities.
As for this tornado there really is hardly any information on it other than “farms damaged or destroyed, trees debarked” it stayed out in rural areas so doesn’t surprise me. It also had this rather impressive radar presentation:
View attachment 16360
That whole day was a wedge fest, I believe there was around 13 tornadoes over 1/2 mile in width and 5 of those were a mile or more.

So, I found out what I was talking about. It was a massive that was only rated EF2 due to hardly hitting anything other than some barns and telephone poles, it was another wedge that passed near Quinter. That town had 3 rounds of come through the area and narrowly avoid it.







This thing looks scary, almost reminds me of Parkersburg.

Lots of tornadoes that day were rain-wrapped and low-hanging, which is why quite a bit of the outbreak isn't well documented.

Significant Tornado Events

A couple others, most from Bridge Creek but some from Moore: This pic reminds me of the aftermath of a severe forest fire: This classic: That second to last photo by itself is telling of just how EXTREME Bridge Creek-Moore was; the sheer amount of scoured mud splattered on the...

talkweather.com

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

May 23, 2008 prior to April 27th set a national state record for tornadoes in a 24 hour period with 69 tornadoes in Kansas. It’s another pretty poorly documented outbreak other than the Quinter tornadoes. Supercells that day were incredibly cyclic and prolific with multiple large-violent wedge tornadoes from single cells. The supercell that spawned the monstrous Clark State Lake 1.8 mile wide EF3 also dropped another likely violent and massive tornado that was pretty much a carbon-copy of the 2007 Hopewell tornado, this time passing west of Hopewell and Macksville. Here’s a picture of that tornado:
View attachment 16356

Holy heck, you actually found a photo of the thing. I was expecting it to be more rainwrapped in my head but whatevs. There should be a detailed write up of this event one day.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Damage from the 1984 Barneveld tornado:

 

[locomusic01]

Damage from the 1984 Barneveld tornado:

I'm kinda surprised Barneveld isn't talked about more on here - some of the damage was awfully impressive. I actually considered writing something on it and started the process of researching + collecting photos, but I never got around to it. The Delta, IA F4 was apparently quite violent too (IIRC Grazulis called it near-F5). I have a series of newspaper clippings on it but they clearly don't show the worst of the damage. I've also seen some intense damage from the long-tracker down around the MO-IA border. If memory serves, that was the tornado that destroyed a truck stop and threw a truck something like a quarter-mile. I've read that it produced significant tree damage but haven't seen photos of it.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Damage from the 1984 Barneveld tornado:

Several impressive photos of damage from it on extremeplanet. One interesting detail is 7 of 9 fatalities occurred in a single stretch of road:

The List of the Strongest Tornadoes Ever Recorded: Part IV

□ For a tornado to be considered for categorization, it must have caused at least one fatality and occurred after 1970. Damage intensity and, to a lesser extent, wind duration are the only variable…

extremeplanet.wordpress.com

Another thing is that many residents beforehand believed that the steep hills surrounding the town would protect it from tornadoes. Amazing how common this dangerous misconception persists in this day and age.

 

[locomusic01]

On the topic of 1984, I started doing some work on the 3/28/84 Carolinas outbreak last year when I was thinking about doing an article on it. Didn't get very far along, but I did get a handful of photos from the Snow Hill-Greenville, NC F4 (specifically around Ayden and Simpson in Pitt County) and I don't think I ever posted them:

 

[locomusic01]

Another 1984 tornado I'd like to dig into more at some point is the 4/29 Mannford, OK F4:

Photo was obviously taken many years later, but this car was thrown a considerable distance into the school IIRC:

This was what remained of a transmission shop in town:

Too lazy to check at the moment but I think there are also some videos of the damage on Youtube. Maybe I'll add them later if I'm feeing ambitious.

Edit: Here are a few of them.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

On the topic of 1984, I started doing some work on the 3/28/84 Carolinas outbreak last year when I was thinking about doing an article on it. Didn't get very far along, but I did get a handful of photos from the Snow Hill-Greenville, NC F4 (specifically around Ayden and Simpson in Pitt County) and I don't think I ever posted them:

Looks like there is some debarking in the first two photos.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Violent damage from the Fargo 1957 tornado. I’m pretty sure you can see the damage that was rated F5 in some of these photos.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

USGS has aerial imagery of the 1971 Fitler-Oxford F4 along with the other major tornadoes of the event. Here are some interesting things I found:

Pugh City/Swiftown Area:
Some of the most impressive damage from this outbreak occurred in this area imo. A row of small homes was obliterated with debris being wind-rowed and vehicles being thrown up to 100-150 yards. A farm was also completely destroyed. 23 were killed in this area alone. An area with what seem to be either shipping containers or trailers was also hit with them being moved to a maximum of ~165 yards.





Rural Areas Along the Tornado's Track:

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Aerial imagery of the first major tornado of the outbreak, the Inverness MS "F5" (rated F4 by Grazulis.)

Waverly LA:
Aerial imagery shows that the tornado was much narrower in this area. A small farmhouse was swept away killing 10 people in one family.

Rural Areas:

Inverness:
This was one of the largest cities to be devastated by this outbreak. 21 people were killed as many buildings were leveled and small homes were completely swept away.

Delta City:
This small town had its central portion almost completely leveled with multiple homes swept away. 7 lost their lives in this community.

 

[warneagle]

So, I found out what I was talking about. It was a massive that was only rated EF2 due to hardly hitting anything other than some barns and telephone poles, it was another wedge that passed near Quinter. That town had 3 rounds of come through the area and narrowly avoid it.





View attachment 16378

This thing looks scary, almost reminds me of Parkersburg.

Lots of tornadoes that day were rain-wrapped and low-hanging, which is why quite a bit of the outbreak isn't well documented.

Significant Tornado Events

A couple others, most from Bridge Creek but some from Moore: This pic reminds me of the aftermath of a severe forest fire: This classic: That second to last photo by itself is telling of just how EXTREME Bridge Creek-Moore was; the sheer amount of scoured mud splattered on the...

talkweather.com

That second shot reminds me of the WAFF tower cam shot of the Hackleburg/Phil Campbell tornado. Definitely looks more like a deep south wedge with the low cloud base and all.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Aerial imagery of the first major tornado of the outbreak, the Inverness MS "F5" (rated F4 by Grazulis.)

Waverly LA:
Aerial imagery shows that the tornado was much narrower in this area. A small farmhouse was swept away killing 10 people in one family.

Rural Areas:

Inverness:
This was one of the largest cities to be devastated by this outbreak. 21 people were killed as many buildings were leveled and small homes were completely swept away.

Delta City:
This small town had its central portion almost completely leveled with multiple homes swept away. 7 lost their lives in this community.

Amazing how the LA portion of the path is so difficult to find info on (most of this outbreak, really). Also, the Little Yazoo tornado from this day has a premium summary on TornadoTalk, they uncovered a ton of photos that I'd never seen anywhere else and hopefully they continue to do so with the other tornadoes from this outbreak.

 

[Marshal79344]

Another 1984 tornado I'd like to dig into more at some point is the 4/29 Mannford, OK F4:

Photo was obviously taken many years later, but this car was thrown a considerable distance into the school IIRC:

This was what remained of a transmission shop in town:

Too lazy to check at the moment but I think there are also some videos of the damage on Youtube. Maybe I'll add them later if I'm feeing ambitious.

Edit: Here are a few of them.

It's interesting to note the striking differences between the Terlton, Oklahoma event that occurred just 3 days prior to the Mannford tornado. The Terlton tornado came out of a pretty textbook dryline Plains setup, occurring when the LLJ was at full power, while the Mannford tornado occurred in the very early afternoon as part of a crashing-cold-front type setup.

 

[Marshal79344]

Another tornadic event I've always been intrigued by are the Arkansas tornadoes of June 5th, 1916. This is perhaps the first of several notable Arkansas statewide tornado swarms and impacted a few cities that were struck again later on. Despite its significance, it was very poorly documented, perhaps because of the events and war occurring in Europe at the time.

The only photographs I know of from this outbreak were from a local newspaper based in a town called McCrory, Arkansas. There are a few images of destruction from the towns of Heber Springs and Judsonia, both of which were impacted by major tornadoes in other major Arkansas outbreaks.

Heber Springs:





Judsonia F3: