Significant Tornado Events

[MNTornadoGuy]

I can't really think of any comparable event off-hand, at least among official/widely acknowledged F5s. Elie and Wichita Falls '64 were both only a few miles long, but they were on the ground for better than half an hour. There was an F4 that hit Garland, TX during the May 1927 outbreak that basically touched down, immediately leveled a few blocks and then dissipated, but definitely nothing on the level of San Justo.

I'm not sure it's that uncommon for tornadoes to intensify extremely quickly after touchdown, but flaring up and then dissipating so quickly is fascinating. Astronomically bad luck to have happened right over a densely populated area. I haven't looked into the conditions that day but I'm assuming instability must've been pretty extreme.

I don’t think that San Justo was on the ground for only a mile as a research paper of Argentina tornado from the 1970s mentions it had a Pearson length rating of 2, which ranges from 3.1-9.87 miles.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I can't really think of any comparable event off-hand, at least among official/widely acknowledged F5s. Elie and Wichita Falls '64 were both only a few miles long, but they were on the ground for better than half an hour. There was an F4 that hit Garland, TX during the May 1927 outbreak that basically touched down, immediately leveled a few blocks and then dissipated, but definitely nothing on the level of San Justo.

I'm not sure it's that uncommon for tornadoes to intensify extremely quickly after touchdown, but flaring up and then dissipating so quickly is fascinating. Astronomically bad luck to have happened right over a densely populated area. I haven't looked into the conditions that day but I'm assuming instability must've been pretty extreme.

I wonder if it was on the ground longer than the official path length, but was only documented while in the city limits. The more I think about it that makes more sense.

 

[locomusic01]

I don’t think that San Justo was on the ground for only a mile as a research paper of Argentina tornado from the 1970s mentions it had a Pearson length rating of 2, which ranges from 3.1-9.87 miles.

Yeah that makes sense, I didn't realize how rural the surrounding area was. It's a shame that what little Landsat imagery there is from around that time is all cloud-covered, although I'm not sure it would've shown much anyway.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah that makes sense, I didn't realize how rural the surrounding area was. It's a shame that what little Landsat imagery there is from around that time is all cloud-covered, although I'm not sure it would've shown much anyway.

It was probably longer on the ground then 1 mile the more I think about it but I wonder if it was like Barrie in that it rapidly intensified within touchdown but hits its peak extremely quickly then abruptly lost intensity before dissipating. Something with Pampa and (a bit longer) happened with Joplin. Maybe it intersected a boundary at exactly the right moment and achieved F5 intensity right over the city?

 

[pohnpei]

It was probably longer on the ground then 1 mile the more I think about it but I wonder if it was like Barrie in that it rapidly intensified within touchdown but hits its peak extremely quickly then abruptly lost intensity before dissipating. Something with Pampa and (a bit longer) happened with Joplin. Maybe it intersected a boundary at exactly the right moment and achieved F5 intensity right over the city?

From the sounding, it had good thermos and large 3cape but other than that, not a typical good sounding for violent tornados at all. It was said that this was the only tornado reported that day. I would also guess it alongside some sort of boundary.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

From the sounding, it had good thermos and large 3cape but other than that, not a typical good sounding for violent tornados at all. It was said that this was the only tornado reported that day. I would also guess it alongside some sort of boundary.
View attachment 16716

I’m guessing the setup might have had some similarities to Jarrell. Also ERA-5 might be underestimating the instability as the nearest surface observation had a temperature of 77 and a dew point of 75.

 

[locomusic01]

I’m guessing the setup might have had some similarities to Jarrell. Also ERA-5 might be underestimating the instability as the nearest surface observation had a temperature of 77 and a dew point of 75.

According to one of the local papers, the high for that day was near 92 in Santa Fe.

Very roughly translated, the low was 26c (78F) at 5:20am and the high was 34c (92). At 2pm it got rainy and stormy.

Of course, that's like 60-ish miles south of San Justo, but it's notable that many of the accounts specifically mention that people were expecting a storm because it was oppressively hot and humid.

 

[tornado examiner]

any one else notice that the track of the 2015 fairdale tornado on the DAT was majorly updated on December 7th 2022?

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Holy smokes, I just happened to pull up the reports page for the April 12 (Easter), 2020 outbreak and even though I tracked the Bassfield tornado on radar in real time, outside of that singular supercell I guess I forgot how extremely active and destructive this day was. Almost 200 tornado reports and over 1,000 wind reports stretching from Texas to Virginia. That day would have easily verified a high risk and then some.

Edit: Per Wikipedia, third all-time behind only the two Super Outbreaks in terms of 24-hour tornado count.

Storm Prediction Center 20200412's Storm Reports

Severe weather, tornado, thunderstorm, fire weather, storm report, tornado watch, severe thunderstorm watch, mesoscale discussion, convective outlook products from the Storm Prediction Center.

www.spc.noaa.gov

 

[locomusic01]

Holy smokes, I just happened to pull up the reports page for the April 12 (Easter), 2020 outbreak and even though I tracked the Bassfield tornado on radar in real time, outside of that singular supercell I guess I forgot how extremely active and destructive this day was. Almost 200 tornado reports and over 1,000 wind reports stretching from Texas to Virginia. That day would have easily verified a high risk and then some.

Edit: Per Wikipedia, third all-time behind only the two Super Outbreaks in terms of 24-hour tornado count.

Storm Prediction Center 20200412's Storm Reports

Severe weather, tornado, thunderstorm, fire weather, storm report, tornado watch, severe thunderstorm watch, mesoscale discussion, convective outlook products from the Storm Prediction Center.

www.spc.noaa.gov

Damn, I had no idea. I wasn't able to keep up with events much during that time so all that really stood out to me from this outbreak was Bassfield + the fact that South Carolina got absolutely raked (by their standards). Total of 35 significant tornadoes (16 strong, 3 violent) is pretty impressive too.

 

[Sawmaster]

Yep on upstate SC. I had 2 tornadoes hit within about a mile of me, another about 2 miles away which killed a man, and one spin-up which they never looked into a half mile down the road (credible witnesses I spoke to later who never reported it). I was staying in a shack up in the hills at the time with only a single-wide available for refuge. Huge tall trees all around me. Wind gusts estimated at 70. Dime-sized hail by the buckets hitting the tin roof so loud you couldn't hear yourself yell (I know because I tried it) Wasn't sure I was going to make it. At one point the weather radio had 3 tornado warnings being interrupted by new tornado warnings, cutting them off. Never seen a day like that here ever, and I'm 63.

 

[locomusic01]

Yep on upstate SC. I had 2 tornadoes hit within about a mile of me, another about 2 miles away which killed a man, and one spin-up which they never looked into a half mile down the road (credible witnesses I spoke to later who never reported it). I was staying in a shack up in the hills at the time with only a single-wide available for refuge. Huge tall trees all around me. Wind gusts estimated at 70. Dime-sized hail by the buckets hitting the tin roof so loud you couldn't hear yourself yell (I know because I tried it) Wasn't sure I was going to make it. At one point the weather radio had 3 tornado warnings being interrupted by new tornado warnings, cutting them off. Never seen a day like that here ever, and I'm 63.

Well that's terrifying. Glad you came through unscathed! I haven't checked, but I'd have to imagine this event was probably one of the more intense outbreaks on record in SC (other contenders that come to mind are 3/20/1875, 2/19/1884, 3/28/1984 and maybe 4/30/1924).

 

[Sawmaster]

Meh. It was certtainly worrisome and absolutely memorable, but I reserve "terrifying" for more intense situations, of which I've been through several

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Edit: I always forget I can just link to the Google Maps version. Tornadoes are listed on the left (probably self-explanatory, but the +/- indicate I personally consider the tornado stronger/weaker than its official rating).

Sorry to rewind but where's the Black Zion F2?

 

[locomusic01]

Sorry to rewind but where's the Black Zion F2?

Oh damn, good catch. The way Google Maps imports kmz files is a little clunky so I had to reorganize how I structured things in Google Earth; apparently when I moved the tracks over I missed Black Zion. Which is probably totally unnecessary information lol, but anyway it should be updated now.

Edit: Just realized the satellite tornado in Tupelo also got left behind, but maybe I'll just leave that out. I'm pretty confident it was a legit satellite but not 100% certain.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

It's in but I'm like 85% sure the middle of the polygon's meant to be transparent lol



EDIT: Oh it is lol just a bit less transparent than Tupelo

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Edit: Just realized the satellite tornado in Tupelo also got left behind, but maybe I'll just leave that out. I'm pretty confident it was a legit satellite but not 100% certain.

No you should put that in. It makes the map more complete lol

 

[locomusic01]

It's in but I'm like 85% sure the middle of the polygon's meant to be transparent lol
View attachment 16881


EDIT: Oh it is lol just a bit less transparent than Tupelo

Indeed it is lol. Fixed that + added the satellite as an F? tornado.

 

[joshoctober16]

any one else notice that the track of the 2015 fairdale tornado on the DAT was majorly updated on December 7th 2022?

huh what changed?

 

[tornado examiner]

huh what changed?

It went from being practically dead straight to being much more curved matching it’s actual track irl