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I’ve said this before, but estimating wind speed based on spiral markings is complete and utter pseudoscience. Unfortunately, Dr. Fujita used this method for some of his ratings, namely Goessel and Xenia. Both of those have undeserved reputations for being remarkably violent because of this. In reality, there wasn’t much that was really remarkable about them at all. Both would be rated EF4 today.

Oh and I know this is blasphemy, but I take Plainfield’s F5 rating with a healthy dose of skepticism. I mean come on it was based on CORN! Not removal of grass, topsoil, or any typical type of scouring that is known to be associated with violent tornadoes. I do not buy it.Yes, Fujita revolutionized the field, but people need to stop taking his old studies as gospel. Some of his methods and calls do not hold up to modern-day scrutiny.
Out of curiosity, was spiral markings used as wind speed estimates once considered reliable, and only now since we have much better methods of measuring tornado intensity it looks foolish in retrospect? Fujita was also big on photogrammetry, correct? Has this also been proven to be pseudoscience?
Concerning Plainfield, I thought it did cause some ground scouring as well, not just rip up cornstalks, but I'd have to dig up damage pics of it again.
 

buckeye05

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Out of curiosity, was spiral markings used as wind speed estimates once considered reliable, and only now since we have much better methods of measuring tornado intensity it looks foolish in retrospect? Fujita was also big on photogrammetry, correct? Has this also been proven to be pseudoscience?
Concerning Plainfield, I thought it did cause some ground scouring as well, not just rip up cornstalks, but I'd have to dig up damage pics of it again.
It’s not that modern surveying techniques have rendered use of spiral markings useless, it’s that it was useless from the very beginning. I am in no way a mathematician (quite the opposite), but it was based on the concept that one could somehow calculate wind speed based on shapes left on the ground. However, for reasons that are over my head conceptually, it turns out that this is impossible and always has been. It was considered legitimate at the time though if that’s what you’re asking.

Regarding Plainfield, yeah it supposedly removed some topsoil, but that was in a farm field. That makes it much less conclusive. Dirt in farm fields is not as packed down due to the fact they are plowed yearly, and the dirt doesn’t have a solid layer of vegetation over it. Ground scouring is only useful as contextual evidence of a violent tornado when it occurs in grassy areas where the soil isn’t already exposed to begin with.

Regarding photogrammetry, I’m not sure what the consensus is these days. I’ve never heard doubt cast upon it, but you don’t really hear much about it anymore either.
 
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Peter Griffin

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Bertie County NC tornado officially rated EF3. That is a powerful tornado in general but especially one spawned from a tropical system.



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Some other damage pics from the Harper KS F4 tornado.
7c4c3105e395a7d9.png
This car may have been thrown for 750 yards
5422d8210e6526fc.png
some dismembered car body parts
be9aeec65f49442.png
debarked tree
-4bf6a316e3e7c729.png
 
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The Seward NE F4 occurred on 6/13/2001 did some really horrible car damage.
These cars were hurled more than 300 metres from where they were parked, most had their engines torn out or debris impaled,some of them left unrecognizable.Tractors, harvesters and other heavy machinery was tossed around and left in mangled heaps.
2ee9779ad46b2492a3fa2acfdbf4a201.jpg
7a69c010fc2e438b70ff8df845e5bd58.jpg10e79af2dc969ec6dca4177485231195.jpgIMG_20200807_033732.jpgIMG_20200807_033758.jpg-57de000af7abcc9ce3cc329b7b6e5961.jpg-190676a1c12b4373160698ea2b5242be.jpgb63c8067ec6a16d9ed064765c91183e.jpgIMG_20200807_033812.jpg
 

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All right I almost forget this one,Madill OK EF2 this year did some stunning car damage.These cars were thrown at least 100 yards away with no ground contact,one of them only left axle and a tyre,some ground scouring could also be found.One fatality was found in these cars.Since these car damage were done before the tornado entered the town,how could a yet fully condensed funnel did this?
54c89e523d7b9d80.png
a6c5f6e5032257f.png2252567d8178a824.png
 
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Some more Brandenburg pics:
Brandenburg 1.jpg

Brandenburg 2.jpg
Destroyed radio station:
Brandenburg 3.jpg
These next 2 pics are of mangled cars thrown hundreds of yards lying amongst partially scoured grass:
Brandenburg 4.jpgBrandenburg 5.jpg
Remains of a mobile home:
Brandenburg 6.jpg
A house was swept away here, and according to the description all the grass was was scoured away from this area onward:
Brandenburg 7.jpg

Swept away house or farm shed with possible ground scouring, hard to tell with the black and white photography:
Brandenburg 8.jpg
These last 2 pics are of objects impaled in wood (at least the first one is). Not sure if the second image the tires are impaled in the wood or it's just a quirk of the angle but if they are that's extremely impressive.


Brandenburg .JPGbrandenburg12.JPG
 
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buckeye05

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Some more Brandenburg pics:

View attachment 4238View attachment 4239
Destroyed radio station:
View attachment 4240
These next 2 pics are of mangled cars thrown hundreds of yards lying amongst partially scoured grass:
View attachment 4241View attachment 4242
Remains of a mobile home:
View attachment 4243
A house was swept away here, and according to the description all the grass was was scoured away from this area onward:
View attachment 4244

Swept away house or farm shed with possible ground scouring, hard to tell with the black and white photography:
View attachment 4245
These last 2 pics are of objects impaled in wood (at least the first one is). Not sure if the second image the tires are impaled in the wood or it's just a quirk of the angle but if they are that's extremely impressive.
View attachment 4246

View attachment 4247
The object in the tree is a curtain rod with the curtain still attached irrc.

Also some major grass scouring is evident in the photo third from the bottom. Never noticed until now for some reason, probably due it being in black and white.
 
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Some crazy debarking and tree damage in general was left behind after the 1899 New Richmond, WI F5.
View attachment 4073

Some more impressive pics of New Richmond:
The first 2 are panoramas of the area, both were likely taken a few days after moderate cleanup but the scale of devastation is clear in both:
new-richmond-tornado-damage-1899.pngAryjmf3.jpg

At left, remains of a brick building where a dozen people were killed in the basement. At right, view of debarked trees and flattened buildings in the center of town.

NR3.png

At left, the remains of the Nicollet Hotel, once a large, three-story brick building. The tornado hurled a 3,000 Ib. safe an entire city block and it is clearly visible at the bottom center of the photograph. At right, closer view of the swath of F5 damage through the northern side of New Richmond.
NR4.png
 
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The 1919 Fergus Falls, Minnesota tornado is another tornado that often isn't talked about as much. It did some pretty impressive damage, the most notable being a 3-story hotel that was completely leveled.

1. The Grand Hotel before the tornado:

Grand Hotel 1.png

After:

Grand Hotel 2.png

The debris-filled Lake Alice:

Grand Hotel 3.png

A bunch more photographs can be found here: https://www.weather.gov/fgf/1919_06_22_FergusFallsTornado
 
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Mike S

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the umbrella advertising lead-based paint is an eye catcher!
 
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The object in the tree is a curtain rod with the curtain still attached irrc.

Also some major grass scouring is evident in the photo third from the bottom. Never noticed until now for some reason, probably due it being in black and white.
Have you ever seen this photograph? Is it of the Brandenburg tornado or another tornado that occurred in Kentucky or Indiana on April 3, 1974?

Twister.jpg
 
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Found some really high quality photographs from the 1953 Flint-Beecher F5. The damage path was, or at least the core of it, was very narrow and the distance between complete destruction and things basically untouched is pretty startling.
Homes in the F5 contour:
FlintBeecherMIJune1953F5.jpeg
Note the homes essentially untouched in the background
FlintMI1953F5(3).jpeg
FlintBeecherMI53housedamage.jpeg
Some vehicles
FlintMI1953vehicel(2).jpeg
FlintMIvehicle(3).jpeg
FlintMI1953vehicle(2).jpeg
FlintBeecherMI1953vehicle.png
Can't quite tell if this is a vehicle or not. Regardless, it was mangled
FlintBeecher1953vehicle2.jpg


The photos above are taken from both the Detroit Public Library digital collection as well as from the Flint Public Library digital collection.

This link also collects the photos from the Time-Life series and it's quite extensive:
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/1953-flint–beecher-tornado/m0ll44p9

I can remember some time ago when a lot of the photos from the Time-Life series were available online. I believe the 1955 Udall tornado was photographed extensively as a part of the series as well and those pictures, which were awesome, have disappeared off the internet. Massive bummer, honestly.
 
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Unfortunately, the vegetation damage the tornado caused wasn't really a focus of most photographers at the time but there are a few pictures that indicate it was on the level or worse than the other F5's recorded in the general region
FlintMI1953tree(2).jpeg
FlintMI1953treedamage.jpg
Again, note the narrow transition zone
FLintMI1953tree.jpeg

Courtesy of the Detroit Public Library digital collection and the Midland County Historical Society
 
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Yup, that was me! I think that video was from Tornado Video Classics. It's validating to see that there are so many people interested in Pampa 1995, ha. I wonder if the Tornado Talk page was created by someone I talked to back in the day, they definitely seem to have put a lot of effort into their research.

Interesting that the Pampa event does seem to differ a little from the others. As I recall this was not necessarily a low precipitation environment and the storm definitely was capable of producing larger tornadoes, it also completely lacked a rope stage and didn't live particularly long. Of course the latter part probably has a lot to do with the formation of that exact larger tornado occurring right next to it.
The more I think about it, I'm not sure I'd classify Pampa as a 'drillbit' tornado as its circulation was way wider than the narrow funnel you see on tapes, due to the vast amounts of debris whirling around it, it was more an instance of the tornado's core being visible which doesn't happen all that often. Really makes me wonder what would have been filmed if Smithville, Hackleburg or various other EF5 tornadoes of today had widely visible cores...
 

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Have you ever seen this photograph? Is it of the Brandenburg tornado or another tornado that occurred in Kentucky or Indiana on April 3, 1974?

View attachment 4274
I have seen this pic and it’s a bit of a mystery. Some suggest that it was the Louisville tornado, but confirmed photos and videos of that tornado show a narrower, more wispy-looking tornado. However, eyewitnesses to the Brandenburg tornado described it as a large gray cylinder. The above photo looks more consistent with that description. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say that this photo is of the Brandenburg tornado. Far from positive on that though.
 

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Sorry to go back to old topics but New Richmond and Fergus Falls were extremely violent tornadoes, and were likely the most intense ever documented in each of the respective states they occurred in.

New Richmond almost entirely swept away a large residential area of town (a previous poster already showed pictures of this), carried a safe weighing over 1 ton a full block, and leveled/partially swept away a large multi-story hotel.

Fergus Falls may have been even more violent. It completely debarked trees, swept away a train station, and even ripped railroad tracks from the ground at one location. That is VERY impressive. In addition, large and well-built homes were swept completely away in residential areas of town, with the the ground being pretty much swept clean of debris. Such a clean sweep in such a densely populated area is pretty remarkable. This is visible in the background of the panorama below, though you have to enlarge it to see. It's easy to miss because of the lack of debris, but check out the large the completely wiped clean foundations where large homes once were.
Fergusfallsmin1919.jpg


Oh and Flint was pretty monstrous too. Maybe not quite as impressive as the other two mentioned above due to all the photos showing poor foundation construction, but again, very impressive given the population/building density.
 
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I have seen this pic and it’s a bit of a mystery. Some suggest that it was the Louisville tornado, but confirmed photos and videos of that tornado show a narrower, more wispy-looking tornado. However, eyewitnesses to the Brandenburg tornado described it as a large gray cylinder. The above photo looks more consistent with that description. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say that this photo is of the Brandenburg tornado. Far from positive on that though.
I saw an FB page proclaiming it to be the Kennard, IN tornado but I doubt it, I think it's of Brandenburg due to the hilly topography, as Indiana is much more flat. On the other hand, I thought Brandenburg was rain-wrapped for much of its path, but maybe I read wrong.
 
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