Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Wow Herman was almost completely leveled. I can only see 3 standing buildings in that photo.

The tornado also picked up a new boiler standpipe (weighing either 20 or 22 tons - reports differ) and hurled it a couple blocks across town.

I've read reports that it scoured the ground and stripped a bunch of trees on farms outside of Herman, but I haven't been able to find any photos of that yet. One of the victims northwest of town was (allegedly) blown out of his basement and thrown into a field several hundred yards away.

What's really interesting is that a majority of the eyewitness accounts explicitly mention two tornadoes. I mean, you hear a lot about like "two clouds coming together" and whatnot in old-timey accounts, but some of these are pretty clear and specific. Even multiple people around Tekamah (~6.5 mi north of Herman) recounted seeing two separate tornadoes that seemed to come together as they approached the town. Still not totally sure I buy it, but who knows.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The tornado also picked up a new boiler standpipe (weighing either 20 or 22 tons - reports differ) and hurled it a couple blocks across town.

I've read reports that it scoured the ground and stripped a bunch of trees on farms outside of Herman, but I haven't been able to find any photos of that yet. One of the victims northwest of town was (allegedly) blown out of his basement and thrown into a field several hundred yards away.

What's really interesting is that a majority of the eyewitness accounts explicitly mention two tornadoes. I mean, you hear a lot about like "two clouds coming together" and whatnot in old-timey accounts, but some of these are pretty clear and specific. Even multiple people around Tekamah (~6.5 mi north of Herman) recounted seeing two separate tornadoes that seemed to come together as they approached the town. Still not totally sure I buy it, but who knows.

The giant boiler tank being thrown---Glaizer-Higgins-Woodward did that too, tossing one (along with a heavy lathe) several city blocks.
The 2 tornadoes thing.....I've read about this thing and it could've been a multivortex (Tupelo I think was reported as starting off as 2 funnels that came together) or maybe it was a Pilger or Gainesville type event that merged before striking the community.

 

[locomusic01]

Well, it's not the area I was looking for but I did find one debarking photo from Herman:

Also, has anyone ever seen this photo?

I've had it saved for so long now that I can't remember where I got it, but I know there wasn't any information on it. Anywho, it popped back into my mind a minute ago because I was searching the plat maps for the Clear Lake area (the second tornado after New Richmond) and I saw a property belonging to a "Henry Craw" that would've been within the tornado's path. Made me wonder if this could be that place, but I have no way to really know.

 

[locomusic01]

The giant boiler tank being thrown---Glaizer-Higgins-Woodward did that too, tossing one (along with a heavy lathe) several city blocks.
The 2 tornadoes thing.....I've read about this thing and it could've been a multivortex (Tupelo I think was reported as starting off as 2 funnels that came together) or maybe it was a Pigler or Gainesville type event that merged before striking the community.

Yeah, almost exactly the same size as well - right around 20 tons.

 

[TH2002]

This is pretty random, but anybody wanna hazard a guess as to what the heck the writing says in this image?

It's a photo from the Herman, NE F4 the day after New Richmond (which I badly need a larger version of) and to me it looks like "Shay & Gassard's Corner" but I dunno what that refers to so I'm wondering if I'm just reading it wrong. On a related note, having read lots of little labels and notes and journal entries and whatnot like this, I think we can debunk the idea that people had much better handwriting back in the day lol. Sometimes the writing is practically unreadable and it drives me crazy.

Looks like “Gray + Goddard’s Corner” so probably the last names of two individuals who owned the houses destroyed in the foreground. Just a guess though.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Damage from the 4/2/2006 Newbern TN F3. This was one of ~5 high-end F3s from the outbreak.

 

[buckeye05]

Damage from the 4/2/2006 Newbern TN F3. This was one of ~5 high-end F3s from the outbreak.
View attachment 17234 View attachment 17235 View attachment 17236

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel if this outbreak had happened today, we would have seen at least one EF4 rating. This was around the peak of La Plata syndrome imo. But, with that said, it would still be within the MEG area of responsibility so....

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel if this outbreak had happened today, we would have seen at least one EF4 rating. This was around the peak of La Plata syndrome imo. But, with that said, it would still be within the MEG area of responsibility so....

Marmaduke and Newbern were almost certainly both F4s. Not sure about the other HE F3s though.

 

[joshoctober16]

On a related note, I don't think I've mentioned yet that I found a few more probable tornadoes from the New Richmond event. The supercell that produced the Carnelian Lake tornado reportedly had another brief spin-up before that somewhere around White Bear Lake, which is just northeast of St. Paul.

The day before, June 11, there are reports of a massive tornado a few miles south of Bowdle, SD. One report claimed it was nearly a mile wide, but who knows. It apparently traveled quite slowly and didn't hit anything other than trees so I doubt there's much more information out there.

And on the day after New Richmond, June 13, there seems to have been a pretty powerful supercell that traveled through central Wisconsin. The first reported (likely) tornado damage occurred just south of Reedsburg, with damage also occurring between Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells. That's like 12-ish miles so they may have both been from the same tornado. There was more minor damage near Montello and Princeton but it's not clear if it was tornadic or straight-line. Finally, a fairly significant-sounding tornado touched down southwest of Berlin and traveled roughly 20 miles to the shore of Lake Butte des Morts, doing most of its damage in the area between Waukau and Omro.

Still trying to find enough info to map out the other tornadoes more accurately, but here's the Waukau-Omro one:

im courious , what are the evidence for this tornado existing since it was before the 1980?

 

[Sawmaster]

This is pretty random, but anybody wanna hazard a guess as to what the heck the writing says in this image?

I believe it's "Gray & Goddards". The first "r" is like the second and both "G"s also look the same. Never saw "Shay" spelled like that. The last word starts with "cor" and probably is "corner". My cursive is about like this so I print...

 

[locomusic01]

im courious , what are the evidence for this tornado existing since it was before the 1980?

The Waukau-Omro tornado? There are a handful of reports in newspapers and local history accounts and whatnot detailing the damage. I collected them and mapped them out using plat maps, genealogical info, etc. The track's probably not 100% accurate (especially start/end points) but should be reasonably close.

It's hard to say with 100% certainty that it was a tornado, but accounts include barns (and a few farmhouses) being destroyed and their debris being carried long distances, sheep and horses being thrown through the air and/or killed by projectiles, witnesses hearing loud roaring sounds, etc. With a couple of the other undocumented paths (Lake Elmo, for instance) there are also eyewitness accounts of people seeing funnels/"rotary motion," which lends a little more confidence.

 

[joshoctober16]

The Waukau-Omro tornado? There are a handful of reports in newspapers and local history accounts and whatnot detailing the damage. I collected them and mapped them out using plat maps, genealogical info, etc. The track's probably not 100% accurate (especially start/end points) but should be reasonably close.

It's hard to say with 100% certainty that it was a tornado, but accounts include barns (and a few farmhouses) being destroyed and their debris being carried long distances, sheep and horses being thrown through the air and/or killed by projectiles, witnesses hearing loud roaring sounds, etc. With a couple of the other undocumented paths (Lake Elmo, for instance) there are also eyewitness accounts of people seeing funnels/"rotary motion," which lends a little more confidence.

that's odd that nws don't have this listed then , also for people looking at undocumented tornadoes , look at the Coleridge event of 2014 , some weird stuff happened.

 

[locomusic01]

Looks like “Gray + Goddard’s Corner” so probably the last names of two individuals who owned the houses destroyed in the foreground. Just a guess though.

Thanks guys, that makes more sense. I know there was a family named Gray whose house was destroyed (not sure exactly where) so that's probably it.

 

[joshoctober16]

coleridge group had this (EF3 is out of frame to the left)
nws damage path compared to it.
Center paths of some tornadoes i found , seem to be 4-5? but 2 merge in a wierd way

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

that's odd that nws don't have this listed then , also for people looking at undocumented tornadoes , look at the Coleridge event of 2014 , some weird stuff happened.

The NWS doesn't have a database for tornadoes before 1950 so that is why they don't list them.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

The Waukau-Omro tornado? There are a handful of reports in newspapers and local history accounts and whatnot detailing the damage. I collected them and mapped them out using plat maps, genealogical info, etc. The track's probably not 100% accurate (especially start/end points) but should be reasonably close.

It's hard to say with 100% certainty that it was a tornado, but accounts include barns (and a few farmhouses) being destroyed and their debris being carried long distances, sheep and horses being thrown through the air and/or killed by projectiles, witnesses hearing loud roaring sounds, etc. With a couple of the other undocumented paths (Lake Elmo, for instance) there are also eyewitness accounts of people seeing funnels/"rotary motion," which lends a little more confidence.

Do you have the newspaper clipping of the Waukau-Omro tornado ?

 

[locomusic01]

Do you have the newspaper clipping of the Waukau-Omro tornado ?

I only have my notes saved but I'll see if I can find some of the stories again and post them later.

 

[locomusic01]

There are a handful of reports in newspapers and local history accounts and whatnot detailing the damage. I collected them and mapped them out using plat maps, genealogical info, etc. The track's probably not 100% accurate (especially start/end points) but should be reasonably close.

Didn't look for the Waukau-Omro stuff yet, but here's another example. Officially (meaning, per Grazulis) the New Richmond tornado family only consists of New Richmond itself + another F2 (very likely underrated) that traveled from around Stanton to Deer Park to Clear Lake. In reality, there were also two other significant tornadoes that traveled another ~32 miles combined:

Both officially undocumented paths are pretty well-attested in newspaper reports, survivor accounts, local histories, etc. For example, the local Rice Lake Chronotype runs down a whole list of damaged properties around Arland:

Not all of them appear on plat maps, but enough of them do to get a pretty good idea of the path, and going through genealogical records can fill in some more of the gaps. Other newspapers list several injuries, which also helps.

Speaking of the Rice Lake paper, it also includes a list of the dead from New Richmond. I was scanning through it quick to make sure there was nothing new, and.. yikes.

 

[locomusic01]

Okay, finally got Starlink set up here so my internet doesn't totally blow and take forever to upload photos. Here's the whole batch of TTU survey photos from Brandenburg. I'll post the Jarrell survey photos in a bit as well (although most of them are already either here or in my article).

 

[locomusic01]