IIRC Roger Wakimoto did a photogrammetric analysis on the El Reno '13 tentacle monster, and I vaguely recall a couple other examples fairly recently, so it's still being used to some extent. I'm not sure how precise it is, but I'd think it would still provide useful data.
They're using it a different way though, exploring the colocation of radar and visual features to, among other things, work out what the radar is actually depicting. I haven't seen windspeed photogrammetry in papers after the eighties. I think there may have been some problems with assuming the shape of the path of the objects/features tracked (this could be reduced with a shorter segment I suppose), but I also think the rise of doppler radar was probably also a major factor.
It should've been rated F5, it probably would've been if it had occurred during the 70s or 80s.
I did one of fancy motion panorama thingies on an okay quality copy of the sheriff’s video of Pampa which is pretty notorious for the shaky handheld video, and while I wish Grazulis could’ve provided an example on how exactly he came to that 300MPH rating, I can’t say that I disagree, the motions on this are on par with Duke Evan’s video of Andover.
Yeah that exact same location has been hit 3 times....another local tornado magnet, it seems.
Fujita mentioned in his survey of the Teton-Yellowstone tornado that topsoil was scoured and plastered against the downed trees, but unfortunately no photos exist showing this as far as I know.
That's surprising; given how dense with vegetation forests are ground scouring and the like isn't something you expect.
I think it speaks to how violent that particular tornado was. Densely wooded areas usually cause enough interference/friction to prevent the absolute strongest winds from reaching ground level. Not in that case though.
I'd like to see pictures for proof, just to be sure.
In a few Tionesta photos you can see places where there was scouring sort of along the treeline, and Moshannon caused patches of scouring on some of the exposed riverbanks, but I dunno about within the forest itself. It's hard to imagine it happening in general, not just because of frictional effects but also because of the different ground cover in forested areas (among other things). I've learned not to rule out almost anything when it comes to violent tornadoes though.
I think this also happened with the High Uintas Wilderness tornado in Utah in 1993. In fact, its path is still visible and probably the best preserved tornado path in the world.
