Significant Tornado Events

[andyhb]

that is a single video, idk where that
Absolutely insane tornado, very high end damage/contextuals (look at the sidewalk)
though the trees have always been confusing on how they are not debarked/how some bushes are untouched
View attachment 20154View attachment 20155 list is

It's Rochelle.

 

[pohnpei]

Here’s a collage of some images I managed to dig up from one of my favorite tornadoes and outbreaks to research, the May 24, 2011 El Reno EF5 tornado. These are all in the Calumet-Interstate 40 area where the tornado first peaked, and Doppler on Wheels recorded winds in excess of 290mph. Easily some of the most extreme damage ever documented. Going to post another gallery of damage at the Cactus 117 oil rig, damage there is absolutely unreal and some of the images have likely not been seen before.

Interesting fact here:Either Bridge Creek or El Reno 11 or Red Rock reached highest velocity on radar when it was pretty much closest to radar which means the high winds in other periods for all three tornados were pretty likely higher given the fact that they all maintained high intensity for a long time.

For El Reno 11, things was particularly incredible because the place where 295mph recorded was still far away from where damage was worst in Calumet area. According to tornadotalk, the damage in 295mph area was unmatched with Us66 Rd area where drill rig damage happened. The tornado was in a rapidly intensifing stage at that time and also quickly moving away from radar.

And when tornado was moving away from Raxpol, they changed the strategy and scaned at higher level then a 201kt vrot poped out around 2103Z at over 700ft altitude! I've never seen such a high vrot velocity at such high altitude.
Tornadotalk had a very clear map for what I talked here and I think they mentioned people can share their maps with link below so there's the map they create

here's the link:https://www.tornadotalk.com/patreon-only/?redirect_to=/calumet-cactus-117-el-reno-part-i-ef5-tornado-may-24-2011/
The yellow circle represent the place where 295mph recorded and the blue circle represent the worst damage with drill rig blown away.

Combined with that nature article about tornado winds changed with height, we can vaguely imagine how insane winds downs below at this moment. But, need to remember, this was still far away from the worst damage in Calumet area! What's even more, both vrot and tds height wasn't peaked in Calumet for both KTLX and KOUN radar. It was the Pedimont area where tornado peaked on both radar (distance to radar was similar for both area). The TDS height was the highest ever observed by any radar in Peidmont area. That's insanity and I firmly believe that the tornado was of absolute extreme intensity at this time. I talked to Nelson Tucker once, we know he wrote the El Reno article on tornadotalk and they told me that all surveyors believed it was an EF5 in both Calumet and Piedmont area.


Also, I agree that El Reno 11, Bridge Creek, Moore 13 and Red Rock were among one of the strongest ever recorded.

 

[WxChristo]

You guys do know that El Reno-Piedmont shoved fabric inside the steel walls of the saferoom that the workers were hiding in.. right?

 

[WxChristo]

Also. The oil rig actually had a weight of 2.1 million pounds, not 1.9. There is this massive part which holds it in place into the ground and also suppresses anything from coming out of the ground or something (idk i dont understand oil rigs). Anyways it being there gives it an additional 200k pounds of weight. It was bent 30 degrees to the north.

You guys do know that El Reno-Piedmont shoved fabric inside the steel walls of the saferoom that the workers were hiding in.. right?

 

[pohnpei]

You guys do know that El Reno-Piedmont shoved fabric inside the steel walls of the saferoom that the workers were hiding in.. right?

It did already ripped sightly off the steel walls of saferoom. Look close to the upper middle of the Picture. I can definitely imagine this steelwall can be entirely ripped off if tornado stayed a little bit longer in this place.

 

[pohnpei]

This photo in particular:

Are these the vehicles that were hurled (with fatalities) from Interstate 40 where reportedly only pieces of the frames were recovered? That's definitely what it appears to be.

A closer look of this vehicle

 

[WxChristo]

It did already ripped sightly off the steel walls of saferoom. Look close to the upper middle of the Picture. I can definitely imagine this steelwall can be entirely ripped off if tornado stayed a little bit longer in this place.
View attachment 20179

One of those 1.5 inch cables which are buried 5 feet into the ground was also snapped. Insanely violent winds at that location, would not surprise me if they were higher than what RaxP recorded beforehand

 

[pohnpei]

Also. The oil rig actually had a weight of 2.1 million pounds, not 1.9. There is this massive part which holds it in place into the ground and also suppresses anything from coming out of the ground or something (idk i dont understand oil rigs). Anyways it being there gives it an additional 200k pounds of weight. It was bent 30 degrees to the north. View attachment 20172View attachment 20173View attachment 20174View attachment 20175View attachment 20176

I believe the oil rig was 950 short tons which was 860 tons. I once discussed this question with Nelson Tucker. He used short ton in his article.

 

[Sawmaster]

One of those 1.5 inch cables which are buried 5 feet into the ground was also snapped. Insanely violent winds at that location, would not surprise me if they were higher than what RaxP recorded beforehand

Just for fun I checked on the minimum tensile strength for 1 1/2" wire rope (cable)...
It takes at least 184,000 pounds of force for this to fail

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

The El Reno tornado was 100% at EF5 intensity in Piedmont, some of the damage there was among the most extreme I’ve ever seen and I’m going to also make an album for the images I have there too, might have to have 2 separate albums as well just because I have so many photos from that area but I firmly believe the tornado was likely just as strong in Piedmont as it was along I-40. Anyways, here’s some absolutely incredible damage photos from the Cactus 117 Oil Rig where the tornado likely hit maximum intensity. This is easily some of the most violent and impressive tornado damage ever documented.

 

[pohnpei]

The El Reno tornado was 100% at EF5 intensity in Piedmont, some of the damage there was among the most extreme I’ve ever seen and I’m going to also make an album for the images I have there too, might have to have 2 separate albums as well just because I have so many photos from that area but I firmly believe the tornado was likely just as strong in Piedmont as it was along I-40. Anyways, here’s some absolutely incredible damage photos from the Cactus 117 Oil Rig where the tornado likely hit maximum intensity. This is easily some of the most violent and impressive tornado damage ever documented.

A damage feat not mentioned a lot: This pic here in the album was a winch weighing over 150t, flipped over and sat on about 30feet top of the rig base.

 

[TH2002]

A closer look of this vehicle
View attachment 20180

That’s about as bad as it gets short of a vehicle simply never being recovered. Geez.

 

[andyhb]

Interesting fact here:Either Bridge Creek or El Reno 11 or Red Rock reached highest velocity on radar when it was pretty much closest to radar which means the high winds in other periods for all three tornados were pretty likely higher given the fact that they all maintained high intensity for a long time.

For El Reno 11, things was particularly incredible because the place where 295mph recorded was still far away from where damage was worst in Calumet area. According to tornadotalk, the damage in 295mph area was unmatched with Us66 Rd area where drill rig damage happened. The tornado was in a rapidly intensifing stage at that time and also quickly moving away from radar.
View attachment 20171
And when tornado was moving away from Raxpol, they changed the strategy and scaned at higher level then a 201kt vrot poped out around 2103Z at over 700ft altitude! I've never seen such a high vrot velocity at such high altitude.
Tornadotalk had a very clear map for what I talked here and I think they mentioned people can share their maps with link below so there's the map they create
View attachment 20181
here's the link:https://www.tornadotalk.com/patreon-only/?redirect_to=/calumet-cactus-117-el-reno-part-i-ef5-tornado-may-24-2011/
The yellow circle represent the place where 295mph recorded and the blue circle represent the worst damage with drill rig blown away.
View attachment 20182
Combined with that nature article about tornado winds changed with height, we can vaguely imagine how insane winds downs below at this moment. But, need to remember, this was still far away from the worst damage in Calumet area! What's even more, both vrot and tds height wasn't peaked in Calumet for both KTLX and KOUN radar. It was the Pedimont area where tornado peaked on both radar (distance to radar was similar for both area). The TDS height was the highest ever observed by any radar in Peidmont area. That's insanity and I firmly believe that the tornado was of absolute extreme intensity at this time. I talked to Nelson Tucker once, we know he wrote the El Reno article on tornadotalk and they told me that all surveyors believed it was an EF5 in both Calumet and Piedmont area.
View attachment 20178
View attachment 20177
Also, I agree that El Reno 11, Bridge Creek, Moore 13 and Red Rock were among one of the strongest ever recorded.

That RAXPOL scan is legitimately absurd.

 

[pohnpei]

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Welp today's 12th anniversary of 4/27/11, not sure what else about it could be posted here that hasn't been before but if anyone here has uncovered new stuff about it that is genuinely shocking or revelatory....please post it lol.

 

[ColdFront]

Welp today's 12th anniversary of 4/27/11, not sure what else about it could be posted here that hasn't been before but if anyone here has uncovered new stuff about it that is genuinely shocking or revelatory....please post it lol.

I guess I’m just interested in what kept the northern risk from verifying? Specifically the northern TN, KY, southern Ohio regions?

Was it the morning crapvection that moved through that area drained the atmosphere? Lack of forcing? Did the MCS that laid down the outflow boundary in NW Alabama cut off those areas from the warm sector?

I think had it verified you would be looking at a similar amount of aerial coverage on the same level as 4/3/74.

 

[TH2002]

While on the topic of 4/27 here are some obscure videos I felt were worth posting
Cullman:


Ringgold (this is a perfect example of those "Where's the- oh wait, that IS the tornado?!" moments):


And while this isn't exactly "obscure" FWIW here's an EF1 that occurred near Oilville, VA. Probably the furthest north Super Outbreak tornado to have been filmed. Some EF2's occurred as far north as New York, but those struck in the early morning hours of April 28 so I doubt any footage exists.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Since it was the anniversary of 4-27, some pics were shared. I don't know if this has been posted, but it's a picture of the tornado just before it entered town. The photo was taken around North Brassfield in this area.



I don't know of any other similar photo.



ETA - When I first moved to Smithville in the 70s, I lived about 1/8th of a mile further south in this subdivision. It's strange for me to look at this photo since I've probably stood in the same spot so many times and remember watching so many storms come from the same direction as a kid. We moved, and my Mom still lives on the other side of town on Seminole Road, about 1 mile North of where this last tornado traveled. She said the clean-up in Amory is really slow because the government is not helping like they did when the Smithville F5 happened.

 

[locomusic01]

So, quick New Richmond update. I finally had some time today to start plotting out all the damage points I'd collected for the Clear Lake tornado. It, uh.. did not turn out the way I expected. I'd used a handful of the hardest-hit properties to make my initial map, and with the info I had at the time, I ended up with a track (in gray below) that peaked at a little under half a mile wide near Clear Lake and gradually shrank to under a quarter-mile near Arland.

Now that I've got a bunch more data to work with, it appears this may have been a slight underestimate lol

It's kind of absurd and I'm not sure what to make of it, tbh. If all of these points really represent tornado damage, then the swath was between 1.25 and 1.5 miles wide basically the entire way from Clear Lake to Arland, with the section immediately SW of Arland maxing out at nearly 1.75 miles. I'm inclined to assume some of these markers were actually downbursts, but the consistency and intensity of the damage is pretty notable. A few of these are things like torn-off roofs, small outbuildings wrecked, etc. but most of them indicate properties that were either partially or completely destroyed.

The fact that most people saw + heard the tornado coming and had enough time to get below ground likely saved a lot of lives, but there were still more injuries than I realized. There's a brief account in Monthly Weather Review from a professor who toured the area and reported "bushes stripped of bark" and vegetation on the slopes of hills "bruised and pounded flat." Oddly, he also said there were three paths of destruction, one being above the main path and one below. I did find some info seemingly suggesting there was light/moderate damage in Clear Lake itself that may(?) have continued off to the E/ENE, but there's just not enough to draw any real conclusions.

Makes me wonder if the Deer Park tornado might've actually continued on through/beyond Clear Lake proper while this tornado was spawned by a separate supercell (maybe the one that produced Carnelian Lake?) The tracks actually line up pretty well and the timing would probably still fit. Not convinced, but who knows?

 

[buckeye05]

Significant tornado in the Virginia Beach, VA area late this afternoon. No photos of the affected area yet, but "major damage" has been reported. Also hearing of injuries, gas leaks, and boats tossed around.