Ivanthetornadoenthusiast
Member
I wonder if there are any damage photos from Salix 1899?
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Significant Tornado Events
- Thread starter locomusic01
- Start date
Ivanthetornadoenthusiast
Member
I think the first photo was from the Fitchburg, WI 1992.My bad! I saw your earlier post but I got distracted and ended up never coming back lol. There are actually two of them, but I don't really know what to make of them without more info. They look like they're straight out of the Flint-Worcester outbreak. They're not, but that's what they instantly call to mind for me:
andyhb
Member
Some pretty high quality aerial shots of the aftermath from the Northport AL tornado from 3/21/1932. Too bad there aren't more from other tornadoes in this outbreak.
BayouWeatherGeek
Member
The seventeenth was the forty-fifth anniversary of the sinking of the sternwheeler "Whippoorwill" by a E/F1 tornado in Pomona Lake in Kansas, which resulted in the deaths of 16 of the 60 passengers and crew onboard due to drowning. This is by far one of the most tragic examples of "wrong place at the wrong time" I've ever come across. If the "Whippoorwill" is perhaps a few minutes late in departing the dock, or the tornado moves in a more typical north/northeast direction instead of east/southeast(it did turn more to the NE after nearing the shore of Outlet Park), this event just becomes another "insignificant" weak tornado that was part of an otherwise unremarkable outbreak(in which there were eight recorded tornadoes occurring from Kansas to Michigan, the strongest being an F2 in Wisconsin though there were likely others that went unreported due to being just brief spin-ups). Instead it's the deadliest E/F1 tornado in US history.
The Tornadotalk article on this event includes some decent photos of the tornado itself along with photos of the "Whippoorwill" before and after it was struck by the twister.
www.tornadotalk.com
Article from WIBW in Topeka on the forty year anniversary of of the disaster back in 2018.
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www.wibw.com
The Tornadotalk article on this event includes some decent photos of the tornado itself along with photos of the "Whippoorwill" before and after it was struck by the twister.
“Whippoorwill”-Pomona Lake, KS F1 Tornado – June 17, 1978 – Tornado Talk
www.tornadotalk.com
Article from WIBW in Topeka on the forty year anniversary of of the disaster back in 2018.
40 years later, memories of Whippoorwill tragedy remain vivid
June 17 marks 40 years since the Whippoorwill tragedy. In 1978, a sudden tornado capsized a dinner boat on Pomona Lake in Osage County, killing 16 people.
www.wibw.com
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
So today is the anniversary of the 1944 Appalachians tornado outbreak, one of the most violent favorite anomalous outbreaks. Can't say I've been able to find anymore new or groundbreaking photos from it but I've always found it interesting that at least 100 people were killed in West Virginia by a single tornado and that the deadliest tornado in PA history is from this outbreak, not 5/31/85 like you'd think. I'd love to get more info on this outbreak; perhaps next year when the 80th anniversary rolls around TornadoTalk will have a new article on it with a bunch of never before seen damage photographs from that day.
Western_KS_Wx
Member
The intensity and longevity of the tornadoes in that outbreak is also completely anomalous for that area and the high death toll is attributed to the sheer intensity of the storms. I believe the Shinniston West Virginia F4 was potentially an F5 at one point.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Yeah it probably was F5 at some point, just didn't hit DIs capable of registering it. The only comparable event to it is 5/31/85, I think.
Western_KS_Wx
Member
One of my favorite outbreaks to research is the 2008 Super Tuesday Outbreak, mainly due in part that it’s rather poorly documented. Using aerial imagery from 2 months after the outbreak I mapped out tornado tracks from the Savannah TN-Castilian Springs TN Supercell and what I found was really surprising. I was able to find 14 undocumented areas of damage very likely from tornadoes, not including what I believe to be an absurd 7 satellite tornadoes, or either potential straight line wind damage, from the Castilian Springs-Lafayette TN EF3. Alongside these undocumented tornadoes I was also able to find that some of the tornadoes may have actually been two or more separate tornadoes, including the Castilian Springs EF3 tornado and the two EF1’s after the Savannah TN EF4. It’s also more than apparent that those long track EF1’s and the EF2 tornado were all likely much more intense than the ratings they were given. Overall I was able to locate at least 24 tornadoes from this single supercell, not including 3 weak tornadoes in MS I was unable to map and the satellite tornadoes to the Castilian Springs TN tornado. The undocumented tornadoes are color coded in gray. Here’s the kml file of the findings for you guys to check out:
Oakhurst_Wx
Member
So a few weeks ago was the 70th year anniversary of the Flint-Beecher, Michigan F5 Tornado, and as a result, a newspaper posted several high quality photos (I edited the URL to get them as high quality as possible) of the aftermath of the Flint Tornado.
AngelAndHisWx
Member
A bit late, but Saturday was the anniversary of the June 24 2003 tornado outbreak. Here’s some video from that day with several of the significant tornadoes, including Manchester:
CheeselandSkies
Member
I meant to commemorate that on the 20th anniversary Saturday but forgot as I was actively chasing the (dud of an) event in Iowa that day, getting home quite late.
Certainly one of the biggest northern Plains tornado outbreaks of the 21st century (Probably only June 17, 2010 has matched or perhaps exceeded it in some metrics).
I was a young (17) weather geek at the time. Still a few years before social media sites, YouTube, and the like took off, many chasers maintained their own websites where they wrote up chase accounts and posted their pictures. One of the ones I followed closely was by Karen Rhoden, then-wife of veteran chaser Gene Rhoden (they divorced just a few years later and she married another chaser, Jason Politte, and all of them have gone "off the radar" so to speak of the wider chase community in the ensuing years).
Anyway, she was from Scotland and relatively new to the violent weather of the Plains, so in addition to being quite well-written her accounts provided an interesting "outsider" perspective. Given what a dramatic encounter they had with the tornadoes that day, she wrote up a very long and detailed accounting of it.
She and Gene were chasing with Tim Samaras that day, where he successfully deployed one of his measurement probes in the Manchester tornado. I only just thought of it, but this exchange turns out to be some ominous foreshadowing in light of what happened to Tim 10 years later:
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Wow some of these remind me of Ruskin Heights, but way more violent.
There's another video on YT of damage aftermath from Flint and I think the same row of cars in these pics is in the video, you can see one of the cars rolled into a ball into the video.
In the pic of the cars one of them appears to be missing its engine but I'm not entirely sure.
Western_KS_Wx
Member
Here’s a collection of some damage photos from the 2013 Moore tornado around the Plaza Towers area where I believe it hit its maximum intensity in the Moore city limits. Almost incomprehensible devastation occurred and absolutely extreme damage feats were seen all throughout the area.
Entire sections of this neighborhood packed with tightly spaced brick homes was utterly destroyed. Also note the shipping container that landed near a tree in the center of both images.
Here’s some ground level shots from this area.
The tornado produced about as complete destruction as you will ever see in an urban area. The complete tree debarking, ground scouring, and debris granulation is made even more impressive by the density of the structures.
This last image is from Briarwood Elementary School:
Entire sections of this neighborhood packed with tightly spaced brick homes was utterly destroyed. Also note the shipping container that landed near a tree in the center of both images.
Here’s some ground level shots from this area.
The tornado produced about as complete destruction as you will ever see in an urban area. The complete tree debarking, ground scouring, and debris granulation is made even more impressive by the density of the structures.
This last image is from Briarwood Elementary School:
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Western_KS_Wx
Member
Now here’s some images from Plaza Towers, damage in this area really became extreme and is easily the most violent ever documented in a populated area.
Sections of the brick school were completely leveled, and the back section of classrooms was partially swept away. Note the wind-rowing of debris near that area. Entire rows of homes were completely swept clean near the school.
Incredible ground scouring and a bare concrete slab is visible. The totality of destruction is about as thorough as it gets.
Vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards, and completely mangled beyond recognition, some of which landed into the school. Trees and shrubs of all sizes were completely shredded and debarked and extensive debris granulation occurred.
More damage in the neighborhood around the school, contextual damage is among the most extreme ever photographed.
The tornado also produced some of the worst ground scouring to ever occur in an urban area in this neighborhood.
In my opinion the 2013 Moore tornado is easily the most violent tornado to ever impact an urban area, some of the damage feats are some of the most impressive ever recorded. I’ve never seen such complete destruction to neighborhoods before, the tornado quite literally pulverized the area. Joplin came close but can’t quite much the sheer violence and totality that Moore achieved. The damage in some locations is well on par with Jarrell and Bridge Creek, two tornadoes often looked at as the most violent ever recorded. I have numerous more photos from this tornado but I’ll hold off from blowing up the thread too much for now.
Sections of the brick school were completely leveled, and the back section of classrooms was partially swept away. Note the wind-rowing of debris near that area. Entire rows of homes were completely swept clean near the school.
Incredible ground scouring and a bare concrete slab is visible. The totality of destruction is about as thorough as it gets.
Vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards, and completely mangled beyond recognition, some of which landed into the school. Trees and shrubs of all sizes were completely shredded and debarked and extensive debris granulation occurred.
More damage in the neighborhood around the school, contextual damage is among the most extreme ever photographed.The tornado also produced some of the worst ground scouring to ever occur in an urban area in this neighborhood.
In my opinion the 2013 Moore tornado is easily the most violent tornado to ever impact an urban area, some of the damage feats are some of the most impressive ever recorded. I’ve never seen such complete destruction to neighborhoods before, the tornado quite literally pulverized the area. Joplin came close but can’t quite much the sheer violence and totality that Moore achieved. The damage in some locations is well on par with Jarrell and Bridge Creek, two tornadoes often looked at as the most violent ever recorded. I have numerous more photos from this tornado but I’ll hold off from blowing up the thread too much for now.
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Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Other pics from Moore 2013 that don't get lots of attention from Max's blog.
Full article.
Damage Survey of the 2013 Moore EF5 Tornado
□ On May 20, 2013, a large funnel touched down in Grady County, Oklahoma. Similar in many ways to the devastating Bridge Creek tornado of 1999, the storm travelled at a fairly slow pace and was tra…
extremeplanet.wordpress.com
Severe ground scouring and tree debarking. In some of these pics you can see the remains of a black pickup torn into pieces (note the engine in the foreground and crumpled frame in a couple pics).
Ground view of the shipping container.
Ground view of a crumpled metal tank. This thing was thrown 1.3 miles according to surveyors:
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Western_KS_Wx
Member
Yeah the vegetation damage is incredibly high-end. Here’s some more vegetation and vehicle damage. First image shows just how complete the ground scouring and tree damage was in some locations, essentially turned residential areas into a mud field.
Here’s some vehicle damage:
These two cars were thrown into a tree line near Moore cemetery, the nearest residential areas were roughly 400 yards to the south.
Cars thrown into a scoured open field and mangled, pretty sure this is near the 7-11 and Moore Medical Center. Note the completely debarked shrub.
Last image showing multiple vehicles thrown and mangled, if you look carefully you can see pieces of vehicles that were completely torn to pieces in the debris field.
Here’s some vehicle damage:
These two cars were thrown into a tree line near Moore cemetery, the nearest residential areas were roughly 400 yards to the south.
Cars thrown into a scoured open field and mangled, pretty sure this is near the 7-11 and Moore Medical Center. Note the completely debarked shrub.
Last image showing multiple vehicles thrown and mangled, if you look carefully you can see pieces of vehicles that were completely torn to pieces in the debris field.
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In a previous email correspondence with Tim Marshall I remember asking him about the homes around Plaza Towers. Many, many clean sweeps with incredible contextual damage, but he said that the homes being nailed rather than bolted prevented the damage in that area from being rated EF5.
From my understanding, NWS Norman did originally go with an EF5 rating at this location (the Plaza Towers school and surrounding neighborhoods) regardless of the construction flaws due to overwhelming contextual evidence, including the nails used to secure the walls to the foundations actually being bent towards the center of the tornado. It was with input from Marshall and others that the whole scene was eventually downgraded to EF4. The damage in the Orr Family Farm area (where I believe the tornado likely peaked in intensity) was also downgraded to EF4 for the same reason.
To think if this tornado didn't just so happen to encounter eight or so well-built homes, it would have likely gotten an EF4 rating... the ASCE's Joplin "survey" was the beginning of the end for an era of decent surveying.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Man, somehow the thought of this tornado being ranked EF4 is even more outrageous then Vilonia.
Was that Joplin "survey" the one where they said it was an EF3 at most?
Sawmaster
Member
Don't know about "3" but it wasn't upgraded to EF5 until enough people screamed about that...
(EDIT to add) I just went back and re-checked, and yes the ASCE "engineers"" rated almost all the damage as EF3 or less with only a few locations being EF4. They neither thoroughly checked every site missing many, and they totally ignored ALL contextual damage. Deeper investigatiobn proived their conclusions greviously in error, and arrangements were made to "save them face" by saying they'd just simply missed the damage.
We should have drummed these mental midgets out of our society back then, but because we didn't they're still here making the exact same kinds of errors now.
(EDIT to add) I just went back and re-checked, and yes the ASCE "engineers"" rated almost all the damage as EF3 or less with only a few locations being EF4. They neither thoroughly checked every site missing many, and they totally ignored ALL contextual damage. Deeper investigatiobn proived their conclusions greviously in error, and arrangements were made to "save them face" by saying they'd just simply missed the damage.
We should have drummed these mental midgets out of our society back then, but because we didn't they're still here making the exact same kinds of errors now.
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Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
I'd put Jarrell, Bridge Creek-Moore 1999, Smithville, El Reno 2011-Piedmont, and Moore 2013 in a list as probably the most violent of the past ~25 years in terms of totality of destruction.