Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I've also got a few other fairly high-quality photos of blown-away homes mixed in with the rest of my stuff, and it's pretty impressive that some of them come from totally opposite ends of the path (Perry Co, MO and Owensville/Princeton, IN, which is like 130+ miles).

And yeah, that mud spatter (for lack of a better word) is something I always look for photos and/or descriptions of in high-end events. You still see it occasionally in weaker twisters given the right conditions, but for the most part I find it to be a pretty reliable indicator of a violent tornado. Especially when you get that lumpy kinda texture indicative of a bunch of ground-up vegetation/granulated debris mixed in with it.

What immediately comes to mind to me is talking with a survivor from Bridge Creek and listening to him describe waking up and feeling like he'd been transported to Mars. Not trying to promote my own stuff or whatever, but I just think the whole phenomenon is fascinating (in a horrifying kind of way):



I can't seem to find them right now for some reason, but there are some great photos from Andover '91 that show that kind of thick, widespread mud spatter too.



I assume such a sharp and sudden deviation was probably caused by downbursts (areas north and west of the track apparently thought they'd been in the tornado because the winds were so strong), although two other undocumented tornadoes about 45 miles to the southeast also seemed to wanna turn right (paths are rough based on limited info):

Is this the Andover pic you're looking for?

 

[locomusic01]

Is this the Andover pic you're looking for?

View attachment 21177

Yup, that's one of them. I believe that's the entrance to the McConnell AFB hospital. Other photos from the same general area also show mangled vehicles and other structures totally plastered with mud.

 

[locomusic01]

I bet that there are some photos from the hardest hit area but hidden somewhere in a library

I'm certain they're out there somewhere. Various newspapers reported on people from Omaha, Tekamah and other nearby towns and cities rushing to Herman to take pictures, which they used to set up exhibitions for "views of the great cyclone." At least some of them had the decency to do it for charity lol

I'd expect someone probably got good shots of the worst damage, even if not intentionally.

Incidentally, those exhibitions proved to be especially popular because, prior to Herman, the conventional wisdom was that this area of Nebraska had never had a real "cyclone" and was effectively immune to them. For.. reasons, I guess? I love how almost every area that hasn't had a tornado in a while seems to come up with reasons for why they're magically protected from them.

(Looking at you, Topeka.)

 

[TH2002]

The 2013 Moore tornado is by no means an overlooked or underrated event, but here are a few things about it that I do believe are a bit overlooked:

Much like the Joplin tornado, the Moore tornado very likely reached EF5 intensity within five minutes of touching down. Whilst still in Newcastle, the tornado struck the Eagle Wings Ranch at EF1 intensity and subsequently entered a period of explosive intensification; half a mile down the path, a cluster of newly built homes along NW 35th Terrace sustained a direct hit. Some of the homes here were still under construction, but of the ones that were completed, one was completely leveled and another was slabbed. The slabbed home was not surveyed and thus left at 200MPH EF4, although ground level photos from the other home (likely built very similarly) showed pretty extensive foundation bolting. Some ground scouring could also be seen in fields immediately to the northeast of the homes:


Crossing the Canadian River into Cleveland County, the tornado weakened as it struck the I44 Speedway and a few homes at EF3 intensity, before explosively intensifying yet again as it struck more homes along S Drexel Avenue and S May Avenue. The tornado is again listed as being at very high-end EF4 intensity at this location, which I don't think is horribly unreasonable given most of the homes in this area were not swept clean, but the contextual damage had all the hallmarks of an extremely high-end tornado. Extensive ground scouring occurred, debris from the homes was finely granulated, and large trees were snapped and/or completely debarked. According to the surveyor who took this picture, some of the objects among the debarked trees here are the remains of one or more mutilated vehicles:

One home was indeed swept clean in this area, though the construction was apparently somewhat questionable, so a 200MPH EF4 rating was applied. The owners survived but had to be hospitalized:

The tornado would continue at EF4+ intensity as it essentially paralleled SW 149th Street, scouring the ground and leveling homes (sweeping away one poorly constructed home in the process) until it reached the Orr Family Farm/Celestial Acres area, where I personally believe the storm reached peak intensity. Regardless of construction quality, winds were likely well into the EF5 range as the area was reduced to a barren, muddy wasteland, with the aftermath photos encompassing some of the most impressive tornado damage I have ever seen.

Although the tornado's strength may have begun to fluctuate slightly past the Orr Family Farm, EF5 intensity (at least in my opinion) was likely maintained from there all the way to Moore Medical Center. Immediately east of Briarwood Elementary, the tornado would claim its first fatalities, and two well-built homes were rated EF5. Numerous other homes were swept away, and many more were leveled as entire neighborhoods were completely obliterated near the elementary schools. All but two of the tornado's fatalities occurred in the area between Briarwood Elementary and Moore Medical Center, and even most of those were concentrated at and near Plaza Towers Elementary.

Despite the extremely violent damage that occurred at and near Plaza Towers, construction flaws at the school itself and a number of the surrounding homes later led to the entire scene being downgraded to EF4. While it is true that most of the homes surrounding Plaza Towers were secured to their foundations with cut nails rather than bolts, at least one was indeed properly anchored per the DAT, which makes me further believe winds were still well into the EF5 range there.

The tornado finally weakened slightly after striking the Moore Medical Center (a row of four well-built brick homes near the medical center were rated EF5) but continued to cause additional pockets of EF5 damage as more well-built homes were swept away in eastern Moore.

 

[UK_EF4]

The 2013 Moore tornado is by no means an overlooked or underrated event, but here are a few things about it that I do believe are a bit overlooked:

Much like the Joplin tornado, the Moore tornado very likely reached EF5 intensity within five minutes of touching down. Whilst still in Newcastle, the tornado struck the Eagle Wings Ranch at EF1 intensity and subsequently entered a period of explosive intensification; half a mile down the path, a cluster of newly built homes along NW 35th Terrace sustained a direct hit. Some of the homes here were still under construction, but of the ones that were completed, one was completely leveled and another was slabbed. The slabbed home was not surveyed and thus left at 200MPH EF4, although ground level photos from the other home (likely built very similarly) showed pretty extensive foundation bolting. Some ground scouring could also be seen in fields immediately to the northeast of the homes:
View attachment 21183

Crossing the Canadian River into Cleveland County, the tornado weakened as it struck the I44 Speedway and a few homes at EF3 intensity, before explosively intensifying yet again as it struck more homes along S Drexel Avenue and S May Avenue. The tornado is again listed as being at very high-end EF4 intensity at this location, which I don't think is horribly unreasonable given most of the homes in this area were not swept clean, but the contextual damage had all the hallmarks of an extremely high-end tornado. Extensive ground scouring occurred, debris from the homes was finely granulated, and large trees were snapped and/or completely debarked. According to the surveyor who took this picture, some of the objects among the debarked trees here are the remains of one or more mutilated vehicles:

One home was indeed swept clean in this area, though the construction was apparently somewhat questionable, so a 200MPH EF4 rating was applied. The owners survived but had to be hospitalized:

The tornado would continue at EF4+ intensity as it essentially paralleled SW 149th Street, scouring the ground and leveling homes (sweeping away one poorly constructed home in the process) until it reached the Orr Family Farm/Celestial Acres area, where I personally believe the storm reached peak intensity. Regardless of construction quality, winds were likely well into the EF5 range as the area was reduced to a barren, muddy wasteland, with the aftermath photos encompassing some of the most impressive tornado damage I have ever seen.

Although the tornado's strength may have begun to fluctuate slightly past the Orr Family Farm, EF5 intensity (at least in my opinion) was likely maintained from there all the way to Moore Medical Center. Immediately east of Briarwood Elementary, the tornado would claim its first fatalities, and two well-built homes were rated EF5. Numerous other homes were swept away, and many more were leveled as entire neighborhoods were completely obliterated near the elementary schools. All but two of the tornado's fatalities occurred in the area between Briarwood Elementary and Moore Medical Center, and even most of those were concentrated at and near Plaza Towers Elementary.

Despite the extremely violent damage that occurred at and near Plaza Towers, construction flaws at the school itself and a number of the surrounding homes later led to the entire scene being downgraded to EF4. While it is true that most of the homes surrounding Plaza Towers were secured to their foundations with cut nails rather than bolts, at least one was indeed properly anchored per the DAT, which makes me further believe winds were still well into the EF5 range there.

The tornado finally weakened slightly after striking the Moore Medical Center (a row of four well-built brick homes near the medical center were rated EF5) but continued to cause additional pockets of EF5 damage as more well-built homes were swept away in eastern Moore.

Thank you for making this post. I still can't quite believe that the Moore tornado even happened. Everything from the videos to the radar to the damage is crazy, terrifying and quite frankly horrific. It's hard for me to wrap my head around something with winds so strong as to do this much destruction. Definitely one of the most violent tornadoes we have record of.

 

[Oakhurst_Wx]

Sorry to double post, but have you seen any photos that show clear-cut debarking from the Tri-State Tornado? Since the storm was obviously extremely violent I find it highly improbable the tornado didn't debark any trees, yet have never seen any definitive photos of such. Attached a couple that I suspect show debarked trees, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Two from Griffin




One from an unknown location somewhere in the path

 

[Marshal79344]

Here's some higher quality tornado-related images that I found from the HistoricImages archive that I felt were worth sharing:

Here are two images of the home that was obliterated and swept away near the start of the path of the first of the big three tornadoes on 2/21/1971. This damage occurred very close to the town of Delhi, and multiple fatalities were recorded in the area.




This was from the same tornado but was taken somewhere in Mississippi



Various scenes from Worcester




Howe, OK after a devastating tornado on May 5th, 1961



A home that was swept away by the 1964 Wichita Falls Tornado



An aerial of Pittsfield, OH after the final tornado spawned from the longest-lived supercell on Palm Sunday 1965 struck the small town directly

 

[Marshal79344]

Here's some more

An aerial of a subdivision in Toledo, OH that got decimated on Palm Sunday 1965



A farm that got utterly vaporized near Primrose, NE from the violent tornado on May 8th, 1965



A view taken from inside Primrose



Higher-quality aerials of the damage caused by the 1967 St. Louis Tornado





The destroyed town of Hazlehurst, MS after the F4 tornado of January 23rd, 1969



Here's some other photos that I found, albeit not from HistoricalImages:

Looking straight into the damage path of the 1953 Flint-Beecher Tornado



The scar left behind by a tornado that passed near Coffeeville, MS on April 5th, 1936. This is likely the tornado that immediately preceded the catastrophic Tupelo Tornado only an hour later. It's crazy to me that I've managed to find a tornado scar from 87 years ago.



Tree damage from the Tupelo Tornado as it passed north of Red Bay, AL



The scar of an F3 tornado that occurred on January 1st, 1942 near McIntosh, Alabama (look at the top of the image)

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

The 2013 Moore tornado is by no means an overlooked or underrated event, but here are a few things about it that I do believe are a bit overlooked:

Much like the Joplin tornado, the Moore tornado very likely reached EF5 intensity within five minutes of touching down. Whilst still in Newcastle, the tornado struck the Eagle Wings Ranch at EF1 intensity and subsequently entered a period of explosive intensification; half a mile down the path, a cluster of newly built homes along NW 35th Terrace sustained a direct hit. Some of the homes here were still under construction, but of the ones that were completed, one was completely leveled and another was slabbed. The slabbed home was not surveyed and thus left at 200MPH EF4, although ground level photos from the other home (likely built very similarly) showed pretty extensive foundation bolting. Some ground scouring could also be seen in fields immediately to the northeast of the homes:
View attachment 21183

Crossing the Canadian River into Cleveland County, the tornado weakened as it struck the I44 Speedway and a few homes at EF3 intensity, before explosively intensifying yet again as it struck more homes along S Drexel Avenue and S May Avenue. The tornado is again listed as being at very high-end EF4 intensity at this location, which I don't think is horribly unreasonable given most of the homes in this area were not swept clean, but the contextual damage had all the hallmarks of an extremely high-end tornado. Extensive ground scouring occurred, debris from the homes was finely granulated, and large trees were snapped and/or completely debarked. According to the surveyor who took this picture, some of the objects among the debarked trees here are the remains of one or more mutilated vehicles:

One home was indeed swept clean in this area, though the construction was apparently somewhat questionable, so a 200MPH EF4 rating was applied. The owners survived but had to be hospitalized:

The tornado would continue at EF4+ intensity as it essentially paralleled SW 149th Street, scouring the ground and leveling homes (sweeping away one poorly constructed home in the process) until it reached the Orr Family Farm/Celestial Acres area, where I personally believe the storm reached peak intensity. Regardless of construction quality, winds were likely well into the EF5 range as the area was reduced to a barren, muddy wasteland, with the aftermath photos encompassing some of the most impressive tornado damage I have ever seen.

Although the tornado's strength may have begun to fluctuate slightly past the Orr Family Farm, EF5 intensity (at least in my opinion) was likely maintained from there all the way to Moore Medical Center. Immediately east of Briarwood Elementary, the tornado would claim its first fatalities, and two well-built homes were rated EF5. Numerous other homes were swept away, and many more were leveled as entire neighborhoods were completely obliterated near the elementary schools. All but two of the tornado's fatalities occurred in the area between Briarwood Elementary and Moore Medical Center, and even most of those were concentrated at and near Plaza Towers Elementary.

Despite the extremely violent damage that occurred at and near Plaza Towers, construction flaws at the school itself and a number of the surrounding homes later led to the entire scene being downgraded to EF4. While it is true that most of the homes surrounding Plaza Towers were secured to their foundations with cut nails rather than bolts, at least one was indeed properly anchored per the DAT, which makes me further believe winds were still well into the EF5 range there.

The tornado finally weakened slightly after striking the Moore Medical Center (a row of four well-built brick homes near the medical center were rated EF5) but continued to cause additional pockets of EF5 damage as more well-built homes were swept away in eastern Moore.

Awesome post! I’ve been working on a contour map for some time now (turned out to be a bigger task than I realized) and I agree with much of your damage observations.
In my honest opinion I believe in some areas the damage was equal to that of the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, and it deserves to be ranked up there with some of the most violent of all time.
Like you said, the damage within the Plaza Towers area was incredibly violent, and due to some rather nit-picky construction flaws pointed out it was given an EF4 rating. Damage from Briarwood to just east of Plaza Towers was among some of the most violent I’ve personally ever seen.
The tornado briefly weakened to EF3-low-end EF4 strength prior to striking the 7/11, before once more reaching extremely violent status. Damage at Moore Medical Center was also incredibly high-end.
Here’s some more photos I’ve got from these areas:

Home swept away east of Briarwood Elementary, note the extreme ground scouring.

Aerial of an obliterated subdivision east of Santa Fe Avenue along with ground shots of the area.

Interestingly this home was originally given an EF5 rating before being downgraded due to the anchor bolts missing some washers.


Here’s some ground level shots of the row of swept away homes just south of Plaza Towers Elementary, all given an EF4 rating.



Finally, some pictures of the damage near the 7/11 and extreme damage to the Moore Medical Center.


These are again just some of the numerous Moore 2013 pictures I’ve got saved, I also have an aerial image that is the highest quality aerial I’ve seen from the event, it was taken from Briarwood Elementary school facing east all the way to Moore Medical Center, however the file is too large to share here unfortunately.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Interestingly this home was originally given an EF5 rating before being downgraded due to the anchor bolts missing some washers

I thought that photo came from Vilonia 2014

 

[TH2002]

Thank you for making this post. I still can't quite believe that the Moore tornado even happened. Everything from the videos to the radar to the damage is crazy, terrifying and quite frankly horrific. It's hard for me to wrap my head around something with winds so strong as to do this much destruction. Definitely one of the most violent tornadoes we have record of.

Speaking of Moore videos, this footage was uploaded a couple months ago. Pretty remarkable stuff, especially from the 5:22 mark:

I thought that photo came from Vilonia 2014

Same, but its entry on the DAT is associated with the Moore tornado. I think the photo just got accidentally mislabeled at some point.

 

[Marshal79344]

@locomusic01 I was wondering if you could show us some of the most impressive photos of damage that you have from the 3/21/1952 event? High-quality photos from that event are very scarce.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I thought that photo came from Vilonia 2014

Seen this passed around as a Vilonia photo as well, but it’s from Moore, it’s visible on the DAT.
Here’s another angle of the home:

 

[pohnpei]

Awesome post! I’ve been working on a contour map for some time now (turned out to be a bigger task than I realized) and I agree with much of your damage observations.
In my honest opinion I believe in some areas the damage was equal to that of the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, and it deserves to be ranked up there with some of the most violent of all time.
Like you said, the damage within the Plaza Towers area was incredibly violent, and due to some rather nit-picky construction flaws pointed out it was given an EF4 rating. Damage from Briarwood to just east of Plaza Towers was among some of the most violent I’ve personally ever seen.
The tornado briefly weakened to EF3-low-end EF4 strength prior to striking the 7/11, before once more reaching extremely violent status. Damage at Moore Medical Center was also incredibly high-end.
Here’s some more photos I’ve got from these areas:
View attachment 21208
Home swept away east of Briarwood Elementary, note the extreme ground scouring.
View attachment 21209
Aerial of an obliterated subdivision east of Santa Fe Avenue along with ground shots of the area.
View attachment 21210
Interestingly this home was originally given an EF5 rating before being downgraded due to the anchor bolts missing some washers.
View attachment 21211
View attachment 21212
Here’s some ground level shots of the row of swept away homes just south of Plaza Towers Elementary, all given an EF4 rating.
View attachment 21213
View attachment 21214
View attachment 21215
Finally, some pictures of the damage near the 7/11 and extreme damage to the Moore Medical Center.
View attachment 21216
View attachment 21217
These are again just some of the numerous Moore 2013 pictures I’ve got saved, I also have an aerial image that is the highest quality aerial I’ve seen from the event, it was taken from Briarwood Elementary school facing east all the way to Moore Medical Center, however the file is too large to share here unfortunately.

Some construction details of Plaza Towers school.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

While we’re mentioning violent Oklahoma tornadoes, I recently came across this photo of vehicle damage from the Chickasha tornado on May 24, 2011.

According to the post, this car originated from Chickasha and landed at the Highway 76 and Highway 9 (H.E. Bailey Turnpike) spur in Blanchard..the post says that Chickasha is 17 miles away from this location, which is pretty outrageous; however Chickasha from the location of the spur mentioned is actually more like 20 miles…even more outrageous. I’d love to see if there’s some sort of confirmation that this really happened, and how the poster was able to know the car came from Chickasha, but either way if this is actually true that’s utterly insane that a vehicle really got launched nearly 20 miles.

Here’s some more extreme vehicle damage from around this same general area from the Chickasha tornado as well.


It’s common knowledge that the Chickasha tornado was extremely violent and almost certainly reached EF5 strength, but did it really catapult a vehicle almost 20 miles? Is this even remotely possible? We may never know. Pretty good lore if you ask me.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

While we’re mentioning violent Oklahoma tornadoes, I recently came across this photo of vehicle damage from the Chickasha tornado on May 24, 2011.
View attachment 21230
According to the post, this car originated from Chickasha and landed at the Highway 76 and Highway 9 (H.E. Bailey Turnpike) spur in Blanchard..the post says that Chickasha is 17 miles away from this location, which is pretty outrageous; however Chickasha from the location of the spur mentioned is actually more like 20 miles…even more outrageous. I’d love to see if there’s some sort of confirmation that this really happened, and how the poster was able to know the car came from Chickasha, but either way if this is actually true that’s utterly insane that a vehicle really got launched nearly 20 miles.

Here’s some more extreme vehicle damage from around this same general area from the Chickasha tornado as well.
View attachment 21231View attachment 21232View attachment 21233View attachment 21234

It’s common knowledge that the Chickasha tornado was extremely violent and almost certainly reached EF5 strength, but did it really catapult a vehicle almost 20 miles? Is this even remotely possible? We may never know. Pretty good lore if you ask me.

Yeah this is a rehash of the 1998 Lawrence County, TN F5 carrying a truck 20 miles myth; probably a typo or something and it got spread via online forums.

 

[andyhb]

Just because the car “came from Chickasha” doesn’t mean it was lofted from there. I’m guessing it was driven somewhere else prior to the tornado and then was transported by the tornado from there. Still, high end vehicle damage.

 

[TH2002]

On today's episode of "Vilonia Was An EF5"...

Here's one damage point I haven't seen talked about much, either on this forum or in any official documentation. One house behind the car dealership in downtown Vilonia was completely obliterated and slabbed, with little debris left behind.



Oh, and I also found another slabbed home along Marshell Rd:



And another along Hastings Pl. And ANOTHER along Rocky Point Rd:


Oh, but [insert nit-picked excuse to why the homes weren't surveyed] so no EF5 this time...

 

[locomusic01]

@locomusic01 I was wondering if you could show us some of the most impressive photos of damage that you have from the 3/21/1952 event? High-quality photos from that event are very scarce.

Don't have much unfortunately. Years ago I was planning on doing an article on it since it's probably one of the most underrated high-end outbreaks, but I wasn't very good at research back then so I got discouraged and gave up pretty much right away lol. I've come across a few random photos here and there since then but haven't really made a concerted effort to look.

Anywho, this is from the Cooter-Cottonwood Point, MO F4 - one person was killed here:

These are from the Dierks, AR F4. I believe they're all from the same general area where seven people were killed in multiple houses that were demolished:

These are from the Fowlkes-Dyersburg, TN F3. The first is a 1942 Ford that was thrown a few hundred yards and had its body stripped from its frame:

This one's hard to make out much detail, but it's a house that was blown away in the same area:

A hangar at the Dyersburg Airport, where 27 planes were destroyed:

These are from the Henderson, TN F4:

This car was apparently thrown 300 yards:

This is on a property in Bolivar (near the beginning of the path) where four people were killed - even some of the small saplings around the main tree are debarked:

A couple poor quality shots from the Hickory Ridge-Vanndale, AR F4:

And an album of what I have from Judsonia. The first photo is the town water tower btw:

 

[locomusic01]

So here's a random one - April 27, 1971. One F4 near Columbia, KY and another shortly after near Russell Springs and Gosser Ridge. The latter tornado was rated F5 in a few different sources but has since been downgraded to F4 (probably appropriately IMO).

Turns out I didn't label most of my photos for some reason so I'm actually not sure which ones are which. I know the first two here are from the Gosser Ridge tornado:

And I know these are from the Columbia F4 (specifically a property where a husband and wife and their neighbor were killed):

The rest of these I'm not sure about:

These last two are from the South Hill - Dunbar, KY F3 (specifically a chapel a few miles northeast of Richardsville):