Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Honestly, the most convincing point of EF5 along the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado path in my opinion wasn't a house or building, but the railroad bridge over Hurricane Creek.

Yeah it's one of the few tornadoes to have deformed railroad tracks. The more I read TornadoTalk's article on it the more it's pretty clear that this thing achieved EF5 intensity in the rural areas between the two cities. I have a feeling if it occurred by itself and not part of a much larger outbreak it would've received and EF5 rating. Surveyors were simply overwhelmed from that day.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Yeah it's one of the few tornadoes to have deformed railroad tracks. The more I read TornadoTalk's article on it the more it's pretty clear that this thing achieved EF5 intensity in the rural areas between the two cities. I have a feeling if it occurred by itself and not part of a much larger outbreak it would've received and EF5 rating. Surveyors were simply overwhelmed from that day.

I've thought that pretty much since it happened, the radar signature showed a clear peak in both g2g velocities and reflectivity presentation during that period; while it was doing high-end EF4 damage while it didn't look as good on radar!

Unfortunately, achieving EF5 intensity (as in, winds over 200 MPH) and doing damage that can actually get rated EF5 are two different things, and the latter seems to have become impossible. As to whether that's a bug or a feature of the way the EF-scale is used now...

 

[TH2002]

Honestly, the most convincing point of EF5 along the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado path in my opinion wasn't a house or building, but the railroad bridge over Hurricane Creek.

Spann listed that railroad bridge as EF5 damage in one of his books (I understand he's not the most experienced damage surveyor or anything, but TBH I'll take his opinion over that of many WFO's at this point.)

Here are the areas of likely EF5 damage
Non Town/City areasView attachment 22901before of that spotView attachment 22902
View attachment 22903
note that this is just east of concord

I don't think that's likely EF5 damage since both of those are just structures that had weak foundations. The second one in particular is listed on the DAT as an EF4 DI.

That large home not mentioned in the survey text....wonder if they were told to not document it thoroughly, if at all? Maybe some sort of Vilonia-esque situation happened here?

Considering how overwhelmed the surveyors were by the sheer amount of tornadoes in the aftermath of 4/27 I doubt they missed it intentionally.

 

[TH2002]

Some more damage photos from the May 2006 Westminster, TX "F3"

Car that was wrapped around a tree and had its engine block torn out:

The home described as "borderline F3-4" by Marshall. No way to be 100% sure but likely built similarly to the one in this video that was slabbed. You can see some of the bolts here:


This one has been posted before, but some absolutely insane tree damage:

 

[Cheo]

Yeah you can make somewhat of an argument that supports EF4 intensity, albeit in my opinion gravel scouring isn’t necessarily a strong case for violent winds. I think that Rozel maintaining an EF4 rating solely from DOW measurements while the other two tornadoes were downgraded is just a major flaw in consistency with the EF scale.

Getting off topic again (tend to do that often) the tank being lofted by Rozel randomly reminded me of these photos I have from an EF3 tornado that passed near Jetmore KS on March 28, 2007. For being such a significant outbreak it is massively overshadowed, and seems to have been swept under the rug due to other events that same year (Greensburg) and years afterwards.

Anyways, here’s some photos from the Jetmore-Beeler KS EF3, starting with the tank that reminded me I even had these photos in the first place.
View attachment 22794
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The tornado managed to loft a 10,000 pound tank for a full mile before it crashed into a road reportedly leaving a giant impact mark before coming to rest.

View attachment 22796
(Edit) This same farm was also hit by another EF3 tornado from the Dodge City supercell on May 24, 2016.
View attachment 22797
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View attachment 22800View attachment 22801View attachment 22802View attachment 22803
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This tornado in my opinion was probably violent at some point, just stayed out in essentially the middle of no where. However it still managed to strip and debark trees and shrubs, kill a herd of 90 cattle (of which 20 were never found), loft large debris from a shed and a wedding book registry 30+ miles away, and scour farm fields.

As far as I know, there's only one photo of this tornado that exists, this one frame from a now lost video of the tornado. Im curious if more media of this tornado exists.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

As for Tuscaloosa I’ll always believe the tornado was without question EF5 intensity as it passed through Concord and Pleasant Grove. Damage in both areas was very upper-echelon, with vegetation damage well on par with the 4 other EF5’s that day along with wind-rowing, grass scouring, and multiple homes practically disappearing with debris granulated into fragments. Construction quality may not have supported that rating, but EF5 winds were undoubtedly present. Here’s just some photos starting with Concord:





Rows of homes on both sides of Alpine Street were wiped cleanly away, along with a retail store and another business to the south with steel beams twisted and bent at those locations. Vehicles were lofted long distances, wind-rowing occurred as seen in the aerial, along with extensive tree debarking and partial ground scouring.

Pleasant Grove:






Just about every indication of EF5-level winds was present within Pleasant Grove. Grass was ripped from the ground and scoured to bare soil on hillsides, trees of all sizes were thoroughly debarked including low-lying shrubs, and numerous homes were once again swept clean.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Here’s also some aerials from Concord and Pleasant Grove along with a few additional photos

 

[TH2002]

Hmmm... the more I look at the Tuscaloosa tornado on the DAT, the less impressed I am with the quality of the survey in the Pleasant Grove area. I'm aware that a good chunk of the homes in Pleasant Grove were unanchored, sitting on block foundations, or both, but overall there are very few DI's considering the number of structures that were impacted there. Of course, in the context that this tornado happened during the Super Outbreak I have to cut the surveyors some slack considering just how much surveying there was to do, but if the Tuscaloosa tornado had happened as part of a smaller, more localized outbreak, this kind of surveying would pass as lazy and unacceptable.

 

[pohnpei]

Some more damage photos from the May 2006 Westminster, TX "F3"

Car that was wrapped around a tree and had its engine block torn out:

The home described as "borderline F3-4" by Marshall. No way to be 100% sure but likely built similarly to the one in this video that was slabbed. You can see some of the bolts here:
View attachment 22922

This one has been posted before, but some absolutely insane tree damage:

Some of the damage was really impressive of Westminster

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Hmmm... the more I look at the Tuscaloosa tornado on the DAT, the less impressed I am with the quality of the survey in the Pleasant Grove area. I'm aware that a good chunk of the homes in Pleasant Grove were unanchored, sitting on block foundations, or both, but overall there are very few DI's considering the number of structures that were impacted there. Of course, in the context that this tornado happened during the Super Outbreak I have to cut the surveyors some slack considering just how much surveying there was to do, but if the Tuscaloosa tornado had happened as part of a smaller, more localized outbreak, this kind of surveying would pass as lazy and unacceptable.
View attachment 22946

Well Vilonia was part of a smaller, more localized outbreak.....

This aerial reminds me of that one neighborhood in Vilonia with extreme wind-rowing.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Some more damage photos from the May 2006 Westminster, TX "F3"

Car that was wrapped around a tree and had its engine block torn out:

The home described as "borderline F3-4" by Marshall. No way to be 100% sure but likely built similarly to the one in this video that was slabbed. You can see some of the bolts here:
View attachment 22922

This one has been posted before, but some absolutely insane tree damage:

Westminster no doubt was an F5, problem is it occurred at the height of the La Plata controversy. Really, this thing is almost as bad as Vilonia, if not moreso in terms of a lowball rating.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Since we're on the topic of Tuscaloosa again I might as well bring up this old thread:

Which tornado do you think deserved an EF-5 rating?

The Westminster, TX tornado of 2006 did incredible ground scouring and automobile damage, actually tearing out axles and engines in some cases, but somehow was slapped with an F3 rating: This link has some photos of the car damage...

talkweather.com

Tuscaloosa also threw a coal car really far and did massive forest damage in the 40 or so miles between the two cities:




This write-up on it has lots of good photos:

Was the Tuscaloosa Tornado an EF5? Examining Aerial Damage Photographs

□ The tornado that left a streak of devastation through Tuscaloosa and the suburbs of Birmingham during the 2011 Super Outbreak has become one of the most well-known tornadoes in history. It became…

extremeplanet.wordpress.com

 

[wolfywise]

I'm going to share what I found as I was going through YouTube watching videos. I found this fascinating collection of tornado footage that I think you guys might like.

I'd personally caution against linking anything from that channel. Its a shameless content farm that recent made a couple of "documentaries" that just ripped stuff from other docs and such. If there's anything of value worth salvaging I say take it yourself for archival purposes and help get the channel removed.

Wasn't sure if this is "on-topic" enough for this thread but since I'm conveniently in the middle of dealing with family drama half an hour before the New Year I'm just gonna throw this out there: Is anyone else sick and tired of crap from the "hypothetical tornadoes wiki" clogging up their search results whenever trying to do research on actual tornadoes? I kinda just ignored it at first but it's becoming more and more difficult to do so, especially since these ridiculously unrealistic "hypothetical tornadoes" are in every freaking country now. Doing research on international tornadoes in particular is often already difficult enough due to the language barrier, and becomes even harder when half the results you get now pertain to the "2062 German Robloxia tornado outbreak" with 30 F5's, two F6's and an F7 rather than results pertaining to the actual tornado you're trying to do research on. Anyhow, rant over lol.

As a former staff member of that wiki, we actually sent several emails to google asking to have our place in search results moved farther down. It wouldve hurt discovery, but we ourselves didn"t like that the site kept burying research materials when trying to google. Eventually we gave up and just started plastering disclaimers on everything.

 

[TH2002]

Some of the damage was really impressive of Westminster
View attachment 22955View attachment 22956View attachment 22957

If I'm not mistaken, the home on Highway 531 in the last photo is the "borderline" home in Marshall's survey. I believe the main reason he went F3 is that a vehicle at the residence remained relatively unmoved, though keep in mind it was inside an attached garage that potentially shielded it from the winds somewhat, and in addition it's possible that the tornado's strongest winds didn't impact the garage at all. It's certainly not like Newnan where vehicles remained unmoved (and in some cases, undamaged) in the open driveways of slider homes. Plus, since this damage from the Powderly tornado in Nov. 2022 was given an EF4 rating it makes me wonder why the Westminster house wasn't rated F4:

And TBH, I don't think that one house in particular was the most violent home damage in Westminster to begin with. There were multiple homes that got completely slabbed, including one that was plausibly well-built, that seemingly went completely unsurveyed.

 

[TH2002]

I'd personally caution against linking anything from that channel. Its a shameless content farm that recent made a couple of "documentaries" that just ripped stuff from other docs and such. If there's anything of value worth salvaging I say take it yourself for archival purposes and help get the channel removed.

As a former staff member of that wiki, we actually sent several emails to google asking to have our place in search results moved farther down. It wouldve hurt discovery, but we ourselves didn"t like that the site kept burying research materials when trying to google. Eventually we gave up and just started plastering disclaimers on everything.

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record regarding YouTube at this point, but content farms like that channel are the kind of content Google actually wants on their platform. And considering how poorly they run YT, no surprise that they would ignore repeated requests to move that wiki's search results down.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So from TornadoTalk: the full Frankfort article should be done by Wednesday. Part 8 of 11 is out now. They're now working on the next part of their 1974 project, which is Guin, AL. So looks like we'll finally get some answers on this thing.

 

[TH2002]

One of the most intriguing and mysterious tornado outbreaks of the 20th century is the July 5, 1988 outbreak. This event resulted in at least 18 tornadoes across Montana, North Dakota, Alberta and Saskatchewan, though the actual total may be higher considering how remote much of this region is. Montana in particular was struck by three tornadoes rated F3, all of which occurred within about 10 miles of each other. This was potentially an unprecedented event for the state, though none of them left a visible scar on satellite imagery as far as I can tell, and very little information is available.

 

[csx1985]

Yeah it's one of the few tornadoes to have deformed railroad tracks. The more I read TornadoTalk's article on it the more it's pretty clear that this thing achieved EF5 intensity in the rural areas between the two cities. I have a feeling if it occurred by itself and not part of a much larger outbreak it would've received and EF5 rating. Surveyors were simply overwhelmed from that day.

I completely agree as I’m familiar with the same article. Chapman and Smithville both did significant damage to railroad tracks. But what the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham tornado did to the Hurricane Creek trestle is unprecedented.

The story regarding the deaths on Alpine Street in Concord are some of the most heartbreaking that I have ever read.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Since the 50th anniversary of 4/3/74 is coming up and TornadoTalk is doing some articles on it I figured to try and ignite some discussion on it again. Anyways, photos.

The Parker City, Indiana F4. The 2nd photo I'm pretty sure I've seen doctored versions of somewhere:





Monroe Central School:



Depauw, Indiana. Pics of the tornado itself, it lacked a condensation funnel for most of its path, very strange looking:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

More DePauw:






Damage from it. First 2 are a house that was slammed down onto a cow:



Car damage & debris from mobile homes that were tossed several hundred yards & destroyed. A woman was actually in the car when tossed and somehow survived: