Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Footage from Pampa I've never seen before, including the cycling of Pampa and Hoover tornadoes and damage aftermath:

 

[Lukester84]

Footage from Pampa I've never seen before, including damage:

incredible footage. Just goes to show that a tornado doesn’t always need to be a wedge in order for it to be a monster.

 

[andyhb]

Update on the Robinson IL/Sullivan IN tornado from 3/31 last year:

https://vxtwitter.com/NWSLincolnIL/status/1750267759240585542?t=CbqtQQ6IXDBw51ttPM9Qxw&s=19

 

[Marshal79344]

Also, put some more damage shots from the Cygnet tornado in an album so I didn't clog up the thread too much:

This link is no longer working. Can you re-upload the album?

 

[locomusic01]

This link is no longer working. Can you re-upload the album?

Not sure what all was in it, so I just grabbed everything in my Cygnet folder lol. They aren't ordered or anything (the most impressive shots are at the bottom & I'm too lazy to fix it) so lemme know if you want info on any particular photos. Hopefully the album doesn't disappear this time.

Edit: It seems like the full album doesn't load properly if you try to open it from the insert below, so here's the direct link as well.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Not sure what all was in it, so I just grabbed everything in my Cygnet folder lol. They aren't ordered or anything (the most impressive shots are at the bottom & I'm too lazy to fix it) so lemme know if you want info on any particular photos. Hopefully the album doesn't disappear this time.

Edit: It seems like the full album doesn't load properly if you try to open it from the insert below, so here's the direct link as well.

I've always found this outbreak to be a lot more impressive than most do. I know the Flint-Beecher F5 gets most of the attention due to being the only official F5 of the outbreak but really there likely at least 2 more within the 3 days of it. Temperance likely would have done F5 damage had it not tracked over Lake Erie for most of its path, and Cygnet & Worcester likely both attained F5 intensity. Remarkable how well documented this outbreak is.

 

[locomusic01]

I've always found this outbreak to be a lot more impressive than most do. I know the Flint-Beecher F5 gets most of the attention due to being the only official F5 of the outbreak but really there likely at least 2 more within the 3 days of it. Temperance likely would have done F5 damage had it not tracked over Lake Erie for most of its path, and Cygnet & Worcester likely both attained F5 intensity. Remarkable how well documented this outbreak is.

The 6/7 Arcadia, NE tornado usually gets overshadowed, but it was extremely violent as well. Tbh that whole day of the outbreak sequence probably deserves more attention. Most of the action occurred in sparsely populated areas so it doesn't necessarily look that impressive on paper, but it featured 30+ tornadoes in multiple families over a wide area (basically from NW Kansas to NE Iowa), and several of them seem to have been fairly large and intense.

If life ever decides to cooperate, I'd like to go back someday and improve/expand on my article on this event with the tons of stuff I've gathered since I originally wrote it. For that matter, I'd love to write something on 1953 as a whole. We've talked about it on here before, but what a wild year for tornadoes.

Edit: Also, this just reminded me that someone contacted me quite a while back about some old family photos from the Kings Mill F4 that followed the Flint-Beecher F5. IIRC it was a woman who said the pics were taken around the Jeddo area. I could've sworn she'd sent them to me but they aren't in my folder so I'll have to see if I can track her down again.

 

[locomusic01]

I've been working on my New Richmond article a bit and trimming out some stuff to keep the length (somewhat) manageable. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this particular section in the final version, but it's a pretty amazing story so I figured I'd share it here just in case it gets cut.

Here's the first bit:

On the opposite end of town, Henry Kane was also acutely aware of the approaching monster — though he couldn’t see it. Being completely blind, the young school board clerk had long ago learned to rely on his other senses to interpret the world around him.

While most had initially dismissed the low rumble in the distance as just another train trundling into town, Kane’s keenly honed hearing almost immediately picked up on an ominous distinction.

“A heavily laden freight train,” he explained, “produces an uneven, jarring, vibrating sound, mingled with a confused mass of lesser sounds, pitched in a higher key, having somewhat the effect of echo or overtones, the entire ensemble of sounds changing rapidly in volume and intensity.”

By contrast, the noise reverberating through New Richmond was “a dull, deep, even, sullen, grinding sound, which for five minutes grew in intensity and volume continuously along a crescendo, until it reached its stupendous climax of appalling fury as it fell upon the doomed city.”

Instinctively, he began feeling his way from room to room, calling out to alert his aging mother of the impending danger. Receiving no response, he hastened to the porch and shouted desperately in the direction of the family’s barn. Finally, his calls were answered by the sound of his mother’s hurried footfalls. She had been busy gathering eggs and tending to the chickens, wholly unaware of the calamity now speeding toward the southwest side of town.

Directing her toward the safety of the cellar, Kane paused briefly at an open window and again tuned his hearing to the cacophony of noises surrounding him.

“I could now hear a frightful roaring of enormous proportions and of unvarying intensity and volume. In the upper air above this, there was a tremendous bellowing of appalling magnitude, which gained in intensity and volume as it orchestrated up and down an irregular and variable tonal scale. From the center of the sound area there was emitted a pulsating or puffing sound, coming at regular time intervals that seemed to make the earth quiver.

“This sound would perfectly suggest the puffing in unison of a thousand locomotives, laboring up a steep grade. The heavy, pulsating puffing . . . gave the entire sound mass a rhythmical effect. It were as if nature had for a moment colleagued with Satan to condense the pent-up din and tumult of hell into one vast, discordant symphony.

“I then knew it had reached the outskirts of the city and had begun tearing the buildings to shreds. The crackling noise had now become frightful and continuous. I knew the tornado was sweeping everything in its track and was coming directly towards me.”

I didn't actually finish Henry's story apparently, but he and his mother obviously rode out the storm in the cellar. Their house was near the edge of the path and only moderately damaged, so it became one of the first places that victims started flocking to. So, not only did Henry recognize the tornado before almost anyone else (and somehow rush around to find his mom and get her to safety), but he also ended up caring for a bunch of badly injured/dying people.. all while being completely blind.

I can't even imagine how horrifying it must be to hear something like that - and to know what it is - but not be able to see it. Let alone have the presence of mind to be the one helping other people.

 

[andyhb]

One event I'd like to see more information on is 6/21/1947 in N KS and S NE. It appears to have been a somewhat similar event to the cyclic tornadic storms on days such as 6/18/1975 and 5/10/1985. Reports of twin tornadoes and at least two violent ones from near Norton KS to Holdrege NE. The setup from ERA5 is highly favorable and would be a huge chase day nowadays.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So I got an email from TornadoTalk stating that they plan on having their Guin project finished by the end of this month. They also plan on tackling Xenia along with it. The Guin project is apparently going to be HUGE and they have a ton of information to sort through so they are taking their steady time with it. I eagerly await all the other stuff on 4/3/74 they dig up as so much of that outbreak for a long time was either not documented or locked up in archives away from prying eyes. Hopefully they'll get to both the Tanner tornadoes and the Jasper, AL tornado as well as many of the Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky tornadoes from that day.

 

[joshoctober16]

i wonder if the legend of the whole foundation being gone is true or not, if we ever get to find out its going to be this year...
i wouldnt be surprise as we saw with smithville and bremen

 

[buckeye05]

i wonder if the legend of the whole foundation being gone is true or not, if we ever get to find out its going to be this year...
i wouldnt be surprise as we saw with smithville and bremen

I’ve said it before and I’ll wait it again. I’m 99% sure this rumor arose from damage surveyor JB Elliot being unable to tell the difference between a foundation and a wooden subfloor.

There’s nothing to support his claims, and there are photos showing subfloors removed from foundations in Guin. It’s pretty obvious to me that true foundation removal did not occur.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

i wonder if the legend of the whole foundation being gone is true or not, if we ever get to find out its going to be this year...
i wouldnt be surprise as we saw with smithville and bremen

I’ve said it before and I’ll wait it again. I’m 99% sure this rumor arose from damage surveyor JB Elliot being unable to tell the difference between a foundation and a wooden subfloor.

There’s nothing to support his claims, and there are photos showing subfloors removed from foundations in Guin. It’s pretty obvious to me that true foundation removal did not occur.

For reference:

Significant Tornado Events

There are (probably apocryphal) tales circulated of how "Fujita himself" was so impressed by the damage from such-and-such tornado (most often Guin or Xenia from 1974) that he considered rating it an "F6." Alternatively, that Bridge Creek-Moore 1999 should have been rated F6 because DOW measured...

talkweather.com

One of pic is likely the source of the rumors of foundations being removed.

 

[locomusic01]

I’ve said it before and I’ll wait it again. I’m 99% sure this rumor arose from damage surveyor JB Elliot being unable to tell the difference between a foundation and a wooden subfloor.

There’s nothing to support his claims, and there are photos showing subfloors removed from foundations in Guin. It’s pretty obvious to me that true foundation removal did not occur.

That's almost always how those kinds of rumors start. Either that or like a thin concrete pad that's been struck by a heavy object and cracked or something. "Foundation sucked up" is right up there with "vehicle (or occasionally person) carried X miles" in terms of fantastical damage accounts.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That's almost always how those kinds of rumors start. Either that or like a thin concrete pad that's been struck by a heavy object and cracked or something. "Foundation sucked up" is right up there with "vehicle (or occasionally person) carried X miles" in terms of fantastical damage accounts.

Indeed.
So, any new photos from 5/31/85? Or is that probably not gonna happen?
Eagerly awaiting your New Richmond article!

 

[locomusic01]

Indeed.
So, any new photos from 5/31/85? Or is that probably not gonna happen?
Eagerly awaiting your New Richmond article!

I'll probably make one more push to contact people again after I'm done with New Richmond, but I'm not very optimistic at this point. Besides that my only other hope is to see what I can track down in person if I can get out that way sometime. There was a sweet older lady that emailed me last year and said she used to host a support group sort of thing for local survivors, so she knows a lot of people and some of them may still have photos. I guess most aren't online so she offered to take me around and introduce me if I ever visit the area. Some of the libraries and historical societies and whatnot also have stuff they only allow access to in person for whatever reason.

Anyway, I've finally had a chance to make some more progress on New Richmond in the last few days, although not before moving backwards lol. I realized I'd totally skipped over the Carnelian Lake and Lake Elmo tornadoes, so I had to go back and work them into the story. Now that that's done I've only got a couple sections left to write, then I should be able to start transferring it over to the site and adding photos and whatnot. Who needs proofreading, anyway?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'll probably make one more push to contact people again after I'm done with New Richmond, but I'm not very optimistic at this point. Besides that my only other hope is to see what I can track down in person if I can get out that way sometime. There was a sweet older lady that emailed me last year and said she used to host a support group sort of thing for local survivors, so she knows a lot of people and some of them may still have photos. I guess most aren't online so she offered to take me around and introduce me if I ever visit the area. Some of the libraries and historical societies and whatnot also have stuff they only allow access to in person for whatever reason.

Anyway, I've finally had a chance to make some more progress on New Richmond in the last few days, although not before moving backwards lol. I realized I'd totally skipped over the Carnelian Lake and Lake Elmo tornadoes, so I had to go back and work them into the story. Now that that's done I've only got a couple sections left to write, then I should be able to start transferring it over to the site and adding photos and whatnot. Who needs proofreading, anyway?

Man, bummer about 5/31/85. I've tried scouring through Pennsylvania State Archives but to no avail; no clue how to navigate to what I want on those sites lol. I really wish we could find pics of Moshannon but that's likely a dead horse at this point unless a park/forest ranger has some in their collection. Same for Kane, I guess.

 

[TH2002]

That's almost always how those kinds of rumors start. Either that or like a thin concrete pad that's been struck by a heavy object and cracked or something. "Foundation sucked up" is right up there with "vehicle (or occasionally person) carried X miles" in terms of fantastical damage accounts.

Yeah, reminds me of the "truck carried 20 miles" rumor from Lawrenceburg that originated from Storm Data but was probably a typo if I had to guess.

Also, since you mentioned concrete pads being struck by heavy objects, I do recall something similar happened in El Reno 2011. Can't find the photo at the moment but I believe it was a thin shed foundation or parking pad shattered by an impact with a heavy object. Impressive in its own right? Yes. But I can see how something like that could easily be misquoted again and again, eventually devolving into "OMG foundation scoured" rumors.

 

[locomusic01]

Man, bummer about 5/31/85. I've tried scouring through Pennsylvania State Archives but to no avail; no clue how to navigate to what I want on those sites lol. I really wish we could find pics of Moshannon but that's likely a dead horse at this point unless a park/forest ranger has some in their collection. Same for Kane, I guess.

Yeah the state archives are all but useless for that sort of thing. Most of the departments I contacted (DCNR, PennDOT, PA State Police, etc) weren't much more helpful. The director at Parker Dam State Park sent me some of the aerial shots I used in my article and said that they had approx. 100 more photos accessible in person, but apparently a lot of them are pretty low-quality scans taken from the original negatives (the location of which seems to be a mystery).

 

[locomusic01]

Yeah, reminds me of the "truck carried 20 miles" rumor from Lawrenceburg that originated from Storm Data but was probably a typo if I had to guess.

Also, since you mentioned concrete pads being struck by heavy objects, I do recall something similar happened in El Reno 2011. Can't find the photo at the moment but I believe it was a thin shed foundation or parking pad shattered by an impact with a heavy object. Impressive in its own right? Yes. But I can see how something like that could easily be misquoted again and again, eventually devolving into "OMG foundation scoured" rumors.

Yup. Same kinda thing also happened with Moore (both '99 and '13, actually) and Smithville, among others. Easy mistake to make if you're not familiar with what you're looking at, but it very quickly gets blown out of proportion and turns into a sort of urban legend.