Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Thanks, I am diligently awaiting your New Richmond article! I was wondering also, have you read this book by James T. Carrier on the Tri-state tornado as it struck Peabody Mine #18 which according to the damage report was constructed out of steel and reinforced concrete structures and was levelled. I think this is the most compelling instance of EF-5 damage produced by the storm. I have a few low res images of the area and was wondering if you had more?

On another note, have you come across any images of the '300 feet of railroad track torn out' near the railroad house in West Frankfort or the railroad trestle blown from it's piers? Lastly I attempted to enhance some of your article images to varying degrees of success. Was wondering if you had attempted to do something similar.

It's been so long now that my memory is fuzzy, but I think it may be one of the books I bought a while after I'd already finished my article. It looks familiar, at least - I'll have to look around for it. IIRC there's also a contemporary engineering trade magazine or some such that detailed the damage at Peabody. Not sure if I have it saved since this was before I realized that keeping all my files and folders and research and whatnot well-organized might be a good idea lol

No photos of the torn-up railroad tracks, although I haven't done that much digging for new material in years. The enhanced images look good! I did try with some of the photos back in the day but most of the results were.. not great. Would probably be worth another shot, especially with some of the newer tools available.

 

[WIL9287]

Also on this date 4 years ago, the monstrous Bassfield EF4 tornado and Easter 2020 tornado outbreak. Speaking of Bassfield, I recently stumbled upon this which is what Tom Grazulis wrote about the Bassfield EF4.
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I really respect Grazulis and he’s one of the most brilliant minds in tornado research history, but to say his statement is a bit of a head scratcher would be a minor understatement. Seems he completely disregarded the several structures that were rated EF4 along the track basing the rating on tree damage…and then calling it minimal. Not only do I HIGHLY disagree with this, he also stated that the max width was 1.1 miles which is a full mile smaller than the official 2.25 mile width..what?

Here’s some screen grabs on where the tornado almost certainly peaked in intensity on a stretch from Willie Fortenberry Rd to Kings Rd:
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This sequence of images shows extreme damage along and near Willie Fortenberry Rd to Kings Rd. The tornado literally scoured a section of forest to the ground before impacting a grove of trees and producing some of the most impressive tree damage I’ve seen from a Dixie Alley tornado. Large trees and shrubs were fully debarked and reduced to featureless stubs, some of which were sheared down to stumps only a few feet above ground level. Pronounced ground scouring was clearly evident in this area as well. The tornado then entered another forested area where swaths of trees were once again essentially scoured down to the ground and completely debarked. After this point the damage gradually weakened before the tornado ballooned to over 2 miles wide, but damage within this section of the path was in my opinion undoubtedly indicative of EF5 strength, and certainly not a minimal EF4.

As for the max width of the tornado, which Grazulis listed at 1.1 miles instead of 2.25 miles, I leave you with this:
View attachment 25364

Grazulis uses average width. Wikipedia won't tell you that though, the articles about tornadoes on there aren't very good like they used to be, unfortunately.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

When an F5 tornado nearly set off TWO nukes:





This tornado could've been a million times deadlier. LITERALLY.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

33 years later:

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

April 27 was 13 years ago.....





and people rarely talked about this EF5.

 

[A Guy]

The early online release of a paper on the Tornado Archive is now available (under the PDF tab): https://journals.ametsoc.org/config...-0123.1$002fBAMS-D-23-0123.1.xml&tab_body=pdf

@andyhb is a co-author (c'mon mate, toot your own horn a little bit)

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This damage is extreme. It's not really hyperbole to say that core streak is "as complete a wipeout as you can have", especially with such a fast moving tornado.

What's crazy is that according to Grazulis it may have been moving up to 75 mph while going through Guin; if so, that damage was likely done instantaneously, so this is Smithville intensity we're talking.

 

[joshoctober16]

i think one of the most intense tornadoes like jarrell, smithville, guin just happened last night.....

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

2002 was 22 years ago.....




And this is the strongest tornado to ever hit Maryland in 76 (now 98) years

 

[atrainguy]

2002 was 22 years ago.....




And this is the most eastern F4 in the US

Wouldn't Worcester, MA 1953 be the easternmost F4?

 

[Tanner]

Wouldn't Worcester, MA 1953 be the easternmost F4?

yes

 

[Aaron Rider]

Hey all

I'm new here and slowly reading through this whole thread. Regarding Tuscaloosa-Birmingham '11, I found buckeye's posts in this thread vis a vis the EF4 rating. has anyone read this? It concludes those coal cars east of Tuscaloosa were probably tossed by something like 145 mph winds

Analysis of Damaged Railcars from the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham, AL Tornado of 27 April 2011

 

[Tomcats Forever!]

I saw a site once that had a list of strongest g2g velocities, but Google is failing me. Anyone know where I can find it?

 

[pohnpei]

I saw a site once that had a list of strongest g2g velocities, but Google is failing me. Anyone know where I can find it?

Brandon's Severe WX Site

Welcome! My name is Brandon Skalniak, and I've been in love with severe weather since I was 6. Ever since then, meteorology has been my main passion. I am currently in my junior year at Millersville University, pursuing a degree in Emergency Management. I have researched tornado history for years,

www.brandoweather.com

 

[buckeye05]

So this might be a stretch, but does anyone remember those never before seen photos taken in rural areas outside of Greensburg that were posted on this thread a year or two ago? It was a bunch of photos of grass scouring and extreme tree damage. It was some genuinely impressive contextual damage that changed my opinion about the intensity of that tornado. I think they're in here somewhere, but digging through hundreds of pages sounds beyond tedious and I'm hoping someone knows what I'm talking about. I want to save them this time.

 

[Casuarina Head]

So this might be a stretch, but does anyone remember those never before seen photos taken in rural areas outside of Greensburg that were posted on this thread a year or two ago? It was a bunch of photos of grass scouring and extreme tree damage. It was some genuinely impressive contextual damage that changed my opinion about the intensity of that tornado. I think they're in here somewhere, but digging through hundreds of pages sounds beyond tedious and I'm hoping someone knows what I'm talking about. I want to save them this time.

https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/page-494#post-102189
https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/page-494#post-102226
https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/page-494#post-102228
https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/page-494#post-102360

 

[Tomcats Forever!]

Brandon's Severe WX Site

Welcome! My name is Brandon Skalniak, and I've been in love with severe weather since I was 6. Ever since then, meteorology has been my main passion. I am currently in my junior year at Millersville University, pursuing a degree in Emergency Management. I have researched tornado history for years,

www.brandoweather.com

Exactly the one I was looking for, thank you.

 

[notsoencrypted]

So this might be a stretch, but does anyone remember those never before seen photos taken in rural areas outside of Greensburg that were posted on this thread a year or two ago? It was a bunch of photos of grass scouring and extreme tree damage. It was some genuinely impressive contextual damage that changed my opinion about the intensity of that tornado. I think they're in here somewhere, but digging through hundreds of pages sounds beyond tedious and I'm hoping someone knows what I'm talking about. I want to save them this time.

Are these the ones?

https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/post-102226

https://talkweather.com/threads/significant-tornado-events.1276/post-102228

I just clicked on the search icon up on the menu bar, chose "this thread" and put Greensburg as the search text.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

This shrub here, good lord:

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

So this might be a stretch, but does anyone remember those never before seen photos taken in rural areas outside of Greensburg that were posted on this thread a year or two ago? It was a bunch of photos of grass scouring and extreme tree damage. It was some genuinely impressive contextual damage that changed my opinion about the intensity of that tornado. I think they're in here somewhere, but digging through hundreds of pages sounds beyond tedious and I'm hoping someone knows what I'm talking about. I want to save them this time.

I have a whole gallery that is also going to be featured in my article. If you would like them sooner, I could dm them to you. Speaking of my article, I was hoping to release it on the anniversary (today) but got slammed with finals, work, and now a case of mono that landed me in the hospital and away from my computer for more time. But thankfully I should be good in a few days and back to putting some final touches on it, this whole thing took way longer than i expected!