Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So the large building that you see obliterated in the upper left hand corner was the Guin Mobile Home Plant. Its metal beam framing was badly mangled and partially pushed off the foundation. Here are some additional photos of the plant:

What it did to the mobile home plant is pretty impressive, on par with Parkersburg and Wheatland in terms of industrial building damage.
Also, where'd you find that aerial of the plant? I haven't come across that anywhere else.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Guin is starting to look more and more intense and my doubt on its rumored extreme intensity is starting to erode though I still haven’t seen anything on the level of Hackleburg or Smithville.

It's a mystery as to why it was so difficult to come across clear damage pics of Guin until recently. I have a feeling it may have done Hackleburg or Smithville-like damage at some points but the dearth of reliable and clear photography of the damage means it may be a while before we find any.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Tornado damage in William Bankhead National Forest.

I wish I could tell what exactly I was looking at, and I wish there was more photos of forest damage. Guin is like Tuscaloosa in that it plowed through dozens of miles of forest after demolishing a populated area. I know someone did a damage survey of Tuscaloosa's path through forest, I wonder if the same happened with Guin, it'd be interesting to compare findings between the two. It's path is parallel to Hackleburg in many areas as well.

Oh, and might as well post this photo since we're talking about Guin, quite the impressive scar across the landscape (this seems to happen quite a bit with VLT Dixie tornadoes):

 

[Austin Dawg]

These pics are from Tornado Talk's article on Smithville, this tornado was easily the most ferocious of 4/27/11 (although Hackleburg still beats it in terms of duration of EF5 intensity and longevity, at least in my mind). Absolutely insane damage is documented below:

Source: https://www.tornadotalk.com/the-smithville-ms-ef-5-tornado-april-27-2011/


2. The mud you see on the foundation is actually granulated brick, considering the 70+ mph forward speed, this is extremely impressive.
View attachment 4903

This was close to my brother's house. Across the street from his home looked like this all the way to the eastern edge of the damage and most of the deaths occurred. It was determined that his neighborhood was ground zero of the F5 damage. So lucky he and my nephews (and most of the town for that matter) were not at home then. He sold it and they build the memorial right where his house stood.

I wish I could let you guys see my mind's eye of the town so full of large, ancient, mature hardwoods with tall pines sprinkled in and then drive through and see how empty it is now. It will never recover I think. Very little construction since then where the damage path was the worse.

My heart goes out to anyone who has to live through these kinds of storms which is one of the reasons why I follow it all so close now.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Finally found it, a link to Charles Jordan's 'A Night to Remember' via the Wayback Machine, hopefully this works (as TW won't allow me to upload it from my laptop): https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185947/http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/hun/media/1974/April 3, 1974 A Night to Remember.pdf

It was a night to remember. I lived in Smithville then and we had at least two tornado warned storms to roll right up HWY 25. Everyone always said if we had a bad one it will follow the same path that all the worse storms did and they were eerily prophetic.

We were listening to all the reports out of Guin and other places. I was 12 but I remember it like yesterday.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

It was a night to remember. I lived in Smithville then and we had at least two tornado warned storms to roll right up HWY 25. Everyone always said if we had a bad one it will follow the same path that all the worse storms did and they were eerily prophetic.

We were listening to all the reports out of Guin and other places. I was 12 but I remember it like yesterday.

On one of the old forums someone posted this chart they made of violent and long-tracked F5 tornadoes through Mississippi and Alabama, it was largely a comparison of 1974 and 2011 Super Outbreak paths but there was one VLT tornado that was documented in April 20, 1920; it was remarkable how closely parallel many of the paths of these storms were despite being decades apart. In many cases exact same addresses, intersections, monuments and the like were struck in the same place by tornadoes that were decades apart. Another remarkable thing was how there were multiple instances of communities being struck twice in the same day on both outbreaks (Tanner in 1974 and Cordova in 2011). How I wish I had saved that chart to my computer!

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

What do you guys think is the most intense post-1950 tornado in Minnesota?

 

[Austin Dawg]

What do you guys think is the most intense post-1950 tornado in Minnesota?

I don't know the history of Minnesota twisters as well as I do WS storms but this is the one I do remember reading most about.

May 6, 1965 Tornadoes​

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

What do you guys think is the most intense post-1950 tornado in Minnesota?

Tracy and Chandler seemed pretty violent, Wilkin in 2010 with the extreme ground scouring it did.

 

[Marshal79344]

I haven't looked at past MN Tornado events much with the exception of Fergus Falls 1919, Fridley, and Comfrey-St. Peter 1998, so I'd have to go with the Albert Lea-Conger EF4 from 6/17/2010, the Parkers Prairie EF4 from 6/17/2010, and of course the Tyler ND-Doran MN EF4. I personally have doubts of Chandler, MN being rated EF5 today, and it didn't result in any scouring from the photographs that I have seen (I'm probably missing something), so here's pics from all four.

Conger Scouring Swath


Parkers Prairie scouring and a chicken house that was annhilated



Home swept away


The structure of the Tyler Tornado was NUTS

The damage it did to a Ford has to be some of the most impressive car damage from a tornado I've ever seen. The structure was mangled and splattered with scoured mud.

The Engine of the Ford lies in a heavily scoured field

The Scouring Swath




It's likely that the slow movement of the Tyler Tornado played a part in its exceptional intensity, but nevertheless I feel that Tyler was the strongest of the trio. If you were to ask me what the strongest tornado all time in MN history would be, it would definitely be Fergus Falls

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I haven't looked at past MN Tornado events much with the exception of Fergus Falls 1919, Fridley, and Comfrey-St. Peter 1998, so I'd have to go with the Albert Lea-Conger EF4 from 6/17/2010, the Parkers Prairie EF4 from 6/17/2010, and of course the Tyler ND-Doran MN EF4. I personally have doubts of Chandler, MN being rated EF5 today, and it didn't result in any scouring from the photographs that I have seen (I'm probably missing something), so here's pics from all four.

Conger Scouring Swath
View attachment 4955

Parkers Prairie scouring and a chicken house that was annhilated

View attachment 4956

Home swept away
View attachment 4957

The structure of the Tyler Tornado was NUTS
View attachment 4958
The damage it did to a Ford has to be some of the most impressive car damage from a tornado I've ever seen. The structure was mangled and splattered with scoured mud.
View attachment 4959
The Engine of the Ford lies in a heavily scoured field
View attachment 4960
The Scouring Swath
View attachment 4961

View attachment 4962

It's likely that the slow movement of the Tyler Tornado played a part in its exceptional intensity, but nevertheless I feel that Tyler was the strongest of the trio. If you were to ask me what the strongest tornado all time in MN history would be, it would definitely be Fergus Falls

I don't think the 2010 Tyler Tornado was intense when it was inside the MN border. I believe most of the scouring and EF4 damage happened in the ND side.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Speaking of the 2010 Parkers Prairie MN tornado, Google Earth imagery appears to show significant debris rowing and intense tree damage.

 

[CheeselandSkies]

It's interesting. Wisconsin used to have violent tornadoes every so often (Willow Springs 1893, Marthon County 1898, New Richmond 1899, Clark/Taylor Counties 1924, Grant County 1944, Colfax 1958, Oshkosh 1974, West Bend 1981, Wales 1984, Barneveld 1984, Cooperstown 1994, Oakfield 1996), however there hasn't been one since Oakfield. The closest was the 2005 Stoughton tornado which was officially rated at high-end F3.

You'd think we're due, but it seems that every time we're under a potentially high-ceiling severe weather threat per SPC it finds a way to Forecasted Convective Amplification Deficiency.

 

[pohnpei]

Bob Mills SkyNews 9 Surveys Oklahoma Tornado Damage

<p>Severe storms brought large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes to parts of Oklahoma Monday, claiming the lives of two people, destroying and damaging multiple structures.</p>

www.news9.com

Some aerial footage can be found along the path of Sulphur OK EF3 tornado in 2016 in this link
There were plenty of DIs around its radar peak and the overall vegetation and structure damages were strong but no way close to EF5 level even hard to reach EF4 level in my opinion. While both DOW7 and RaxPol radar showed winds well over 200mph at very low level(~218mph 17m). According to the vegetation damage along the path, I don't think it would gain EF5 rating if it hit a town.
I think the answer for this seemingly incongruity was simple. The damage made by tornados are the combination of pressure gradient, vertical updraft winds, horizontal winds which normally represent the strength of a tornado according to EF-scale and debris. The reason why Sulphur didn't do EF4/5 level damage was just because the conbination of all those "weapons" mentioned above were not strong enough to make EF4/5 damage. It also showed the current limtation of the measurement of tornado strength: We don't know the actual pressure gradient of different types of tornados, let alone stimulate it in a experiment lab. We dont't know the proportion of each "weapon" paticipate in for a given residence house. That all led to the consequence that a 3s/10m wind alone for measurement of tornados are so bland and lack of explanatory. Even take mobile radar measurement into account is far from enough beacause many acticles already showed the big limitation of mobile radar when it comes to tornado wind speed measurement.

 

[pohnpei]

What it looks like inside of a one-mile wide wedge EF1-2 tornado?
I can find three footages on Youtube of this type pf tornado


This was when Tuscaloosa 2011 across I-65 when it was widest in its life span. The video seemed was recorded on the north edge of the fast moving tornado, which was rated ~120mph at this point.


This was Albany GA EF3 when it hit the marine base. The tornado was at least one mile wide at this point and damage was mainly low end EF2 type.


This excellent footage was shot east of linwood along 174th when linwood KS tornado 2019 passby. It was shot on the north edge of the tornado and there were some videos in his mainpage showed the damage around his house. According to KML and aerial video, the damage to his house was minimum EF1 type and the tornado was likely mid-high EF1 strengh at this time.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I've found new damage footage of the 1965 Fridley-Mounds View-Centerville MN F4 and it actually seems like it might have been pretty intense event. Cars were tossed and mangled, homes were completely swept away with significant wind rowing of debris, trees were debarked and ground scouring possibly occurred.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

If anyone on this thread posted info about this storm before I apologize. This is easily one of the most underrated tornadoes of the 2000s and it and Roanoke (also of 2004) should have been rated F5. This thing is nicknamed the 'Noot Farm tornado'.

Of note the ground scouring from this thing was around 700 yards wide, only Jarrell was wider (at 800 yards or so).

Marion, ND F4 Tornado – July 18, 2004 – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

What’s the strongest tornado to occur in the Middle East region?

 

[warneagle]

Doesn't seem to be a ton of data on the Middle East but this paper says there have been three F3s in Turkey, all in the central part of the country. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/j...13-00364.1.xml?tab_body=fulltext-display#fig3

 

[pohnpei]

What’s the strongest tornado to occur in the Middle East region?

There was a pretty strong tornado in Iraq in 2016, some videos showed strong rotation speed.