Only report with damage pictures I've been able to find of it:
So the Cobram tornado always confused me a little. A more liberal damage surveyor would likely rate this EF4 based on the total debarking of trees (like Dayton 2019), and I actually would agree. However, was there any actual EF4 structural damage with this one? I can't find anything exceeding EF3 type damage in terms of structures with this one.
Might as well add this other notable Japanese tornado:
extremeplanet.wordpress.com
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8YgBSDRzcTzSDYyWWM0RHNHUjA/edit?pli=1 Here are some damage photographs from this video about the tornado:
extremeplanet.wordpress.com
The only officially violent South African tornado was rated as an F4 due to vehicles being carried hundreds of yards. Structural damage was F3 in intensity.Another place that gets tornadoes regularly is South Africa, check out this wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Southern_Hemisphere_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks#Africa
Another link on them: https://www.capetownetc.com/news/a-whirlwind-history-of-tornadoes-in-south-africa/
A link to a PDF: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201811.0547/v2
Another PDF: https://journals.co.za/docserver/fu...est&checksum=0373F4FA6749830D338447699E5CE32C
If I had to guess what makes South Africa tornado-prone is cold air flowing up from Antarctica, combined with the dry, hot air of the Kalahari or Sahara desert colliding together with warm, moist air from the Indian Ocean but who knows?
Anyways, some pictures of one tornado:
View attachment 5247
The Duduza tornado killed one person as it tore through rural areas outside Johannesburg. Video of the tornado shows rotation and structure possibly consistent with a storm of F3 or F4 intensity.
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View of the destroyed homes following the deadly Duduza tornado in South Africa. (Image by Daniel Born)
According to extremeplanet, more than 100 people have been killed by tornadoes in South Africa since 1948.
Powerful Tornadoes Outside the United States – Violent Tornadoes in France, Russia, South Africa, Poland, Canada and Japan
□ The United States experiences more violent tornadoes than the rest of the world combined. In spite of this, the atmospheric ingredients needed to form rotating thunderstorms are present across th…
Same here, of course it could be like the Soviet Union outbreak of 1984 where they were grossly underrated, likely due to meteorologists from those countries not being used to the F-Scale. Of course, TORRO has the T-Scale, so that may also influence the ratings over there in a different way. Not really sure.
I also haven’t seen anything higher than F4 damage for that 1984 tornado outbreak and the damage from that outbreak overall doesn’t seem very impressive compared to other violent tornadoes in the US or South America.
EF5 tornado often associate with major tree debarking, cars tossed long distance or mangled beyond recognition. Ground souring is also common with most of the EF5 tornados. Debris of houses should be cut into small pieces and tossed long distance downwind. I can't find any of Europe F5 tornados had these characteristics. I also questioned whether these structures are really that "sturdy".
The stone masonry blocks of the structures might have not been well-attached to each other especially in older structures and it might have been more easy to knock down. They might act more like non-reinforced concrete block homes.
Good point, perhaps what count as F5 or EF5 over there is no more then F3/EF3 over here.
In the background you can some light patches on trees, perhaps that could be debarking? Not saying this thing deserves an F5 rating, just wanted to point out that detail.
That tree damage looks similar to tree damage produced by the 2015 Black Forest tornado which was given a high-end F3 rating.
