Significant Tornado Events

[SmokeEater]

Adam Lucio just dropped one of the best one hour chasing documentaries I've ever seen on the April 26th NE/IA outbreak.

 

[Sawmaster]

I normally don't watch long chasing vids because most of them are 3/4 filler and 1/4 action, but this one is worth watching.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Random but I found some old pics from Niles-Wheatland that I can't seem to find online anymore, I've found some instances of extreme damage that isn't easily seen unless you really look:

Some cleanup on the road has likely occurred in this image, but if you look to the lower front left you can see what look like cracked concrete curbs cracked:



Next 3 of general industrial destruction.

In this one note the person under the "D" in "Dispatch" for scale.


Think these next 2 are of Yourga Trucking:





Note in this one the brown by the rails; possible ground/hillside scouring?





Note the sheer amount of granulated debris here:






This last one there's been some obvious clean-up but if you closely in the background you can see what looks like some slabbed foundations and a debarked tree/shrub by the telephone pole:

 

[AJS]

Does anyone have imagery of Bremen’s damage from the 2021 storm? A lot of it sounds like textbook EF5 damage from what I’ve heard. I haven’t been able to find much on it though.

Was scrolling through old pages and found this. Here’s a bunch I’ve collected.

The ground scouring, Tree debarking, Granulation, and overall contextual damage were without a doubt at EF5 level here.

 

[Shakespeare 2016]

Was scrolling through old pages and found this. Here’s a bunch I’ve collected.

The ground scouring, Tree debarking, Granulation, and overall contextual damage were without a doubt at EF5 level here.

Welcome to Talkweather!

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

35 years ago...



The 1989 Huntsville, AL F4 Tornado

Rare Footage:

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

@locomusic01 (sorry for the ping) do you have any photos from Vernon 1942 and Loraine 1923?

 

[tfxxxx]

That is close to where my brother's house was up the street from the funeral home. I'll have to get him to send me some pictures sometime and post for you guys. The one I remember is fascinating is the photo he has where the curtains were sucked up inside the ceiling. He was directly across the street from where there was extreme F5 damage where the road directly east of the funeral home starts. There is no Home there anymore. They built a memorial in the spot where his home was.

Did you ever get the pictures from your brother?

 

[Aaron Rider]

This is Dr. Fujita's map of the supercells from Palm Sunday '65.



Supercell L produced SIX violent tornadoes - 5 were rated F4, and 1 F3 (Rockaway, OH) was almost certainly really F4. Pittsfield, OH was probably F5.

What I can't figure out are Supercells J and K. Which produced which tornadoes?

Is this correct?


K - Wanatah, Dunlap (Sunnyside), and Coldwater Lake #2
J - La Paz (Koontz Lake), Midway, Rainbow Lake, and Coldwater Lake #1

 

[A Guy]

Is this correct?

K - Wanatah, Dunlap (Sunnyside), and Coldwater Lake #2
J - La Paz (Koontz Lake), Midway, Rainbow Lake, and Coldwater Lake #1

That's correct

 

[AJS]

Just a bit of a random question for all of y’all, but it’s something that has been on my mind for a while to ask. What is the most insane instance of tree debarking we have seen from the most violent of tornadoes? For me if I had to choose, the top three that come to my mind are the Bassfield tornado, Piedmont 2011 Tornado, and Smithville 2011.

 

[jiharris0220]

Just a bit of a random question for all of y’all, but it’s something that has been on my mind for a while to ask. What is the most insane instance of tree debarking we have seen from the most violent of tornadoes? For me if I had to choose, the top three that come to my mind are the Bassfield tornado, Piedmont 2011 Tornado, and Smithville 2011.

Matador from last year completely debarked mesquite trees and a lot of the trees impacted simply disappeared without a trace.

You can see in the two example photos and note the extreme ground scouring in the first photo, the likes of which I haven’t seen since 2013 Moore.

What’s even more impressive is that the aforementioned mesquite trees weren’t even hit by the core but were still whittled down to bleached out sticks.

I can only assume the trees that were hit by core of this tornado at peak intensity are the ones that no longer exist.

 

[slenker]

Matador from last year completely debarked mesquite trees and a lot of the trees impacted simply disappeared without a trace.
View attachment 31563View attachment 31565
You can see in the two example photos and note the extreme ground scouring in the first photo, the likes of which I’ve haven’t seen since 2013 Moore.

What’s even more impressive is that the aforementioned mesquite trees weren’t even hit by the core but were still whittled down to bleached out sticks.

I can only assume the trees that were hit by core of this tornado at peak intensity are the ones that no longer exist.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse at this point, but it is still mind boggling to me that they always downgrade tornadoes based on contextuals but never upgrade them with it, even in this case when the tornado is doing EF5 level contextual damage. I would have even been okay with Matador just being given a violent rating because it was very clearly above baseline violent threshold, even if it was 170 EF4. But an EF3 rating? It's as egregious as New Wren is, but at least with that, the survey teams were understandably stretched thin due to the day it occurred on.

I didn't look too deeply into this tornado when it first occurred and took the HE EF3 at face value, but after seeing the imagery posted here along with reading a bit more in-depth about it, it is clear that this tornado definitely reached EF5 intensity. Small rant over.

 

[AJS]

I don't mean to beat a dead horse at this point, but it is still mind boggling to me that they always downgrade tornadoes based on contextuals but never upgrade them with it, even in this case when the tornado is doing EF5 level contextual damage. I would have even been okay with Matador just being given a violent rating because it was very clearly above baseline violent threshold, even if it was 170 EF4. But an EF3 rating? It's as egregious as New Wren is, but at least with that, the survey teams were understandably stretched thin due to the day it occurred on.

I didn't look too deeply into this tornado when it first occurred and took the HE EF3 at face value, but after seeing the imagery posted here along with reading a bit more in-depth about it, it is clear that this tornado definitely reached EF5 intensity. Small rant over.

It’s been discussed on this thread a number of times, but I might as well say it again because I’m sure we all hold the same view. It is so pointless to assess contextual damage nowadays if all surveyors do is use it to downgrade instead of upgrade. Matador is a great example. There was extreme contextual damage everywhere, yet it was barely taken into account.

 

[AJS]

Even over 4 years later, the mind boggling debarking of the Bassfield tornado never ceases to stun me.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Just a bit of a random question for all of y’all, but it’s something that has been on my mind for a while to ask. What is the most insane instance of tree debarking we have seen from the most violent of tornadoes? For me if I had to choose, the top three that come to my mind are the Bassfield tornado, Piedmont 2011 Tornado, and Smithville 2011.

I think these photos from New Richmond, Wisconsin 1899 are definitely up there with most extreme debarking documented.



As for modern day tornadoes, I think virtually every EF5 tornado caused some of the most violent debarking we’ve seen, and it’s nearly impossible to hone out a ‘definitive’ list of most extreme. Here’s some of many, many incredible instances of debarking from EF5 tornadoes.

Moore ‘13



Hackleburg ‘11


Parkersburg ‘08


Greensburg ‘07

 

[Aaron Rider]

I think these photos from New Richmond, Wisconsin 1899 are definitely up there with most extreme debarking documented.
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As for modern day tornadoes, I think virtually every EF5 tornado caused some of the most violent debarking we’ve seen, and it’s nearly impossible to hone out a ‘definitive’ list of most extreme. Here’s some of many, many incredible instances of debarking from EF5 tornadoes.

Moore ‘13
View attachment 31573
View attachment 31574

Hackleburg ‘11
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Parkersburg ‘08
View attachment 31577

Greensburg ‘07
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Not to be too trivial, but my response to those New Richmond pictures is, "Bro..."

 

[slenker]

I think these photos from New Richmond, Wisconsin 1899 are definitely up there with most extreme debarking documented.
View attachment 31571
View attachment 31572

As for modern day tornadoes, I think virtually every EF5 tornado caused some of the most violent debarking we’ve seen, and it’s nearly impossible to hone out a ‘definitive’ list of most extreme. Here’s some of many, many incredible instances of debarking from EF5 tornadoes.

Moore ‘13
View attachment 31573
View attachment 31574

Hackleburg ‘11
View attachment 31575

Parkersburg ‘08
View attachment 31577

Greensburg ‘07
View attachment 31578
View attachment 31579
View attachment 31580

I agree with the sentiment above with exception to one tornado in particular. Smithville definitely showed that there is what I would call an “above baseline EF5” for tree damage - the forest it obliterated after it exited town was so thoroughly debarked and obliterated that I don’t think any tornado that we have recorded in the past comes close to this. It’s worth noting that this is in a very dense forest with what appears to be a thick foliage of low-lying shrubbery, but it didn’t matter; debarking still approached 100% of all vegetation.
From Extreme Planet (Maximilian Hagen’s website):

From Reddit:

Notice that the trees in the background with exception to the two in the foreground are snapped just above the base and practically entirely debarked and denuded. Would tornadoes like Moore 2013, Bridge Creek, or Parkersburg achieve something like this if they had gone through Smithville instead? It’s hard to say, but honestly I’m learning towards a hard no. They would have certainly still inflicted EF5 damage there, but this tree damage is so unbelievable and certainly above some of the other EF5s.

Other examples of tornadoes with some similarly extraordinary debarking are Bassfield-Soso 2020 and Tri-State 2021 (the one that preceded Mayfield) but the debarking for those tornadoes was far less consistent; it still was approaching full 100% debarking over a wide swath in some areas. I also am really curious about Flat Rock from 4/27/2011, of which I heard that the tornado also caused some extremely high end tree/forest damage, comparable to Smithville. However, I find it hard to even find a single damage photo from that beast. If anyone has stuff from Flat Rock, that would be really interesting to see, I heard surveyors were debating an EF5 rating more intensely for that than they were even for Tuscaloosa.

 

[cheestaysfly]

35 years ago...



The 1989 Huntsville, AL F4 Tornado

Rare Footage:

My hometown! Luckily I wasn't there for this event.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Not to be too trivial, but my response to those New Richmond pictures is, "Bro..."

This one’s even more ridiculous:


Just astonishing levels of destruction and violence. Here’s a fantastic article on the tornado and event as a whole written by @locomusic01 if you haven’t seen it already:

June 12, 1899 — The New Richmond, Wisconsin Tornado

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