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Significant Tornado Events

Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
So the Guin tornado has its own Wikipedia article now:

en.wikipedia.org

1974 Guin tornado - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


Two things that struck me of note; one is the bit how Fujita considered rating it an "F6" but then decided on "F5+" and how it had a forward speed of 75 mph, the fastest observed in any tornado. I found the sources that mention these things so it's not just some random Wikipedia monkey spouting nonsense.


aldailynews.com

Skip Tucker: The Finger of God

Today, Beth Tucker will say a prayer for tornado victims everywhere - past, present and future. She’ll pray for those killed or wounded, in whatever way, in Beauregard, Alabama and in Havana, Cuba.
aldailynews.com aldailynews.com
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"Wikipedia Monkey" ok thats really funny lol.
But quick correction! 75 MPH is NOT the fastest forward speed seen on a tornado, as both Greenfield 2024, and Tri-State both also went 75 MPH! But the fastest forward speed was actually from the East Pilger NE EF4: which went 94 MPH forward while being slingshotted by the Wakefield EF4!!
 
NewFoundWeatherNerd said:
"Wikipedia Monkey" ok thats really funny lol.
But quick correction! 75 MPH is NOT the fastest forward speed seen on a tornado, as both Greenfield 2024, and Tri-State both also went 75 MPH! But the fastest forward speed was actually from the East Pilger NE EF4: which went 94 MPH forward while being slingshotted by the Wakefield EF4!!
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OK East Pilger that forward speed was in its dissipating stages; that's not the same as traveling 94 mph your whole life span. Tri-State's forward speed was 73, although from that long ago I'm not sure how you'd measure that, given how limited technology was then. Also, where's your source for Greenfield moving 75 mph?
 
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Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
OK East Pilger that forward speed was in its dissipating stages; that's not the same as traveling 94 mph your whole life span. Tri-State's forward speed was 73, although from that long ago I'm not sure how you'd measure that, given how limited technology was then.
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That measurement was estimated between two towns, so naturally the forward speed is a wild estimation and it is very probable it could have exceeded that at one point. But you are absolutely right.
 
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NewFoundWeatherNerd said:
"Wikipedia Monkey" ok thats really funny lol.
But quick correction! 75 MPH is NOT the fastest forward speed seen on a tornado, as both Greenfield 2024, and Tri-State both also went 75 MPH! But the fastest forward speed was actually from the East Pilger NE EF4: which went 94 MPH forward while being slingshotted by the Wakefield EF4!!
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Wow! Greenfield moved that fast?
 
TheSuckZone said:
Sorry if this has already been posted. First time I have seen this video of the '91 Andover tornado.

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That might be the most impressive visible rotation I’ve ever seen. When it’s at its closest near the end, it looks like an even meaner version of Greenfield with the extreme subvortex action. I wonder if it’s possible to perform photogrammetry with that video.
 
Ivanthetornadoenthusiast said:
@Western_KS_Wx So, how was your Greensburg project?
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Just saw this, but it’s going much better! Going to have much more time after this semester is over to get back to work on it, but in the meantime I’ve been gathering some amazing resources.

I’ve been in touch with Tim Marshall and he was gracious enough to send me a USB drive of roughly 1000 incredibly high-quality photos from his survey on Greensburg. Haven’t really combed through all of them, but looked at the ~300 aerial photographs and it’s some pretty extreme stuff. Pretty much confirmed my thinking that Greensburg was right on par with Joplin and Parkersburg intensity-wise.

I am also going to try and get back in touch with a few of the mets at NWS Dodge City to get some more info on the post-Greensburg tornadoes. I got into contact with a few locals that claimed to have several photo albums from Trousdale and Hopewell, but haven’t heard back in a while unfortunately.
 
slenker said:
That might be the most impressive visible rotation I’ve ever seen. When it’s at its closest near the end, it looks like an even meaner version of Greenfield with the extreme subvortex action. I wonder if it’s possible to perform photogrammetry with that video.
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The most intense rotation ever caught is Pampa, TX 1995; that said Andover is definitely a close second.
 
Western_KS_Wx said:
Just saw this, but it’s going much better! Going to have much more time after this semester is over to get back to work on it, but in the meantime I’ve been gathering some amazing resources.

I’ve been in touch with Tim Marshall and he was gracious enough to send me a USB drive of roughly 1000 incredibly high-quality photos from his survey on Greensburg. Haven’t really combed through all of them, but looked at the ~300 aerial photographs and it’s some pretty extreme stuff. Pretty much confirmed my thinking that Greensburg was right on par with Joplin and Parkersburg intensity-wise.

I am also going to try and get back in touch with a few of the mets at NWS Dodge City to get some more info on the post-Greensburg tornadoes. I got into contact with a few locals that claimed to have several photo albums from Trousdale and Hopewell, but haven’t heard back in a while unfortunately.
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I wonder how many EF5 DIs are there in Greensburg
 
Western_KS_Wx said:
I have, I still would give the edge to Andover though. Just an opinion, but Andover in that video has about as violent of rotation you will ever see.
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Check this compressed footage from Pampa, around the moment where the pickup trucks are sucked in and centrifuged out; you can REALLY see the drillbit motions on it here. Also note how quickly the pickups go in and out:

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

I don't see why it shouldn't be if done decently. And it should be a lot easier to do these days with computers rather than having to enlarge, trace and align frames by hand. IIRC Roger Wakimoto did a photogrammetric analysis on the El Reno '13 tentacle monster, and I vaguely recall a couple...
talkweather.com talkweather.com

A previous user did the compressions, the video you have to click here to see.
 
Sort of off topic, but does anyone know some good ways/sources to find tornado damage photos? I'm talking search queries, methods, etc.
 
Tanner said:
Sort of off topic, but does anyone know some good ways/sources to find tornado damage photos? I'm talking search queries, methods, etc.
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Flickr has a lot of good stuff. I used to use Facebook, but they changed the way you can search for photos which made it pretty difficult to find what you’re looking for. I also found Yandex images can occasionally be good, but I think one of the best tools is using Web Archive. Going to old news articles, discussion forums, galleries, NWS sites, and some blogspots and archiving them can be your best friend. Also, this forum itself has members that have unearthed some pretty incredible things, you can use the search bar at the top right and enter a keyword to see what people have posted about it.
 
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