Significant Tornado Events

[AJS]

That is the same home yes, pretty well-built and from what I’ve heard was just completed when the storm hit. There was also some pretty noticeable wind-rowing, granulation, and scouring when the storm exited town as well.
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As for the wipeout, the sheer width of the devastation is just mind boggling. There was near-EF5 damage along the north side of US-400 spaced out nearly 1/2 mile. These aerials are pretty incredible.
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Really is an absolute miracle the death toll wasn’t on par with Udall, and honestly some of that was just pure luck.


Right, I still think it’s definitely one of the more underrated EF5’s, but there really is hardly any photographs of the most extreme damage from the event available online. The complexity of the damage at times is a bit misleading as well.

Yeah, some of those farms were left virtually untouched since 2007, I do have photographs of them however. Here’s one of them:
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I know this’ll probably be a silly question to ask lol, but based on your research, where do you happen to believe the Greensburg tornado reached its maximum intensity? By the way, you have done an absolutely incredible job on uncovering hidden or lost gems showcasing the true violence/strength of this monster. I cannot wait for you’re final project to be completed!

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I know this’ll probably be a silly question to ask lol, but based on your research, where do you happen to believe the Greensburg tornado reached its maximum intensity? By the way, you have done an absolutely incredible job on uncovering hidden or lost gems showcasing the true violence/strength of this monster. I cannot wait for you’re final project to be completed!

I appreciate it man! It’s tough to say where it peaked, as it was pretty steady-state and very likely maintained EF5 intensity from just east of Highway 183 to the north side of Greensburg, a distance of 10 miles.

I will say however, the ground scouring appeared to be most significant along Highway 183 and that was probably where the initial peak occurred. There was also some extreme damage to two gas compression stations along the highway, I’m going to research more about these stations but the damage there was very upper-echelon. There was also several reports of the ground being gouged out and trenches being dug in the soil, which I initially believed were caused by debris impacts but I’m almost positive that was scouring done by the tornado.

Here’s an aerial of some of the scouring/gouging in a field about a mile or so south of Greensburg. Much of these depressions/gouges in the field were several inches deep and down to the bare soil in some spots, but were most extreme along Highway 183.


While the tornado likely maintained EF5 intensity all the way through Greensburg, I believe the most extreme damage occurred near the lake. The aerials from there show some absolutely incredible debris granulation and tree damage.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Also, have to ask: do you have any ground level views of the homes in the bottom right of aerial #3 and the bottom left in aerial #4?

Yes, the fourth aerial the home in the middle was used as an example of EF5 damage in Tim Marshall’s paper, shown here.


I’m in the process of downloading all 770 ground photos right now, but the higher quality version of this photo and the home to the left of it do show they were well-built and surrounded by some extreme contextuals. The home to the left of it was bolted to its foundation, but was constructed on CMU foundation.

As for the homes across the highschool, here’s some of the ones I got.



I’m a bit surprised these were rated EF5 if I’m being honest, but it was pretty clear EF5 winds occurred here. Tim Marshall’s photo of the second home showed that the foundation was actually cracked and buckled in some spots.

 

[AJS]

Was scrolling through the December 10-11 Severe WX thread and came across this nasty tornado scar from the Tri State monster from that outbreak. I genuinely believe this is one of the more underrated candidates that reached EF5 intensity. The debarking this tornado produced near Buckeye, Arkansas was seriously intense.

 

[AJS]

Looks eerily similar to Bassfield.

 

[AJS]

Do any of y’all happen to have any other damage pictures from that particular tornado? I have found it rather difficult to come across any damage photos from this particular twister.

 

[HAwkmoon]

I appreciate it man! It’s tough to say where it peaked, as it was pretty steady-state and very likely maintained EF5 intensity from just east of Highway 183 to the north side of Greensburg, a distance of 10 miles.

I will say however, the ground scouring appeared to be most significant along Highway 183 and that was probably where the initial peak occurred. There was also some extreme damage to two gas compression stations along the highway, I’m going to research more about these stations but the damage there was very upper-echelon. There was also several reports of the ground being gouged out and trenches being dug in the soil, which I initially believed were caused by debris impacts but I’m almost positive that was scouring done by the tornado.

Here’s an aerial of some of the scouring/gouging in a field about a mile or so south of Greensburg. Much of these depressions/gouges in the field were several inches deep and down to the bare soil in some spots, but were most extreme along Highway 183.
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While the tornado likely maintained EF5 intensity all the way through Greensburg, I believe the most extreme damage occurred near the lake. The aerials from there show some absolutely incredible debris granulation and tree damage.

Did you acquire aerials of its path in rural Kiowa Kansas before it hit Greensburg?

 

[Austin Dawg]

The stuff about the sledgehammer with Smithville...that doesn't explain the ground scouring with that thing. The fact it managed to do that kind of ground scouring while moving along that quickly is incredible.
Slow and fast movement....yeah, this is an interesting issue. Bowdle hardly did any damage while moving slower than Jarrell yet Jarrell did arguably the most violent tornado damage ever photographed.
That said, I do wonder about Greensburg and Trousdale while they were over open country, so I get where you're coming from. I'd love to have photographs of the areas they were over before they hit towns or farms, to see how much ground scouring they did over open country.

There is really no comparison between these two storms. Smithville was a hole-in-the-wall town. It was a very small area and very hard to access, which played a large part in why the storm wasn't photographed and examined more closely.

Greenberg was an enormous storm that destroyed a big area. It was examined in much more detail.

Both were strong, top-level tornadoes. I think you have an enormous task differentiating these from the Tri-State, Hackeleburg, Jarrel, Etc. Tornadoes.
'
I agree that the Mayfield, Rolling Fork, Vilonia, or tornadoes should be discussed with the others regardless of their "rating."

 

[HAwkmoon]

I thought the damage and fatality rates were way more extreme on the Illinois portion of the path, especially since only 13 fatalities were recorded in Missouri (which makes me wonder if it was part of a family that started in Missouri). Do you mean it became more powerful in Bollinger-Perry County, MO portions of the path?

I am aware this is a super old comment, but as someone with all the damage points and information (mostly provided by the researchers, Robert H Johns, Charles Doswell, Donald W. Burgess, Matthew S. Gilmore, John A. Hart, Steven F. Piltz, the density of population was lower in Perry and Bollinger Counties. Furthermore, the reported death toll of 12 is as you can imagine a great understatement. Me and another have been going through everybody impacted by the tornado and following up on them. So far, we have identified 46 deaths (37 direct and 9 indirect (we included stillborns in the indirect list since abortions were not around back then)). In comparison we have 43 deaths in Hamilton and 33 dead in White County.

Here is the path in Bollinger County red is devastating (everything destroyed), green is severe, yellow is moderate/to light, and blue are non-damage points.

Here is Perry County

Now for Hamilton County:

And White County.

 

[HAwkmoon]

I am aware this is a super old comment, but as someone with all the damage points and information (mostly provided by the researchers, Robert H Johns, Charles Doswell, Donald W. Burgess, Matthew S. Gilmore, John A. Hart, Steven F. Piltz, the density of population was lower in Perry and Bollinger Counties. Furthermore, the reported death toll of 12 is as you can imagine a great understatement. Me and another have been going through everybody impacted by the tornado and following up on them. So far, we have identified 46 deaths (37 direct and 9 indirect (we included stillborns in the indirect list since abortions were not around back then)). In comparison we have 43 deaths in Hamilton and 33 dead in White County.

Here is the path in Bollinger County red is devastating (everything destroyed), green is severe, yellow is moderate/to light, and blue are non-damage points.
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Here is Perry County
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Now for Hamilton County:
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And White County.

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And if anyone is interested here is Murphysboro.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Did you acquire aerials of its path in rural Kiowa Kansas before it hit Greensburg?

I have yet to see any unfortunately. I’ve come across a couple of old links and other mentions of the entire path being flown over and photographed, but it’s all lost media at this point and don’t think any of it exists online. My best bet would probably be NWS Dodge City.

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And if anyone is interested here is Murphysboro.

Also just wanted to say the attention to detail here is remarkable!

 

[HAwkmoon]

I have yet to see any unfortunately. I’ve come across a couple of old links and other mentions of the entire path being flown over and photographed, but it’s all lost media at this point and don’t think any of it exists online. My best bet would probably be NWS Dodge City.

Also just wanted to say the attention to detail here is remarkable!

Each have damage descriptions too! the base of many of these points was made by Robert H. Johns, Donald W. Burgess, Charles A. Doswell III, Matthew S. Gilmore, John A. Hart, Steven F. Piltz, however myself, and a few others have added to this using records of insurance, aerial footage, and ground photos. Red is devastating, green is severe, yellow is moderate/light. Blue is a non damage point. (Note that some points represent multiple structures).

An example of what each point has

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

To be fair, some of the damage Bowdle produced was actually extremely impressive. Transmission towers and vehicles were mangled with one tower being thrown 400 yards over a hill, trees were completely debarked, and grass was scoured to bare soil in some areas.

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Yeah, I definitely agree Bowdle was violent; what's crazy is it still didn't do ground scouring as bad as Jarrell despite moving even slower.

 

[AJS]

Very extreme vehicle damage from the 2019 Beauregard tornado. Certainly up there with some of the most intense vehicle damage i’ve certainly seen in a dixie alley event.

 

[AJS]

Does anyone happen to have any intense structural damage from the Beauregard tornado? Seems to have been a case where it peaked in an area with very frail structures. This just makes this tornado even more of a tragedy imo. Such a shame it had to peak in the area it did.

 

[Tennie]

I don't know if this has already been posted here yet (I admittedly don't have time to go digging through this thread to check, so if it has, please link me to the post(s) in question, thanks!), but some time ago I came across this video (runtime 28:05):



It covers a long-track tornado (rated F4 by Grazulis) that struck the town of New Ulm, Minnesota, on July 15, 1881. It goes into detail about what is recorded as to what transpired, as well as the possible meteorological factors that allowed things to play out the way that they did. It even discusses the possibility that the tornado may have been accompanied by a twin (which the video creator tentatively suggested could be rated F2) when it went through New Ulm. I highly recommend watching it if you haven't already, and rewatching it if you have!

 

[HAwkmoon]

The more I read about eyewitness descriptions of the Tri-State tornado the more I'm convinced it likely did cycle somewhere in the woods north of Saco, MO. When you read about the tornado near Cherokee Pass every description of it says it began to steadily widen while at the same time becoming rain-wrapped; I think this is the main Tri-State being seen, likely not long after touchdown. It wouldn't surprise me if it achieved F5 intensity within seconds of touching down like extreme events tend to.

Ah yes, this infamous question. Was the Tri-State Tornado one tornado? Short answer, no.

Long answer; the 219 mile path length from Logan Creek to just south of Oatsville might be. The only real question is that big gap. I suppose you could see it as one huge gap with some damage located in between, which would fit the notion that it was one tornado. I actually happen to have a picture titled "Ozarks, 1925 Tornado". But there is no further information on it. However, there have been a couple reports (namely one of a team of people who drove the entire 219 mile path in 7 days) and said it was one continuous tornado. However, I doubt they would have driven that rural section. More likely went around it.

In any event, the 175 mile path from Central MO to Oatsville is definitely from a single tornado.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

How This Forgotten Tornado Outbreak Was Worse Than You Thought

 

[Tennie]

How This Forgotten Tornado Outbreak Was Worse Than You Thought

What I found interesting is that Rolling Fork, MS, managed to just barely avoid being hit by not one but two tornadoes on that date! Unfortunately, its luck would run out just over a half century later...

 

[Shelby]

Sorry if this has already been posted. First time I have seen this video of the '91 Andover tornado.

This is unreal!