Shelby
Member
Unreal! I would also add some of the most impressive debarking of trees and vegetation.
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Significant Tornado Events
- Thread starter locomusic01
- Start date
AJS
Member
Controversial opinion, but I truly believe that El Reno 2011 was the most violent EF5 we have seen of the 21st century. I know Smithville also happened, but the scouring, granulation, debarking of trees/various shrubs, and the absolute mangling of so many vehicles is in my opinion unmatched with any of the EF5s.
AJS
Member
I will say that an argument for Smithville being the most intense is definitely warranted as this thing had some pretty incomprehensible damage feats, but I truly feel like if El Reno had struck a town directly, we would have seen damage as incomprehensible as Smithville.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Smithville and El Reno are about neck and neck, I think.
One thing I see not mentioned as much as it should be about El Reno is the fact that it tossed a 20000 lb oil tanker a mile(?) I believe, which is truly absurd. Smithville tossed the Ford explorer that dented the water tower just over a mile through the air but that was not an entire oil tanker. I could definitely see El Reno being more violent out of the two of them but it hit a far more rural area so we’ll never really know for sure. In my eyes, they’re pretty much the surefire #1 and #2 in the 21st century without a doubt. Pretty unreal that they also occurred less than a month apart from each other
csx1985
Member
Here is a recently uploaded pic that I borrowed from Reddit. It shows the Smithville EF5 at or seconds before touchdown. 
Shelby
Member
El Reno was an absolute beast! However, IMO Smithville, MS and Philadelphia, MS had just as severe scouring, tree and shrubbery debarking as El Reno and El Reno was moving at a much more modest forward speed. When Smithville touched down it was already removing a foot of topsoil in pastures moving at a forward speed of 70mph. The 3 foot trenches that Philadelphia, MS caused is virtually unmatched. Also Philadelphia did similar vehicle damage.
Shelby
Member
The tornado that preceded Smithville in New Wren threw a truck 1.7 - 1.8 miles from origin without any indication of rolling.
Some other crazy records I will throw out. Both F4 and EF-4 tornadoes:
Villonia, AR 2014
The crumpled remains of a 29,998-pound metal fertilizer tank was found behind the destroyed strip mall, nearly 3⁄4 mi (1.2 km) away from where it originated.
Bakersfield Valley, TX 1990
unanchored three 500-barrell oil tanks, each weighing approximately 180,000lbs, were tossed and rolled them three miles to the east. Two of the oil tanks were tossed 600ft up the side of a hill with a steep incline (Storm Data, June 1990).
CheeselandSkies
Member
There was definitely just something different in the water (or atmosphere) in 2011. Even after the season had that lull from after the Super Outbreak system moved out through the first 20 days of May, when the next sequence did arrive it picked right back up with the extreme tornadic violence.
I usually hear it attributed to the La Nina, but we've had La Ninas since and not all of them have coincided with active tornado seasons (some, such as 2018, have been quite the opposite). This past spring, a quick and intense transition from El Nino to La Nina was expected to be one of the factors leading to an active tornado season, which we certainly did have in 2024 but it's my understanding that the transition to La Nina (which we are in now) was later and weaker than expected a year ago. I can't help but think there had to be other factors at play to make April-May 2011 the "perfect storm" so to speak in terms of both tornado numbers and intensity.
NewFoundWeatherNerd
Member
Actually theres a reason here for why Piedmont's debarking might just be a little more interesting:
The Janka Hardness scale, used to define the hardness of wood/tree species must be noted with the Smithville. The trees Smithville was debarking were MUCH softer than trees present in El Reno/Piedmont; they were pines, softwoods, species present in lowland. Piedmont was debarking large oaks, mesquites, these are slow growing, extremely hardwood species. While it was going slower than Smithville's 60+ mph speed, its not like it still wasn't going 30-35 mph forward over minimal debris; Smithville had things to granulate debris with (being other debris), Piedmont had Oklahoma clay. I will not deny that Smithville is utterly impressive, in fact I fully believe it was potentially the strongest tornado of 4/27/11 (maybe other than Hackleburg); but Piedmont was completely unimaginable. Plus, keep in mind debris may have been influenced by the fast forward speed of Smithville; so the "throwing distance" may not be as insane as originally suspected; although it certainly still is impressive.
I know I have sent this before but this is damage to hundreds of young Persimmon (and some sassafras) trees from Tri-State. Extraordinary debarking in an area with very little debris to do such a thing.
As for this, here are some other views of this car that was thrown 780 yards, keep in mind this was a 3 ton vehicle that had a integrated frame and chassis but was ripped in half. However it isn't even arguably the worst vehicle damage Piedmont produced.
Here are some other views of the car.
The only vehicle from Philadelphia was this, which while violent is not as severe as the Chevy Avalanche and other cars from piedmont. The vegetation damage in Smithville (specifically past the funeral home) occurred to softwood trees, weaker species than piedmont. However Smithville did exceptional vegetation damage to hardwoods too so its definitely in the same ball park as piedmont. Philadelphia's tree damage was not as severe as those two from what I have seen, although very severe damage to single trees. As for the trenching, I have never heard of 3 feet trenches? I thought it was 2 feet but I might be wrong. Yes that is extremely impressive I just have doubts on the way the trenching occurred, but all are extremely violent tornadoes.
CheeselandSkies
Member
Holy cow. That is what I would consider textbook (E)F5 vehicle damage. Some might argue that there is no such thing, but to me that's a distinctive level of obliteration that is only seen in such events as El Reno '11, Smithville, and Bridge Creek-Moore '99 (or Jarrell, where anything once identifiable as a vehicle ceases to exist). In the (almost guaranteed) absence of structural DIs of adequate construction quality, that could be used to lend contextual support to an EF5 rating if the various NWS offices ever decide to be reasonable about it again.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Where'd you find that Tri-State debarking pic?
I was sent it by Hamilton County Historical Society and McCoy Memorial Library. I posted it earlier but I know we had our difference of opinion so you might have missed it. I have been generously provided hundreds of high quality pictures by several museums on the Tri-State Tornado and now have close to a thousand damage pictures (along with every single known damage location). I made a post on reddit about path length recently actually.
Shelby
Member
This is someone who has researched this topic much more extensively than me. There is nothing to me that points to El Reno being stronger than Smithville. It might have been! However, there are plenty of of photos of severe vehicle damage in Smithville. Philadelphia, MS produced some of the most extreme ground scouring at depths over 2 feet in places. This happened in seconds. I don’t think this is a coincidence because of weak soil. The reason being 5 confirmed EF-5 tornadoes were spawned that day. It was a freakish event and Philadelphia ground scouring is really unique. It also scoured pavement from the ground. Point being it’s impossible to say El Reno was stronger based off of clay, tree strength etc. Every one of these tornadoes produced unique damage indicators.
The List of the Strongest Tornadoes Ever Recorded: Part I
□ Over a thousand google searches every month ask the question – “What was the strongest tornado ever recorded?” In all likelihood, a quarter of those searches came from me. Truthfully, there…
extremeplanet.wordpress.com
Juliett Bravo Kilo
Member
Wonder how long until a photo of the thing is finally dug up, especially since this year will be the 100th anniversary.
Shelby
Member
Smithville
Attachments
Unfortunately I doubt one has been found, it might exist. But afaik none of the eyewitnesses noted by Doswell Et al took pictures.
NewFoundWeatherNerd
Member
Where in the universe did you find these?! Just wow.... thats incredible...
Im actually doing some research on this tornado, so ill lend you my YouTube finds because this is insane! You are correct in that this tornado just repeatedly did absurd vehicle damage; not only that, the tree damage as well. Just.. wow ... unbelievable
Unlisted Playlist of Piedmont stuff: