NewFoundWeatherNerd
Member
It is my goal to have history be accessible, and preserved for those who want to follow my footsteps in being fascinated by these events. I thank you greatly
-
Welcome to TalkWeather! We see you lurking around TalkWeather! Take the extra step and join us today to view attachments, see less ads and maybe even join the discussion. CLICK TO JOIN TALKWEATHER
Significant Tornado Events
- Thread starter locomusic01
- Start date
atrainguy
Member
I wonder how long Michigan's grace period will last. I imagine that someday, either due to a pattern change or as a complete fluke event, there will be more violent tornadoes.
Aaron Rider
Member
Also been a while for Wisconsin, hasn't it?
atrainguy
Member
Yeah violent tornadoes don't seem particularly common there either. The last F5 was 1996, and I believe the last F4 was in the 90s as well. There have been high end EF3s that have gotten close in more recent years though, including the 2021 Boscobel tornado (160mph). There was also this EF3 in 2007 that happened all the way north of Green Bay that absolutely sliced through the North Woods. The scar is still evident on Google Maps.
Tornadoes Strike Northern Wisconsin - NASA Science
A series of tornadoes ripped through the Upper Midwest region of the United States in the evening of June 7, 2007. At least five different tornadoes touched
earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Aaron Rider
Member
Stoughton, if I recall correctly, was deemed not an F4 because it moved too slowly and hit poorly constructed houses. We all remember how conservative surveys were in the mid 00s. That seemed like a beastly tornado on video though.Yeah violent tornadoes don't seem particularly common there either. The last F5 was 1996, and I believe the last F4 was in the 90s as well. There have been high end EF3s that have gotten close in more recent years though, including the 2021 Boscobel tornado (160mph). There was also this EF3 in 2007 that happened all the way north of Green Bay that absolutely sliced through the North Woods. The scar is still evident on Google Maps.
Tornadoes Strike Northern Wisconsin - NASA Science
A series of tornadoes ripped through the Upper Midwest region of the United States in the evening of June 7, 2007. At least five different tornadoes touched
Aaron Rider
Member
It just occurred to me that Pennsylvania has had a violent tornado (1985, 1998, and possibly 2004 with Campbeltown, Lebanon County) more recently than Michigan. That's pretty crazy. Ditto Virginia (1993 for sure), Connecticut (1979), Maryland (2002), and possibly New York (multiple high end F3s) and Massachusetts (the Springfield EF3 was very strong).
atrainguy
Member
Oh yeah, I remember seeing talk about that now that you mention it.
I've seen it said several times both on this forum and from others (I think Reed Timmer even talked about this once on social media) that Lake Michigan is at least part of the reason for the low amount of strong to violent tornadoes in Michigan, compared to surrounding states. Of course it didn't prevent many violent tornadoes from ravaging the state from the 50s thru the 70s, so there must be some nuances to that. There probably is a known reason for it, but I'm not educated enough on that right now, lol.
The Northeast's history of strong-violent tornadoes is pretty interesting. PA, NY, CT, and the New England region are not the areas that the general public typically associate with notable tornadic events, yet there's all the ones you pointed out, as well as the 1953 Worcester F4.
CheeselandSkies
Member
As that remains the only significant tornado damage I've personally surveyed, I think high-end F3 was the right call. The well-constructed houses it hit generally had removal of roofs and exterior walls but at least some interior walls standing, which is textbook F3 damage. Vehicles were moved/overturned but not hurled long distances and mangled.
However, it was certainly borderline. There were reports of light debris dropping out of the parent thunderstorm almost to Milwaukee, which is a phenomenon seen only with higher-end tornadoes.
Hard to believe the 20th anniversary of that will be this year.
Aaron Rider
Member
On average, Pennsylvania seems to get a violent tornado about once every 2-4 decades. SUPER violent ones have been more limited: apart from a few in 85, there was a very strong storm not terribly far from where I'm from, down in Chester County, on July 1, 1877. I hope to find more information
Edit : coming from PA farm country, I'll admit the "20 foot wall" (over which a cow was tossed) is a source of confusion. I'm baffled as to why such a wall existed lol
Lake Martin EF4
Member
On this day 51 years ago...
On that note, @Wind Driven Coconut brought up a good point in the 4/2 thread - what would the SPC outlook have looked like if 4/3/74 were to happen in the modern day?Decatur-Huntsville, AL F3 (Lake Martin EF4 Note: Pretty sure this is actually the Tanner #1 F5. There's a lot of other images in the post but I had to cut most of them, I kept this one because it's probably the only photo of Tanner we have):
CheeselandSkies
Member
Not completely modern since it was before the five-category system, but I think it would probably look similar to March 2, 2012. To be perfectly accurate, maybe the high risk area would be extended to encompass northern Alabama, and perhaps a 45% hatched tornado contour where the really dense concentration of violent tornadoes took place over the Ohio River region.
Aaron Rider
Member
Hey all. I was searching through this thread for info on the Brownwood, TX tornado of 1976 and found this post from 3 years ago but the pictures appear to be expired. Does anyone have any photos or info on this tornado? Wikipedia says it shredded mesquite treesScar from the Brownwood tornado
More damage photos:
NewFoundWeatherNerd
Member
I did a VERY quick dig through a few newspapers; and WOAH I surprisingly found a lot more than I thought I would!
From the Brownwood Bulletin:
look at that tree damage!
Attachments
Hey Shawn, do you know where those "Grandma Baston" photos come from as the surroundings definitely do not look like Murphysboro? It looks like a very rural and hilly area.Speaking of Tri-State, I recently came across some more photos that I don't think I've ever posted here. Most aren't overly impressive, but still pretty neat. This one is from a home at 536 N 15th St. in Murphysboro:
These are also from Murphysboro - showing "Grandma Batson" and where she rode out the storm - but I haven't had a chance to look up exactly where yet:
Aaron Rider
Member
Similar to Western Iowa at the Missouri River, the country where the (I have no idea what the exact terms are) Illinois prairies meets the Mississippi alluvial plain is actually very respectably hilly
NewFoundWeatherNerd
Member
Kinda off topic but a tornado which I was reminded of the other day was the 6/23/23 Granada CO EF3; which was overshadowed by Matador, despite ALSO being potentially within the violent range. This tornado was extremely isolated, but still hit a few structures such as farm houses and at least two barns; it did kill roughly 8 heads of cattle as well. It was slow moving, deviant, and yet still long tracked; going for about 10 miles in the farmland. It preformed a really fascinating loop which is typically associated with a failed occlusion; I do think this could've contributed to the damage. This tornado was ABSURDLY photogenic
A few photos I could find by the Powers County Sheriff department, these somewhat show signs of potentially EF4 level contextual damages, although much lower end than what I'm usually showing on here:
Here's the tornado
A few photos I could find by the Powers County Sheriff department, these somewhat show signs of potentially EF4 level contextual damages, although much lower end than what I'm usually showing on here:
Here's the tornado
Attachments
Does anybody have any video (when it was in Jefferson county) of the April 27th 2011 tornado that crossed through Tuscaloosa into northern Jefferson county? I always see the footage of it in Tuscaloosa but not much in fultondale and surround areas.
I found this incredible clip just a little bit ago from fultondale.
I found this incredible clip just a little bit ago from fultondale.
Last edited:
Ozonelayer
Member
I don't know if this has been asked, but are there any F-5 tornadoes pre-2007 that would be rated EF-5 today? Like I know there are a few like Niles, OH-Wheatland, PA and Bridge Creek-Moore, OK. But what would be some other examples?
slenker
Member
I’m not familiar with which WFO would have rated Jarrell, but I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that that tornado wouldn’t get an exception from whoever was rating it. I believe the structures were not EF5 worthy in Double Creek but given the extraordinary contextuals it would be an absolute crime to not be given the EF5 rating. That would be the worst snuff ever, period.
I think..? I have heard from sources somewhere on this forum that Bridge Creek would actually have gotten a 200 mph EF4 rating if it occurred nowadays, which is obviously laughably stupid if it’s true. But I have also heard that Marshall uses it as a sort of “measuring stick” when applying the EF5 rating nowadays as well, which I also have gripes with because it was obviously an upper echelon F5, but whatever. It is certainly better than the former being true.
Andover 1991 and Brandenburg 1974 are slam dunks IMO. Guin 1974 I’m not so sure about, even though it would have obviously deserved the rating - I recall some people being iffy on the quality of construction for the homes it affected. Despite them being strangely rated F4, most of the tornadoes from the 1965 Palm Sunday outbreak would have likely achieved the rating. The two Michigan F5s in the 50s also would have likely achieved the rating as well, seeing as they were extraordinarily violent, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t have hit anything well-constructed nowadays if they tracked along the same paths.
I don’t know anything about other historic F5s so I can’t comment on them. I find it hard to believe that Chandler, MN 1992 tornado would be given EF5 but also I don’t know anything about the construction of the homes it hit. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if only half or even less of the officially rated F5s would be given the EF5 rating today if they occurred.
EDIT: I can say with a very high degree of confidence that Plainfield 1990 would not be given an EF5 rating today. Birmingham 1998 would also probably not get it - heard some gripes with construction of swept homes with that one, but I could be wrong. I’d like to know more about it, haven’t seen much damage pictures from that one.
Last edited: