Significant Tornado Events

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

Is the first one not the Poplar Bluff tornado? I'm probably completely wrong, but that and the Poplar Bluff EF3 (first attachment) look nearly the same. From one other photo I've seen of the tornado on the Arkansas side (second picture attached) the tornado had an Andover 2022-reminiscent shape while strengthening, although EF4 intensity was reached further down in the path and it was noticeably wider, seen in the survey.

The tornado's path is wider as it began hitting things and flinging debris violently upwards, shooting things everywhere. I was TOLD the first photo was Franklin, and the other pics I've seen have it looking the same(I dont have them on me at the time).
But Franklin widening makes perfect sense; we saw this with Shawnee 2013, among others; there's like a sort of "sweet spot" of size. As your inflow picks up, more and more moist air is transported towards the tornado; this is why we still see big violent tornadoes, theyre big, and notably strong, even with conservation of angular momentum. Those are just rare; there's a lotta ways to get a wedge (that should be a children's book tittle lol): huge meso's are more prone to producing wider tors; low LCL's smash the tornado into the surface, making it automatically wide; moist, strong RFD's can make a wedge; super moist inflow can ram moisture into a tornadocyclone, making a wedge; plus tons of other things im either forgetting or yet to learn.
Keeping the effect of centeralfugal force in mind; I wouldnt be too shocked if Franklin widened BECAUSE it got stronger too. Tornadoes are like onions, they have layers

 

[A Guy]

Well thinking about our environment on 3/14; wind damage being frequent doesn't remotely surprise me. It was supposed to be a wind-based risk area with the additional risk for intense tornadic activity; but that solution isnt fully what we saw, which there is reason for why. Mainly in the evolution of the jet streak, it ejected absurdly favorably and right on time; allowing for much much much more discrete development; but still remember the thermodynamic parameters existed for powerful winds above 80mph. Being a stout EML above the surface, which allowed for evaporative cooling, which leads to strong downdrafts; we still had those strong downdrafts with our cells, discrete or not!
So Franklin-Fifty Six's path might be "wobbly" or even somewhat diffuse for this reason; as strong RFD widened the tornado, reducing it's winds with conservation of angular momentum in mind, but still allowing for strong multi-vortex activity. We saw this last year on 5/26/24, with the Dawson Springs KY EF3; very wide, fast moving, long tracked, but did not produce any variety of particularly violent level damage. Based on what photos I have seen of Franklin-Fifty Six, it looks very similar in appearance to Dawson Springs 2024; very dark, wide, and almost a little diffuse looking. RFD/Strom interactions can deeply alter a tornadoes behavior and path, along with environmental parameters outside of just the storm-scale interactions.

Edit: Something I just thought of; look at the difference in appearance between Franklin-Fifty Six, and the Diaz EF4 from literally the same time! Notice how thin the Diaz tornado looks? Well the damage can be correlated to just that; being the angular momentum of a thin, vertically intense tornado; keeping in mind the Diaz tornado existed in the southern area of the outbreak, it's parent supercell had a less intense RFD, as the wind probs increased with northward extent.

First photo is Franklin-Fifty Six, the second is the Diaz tornado. You'll notice the difference instantly

That's judging a tornado off it's visual appearance, including poor quality near horizon shots showing little, like on the left. The condensation funnel is often much narrower than the determined path width anyway and as emphasised by Roger Wakimoto, the relationship is not consistent.

The Franklin tornado's path both in DAT (EF-1 contour) and on Sentinel is quite wide when it was most intense and that doesn't change significantly when it becomes too weak to see on the April 7/8 satellite image, though there are some DIs placed well outside it. If the mechanism you propose exists, it's doubtful it would apply here.

The Dawson Springs tornado doesn't support your idea. A ground marking's visible soon after the track starts to west of White Sulphur, and after becoming indistinct for a couple of miles clear tree damage starts east of White Sulphur and becomes increasingly intense as the tornado widened, remaining obvious right until the path end.

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

That's judging a tornado off it's visual appearance, including poor quality near horizon shots showing little, like on the left. The condensation funnel is often much narrower than the determined path width anyway and as emphasised by Roger Wakimoto, the relationship is not consistent.

The Franklin tornado's path both in DAT (EF-1 contour) and on Sentinel is quite wide when it was most intense and that doesn't change significantly when it becomes too weak to see on the April 7/8 satellite image, though there are some DIs placed well outside it. If the mechanism you propose exists, it's doubtful it would apply here.

The Dawson Springs tornado doesn't support your idea. A ground marking's visible soon after the track starts to west of White Sulphur, and after becoming indistinct for a couple of miles clear tree damage starts east of White Sulphur and becomes increasingly intense as the tornado widened, remaining obvious right until the path end.

The mechanism I noted is known to exist. Like that has been observed; I did later note how it's NOT the only way these things can happen. All we can do is shoot spitballs here; we cant X-Ray tornadoes, at least not to the detail we need. I never said anything was certain, just theories. Plus in my first sentence I did note the correlation Wakimoto said; being the large amount of debris being sprayed (which is why you often see tornadoes become wider when they hit structures, they start flinging things).
Keep in mind some areas of more intense damage can be from subvorts, asymmetrical inflow jets, debris effects, and even the south/right side of a tornado being automatically stronger from Coriolis force. Asymmetrical jets are particularly fascinating; that's something Id love to look for evidence of via high-definition satellite imagery

 

[locomusic01]

I know I'm flooding the thread with Palm Sunday (sorry), but here's some more stuff from the "F1" in Monroe, WI:

And from the Watertown, WI "F2" as well:

Again, I'm far from an expert, but I feel fairly confident in saying the official ratings for Palm Sunday are.. not great.

 

[locomusic01]

Haven't really gotten into the Williams Bay-Como, WI F1 yet, but..

Also forgot to include this watermarked photo from near the beginning of the Watertown F2 in Johnson Creek:

 

[locomusic01]

Also, I've been (very slowly) working on an article on the Ruskin Heights outbreak so I figured I'd share a few preliminary things. Here's the full damage path with all of the fatalities plotted, and a closeup of the area between Martin City and Raytown where most of the deaths occurred:

The actual path was certainly wider in some areas, but I tend to err on the conservative side. Anyway, here's the Concordia, KS F4. The path plotted here is almost exactly 54 miles; Grazulis had the tornado dissipating 3mi NE of Morrowville, but there's continuous damage going several miles further, and a local sheriff reported watching the tornado follow him up the highway and cross in front of him near the end of the path here. Possible it may have been a tornado family, but there's no place I can definitively pinpoint a break.

The Harris-Rush City, MN F4 gets almost entirely overshadowed for obvious reasons, but its narrow core was pretty violent. The path here is about 10.4 miles with a max width of just under a quarter-mile, but the most intense damage may have only been like 50-100 yards:

I was a bit surprised to learn there were apparently multiple photos taken of this tornado, but I've only been able to find one so far:

The Fremont-Van Buren F4 path isn't finalized yet but it's roughly accurate and all seven deaths are plotted. Length is ~24.8 miles:

The Desloge, MO F3 (which I just realized I forgot to mark two of the deaths) with a path of ~30.5 miles. Not 100% certain the last couple of miles are actually tornado damage though, still working on that:

The Brownbranch-Squires, MO F2 (rated F3 by Grazulis, which is much more appropriate IMO). The path here is 33 miles:

There was a fairly significant tornado family in SE Nebraska covering a combined 74 miles, the last of which was photographed by multiple people in and around Lincoln:

 

[locomusic01]

Couldn't include them above, but here are a couple photos of the Dorchester-Pleasant Dale F2 (the third in the SE Nebraska family):

 

[locomusic01]

Oh, last thing for now. I cobbled together the individual aerial photos of the Ruskin Heights path that are available to make a mosaic. It's way too big to post directly so I uploaded it to Google Drive if anyone wants it:



It covers from the KS/MO border (~2mi SW of Martin City) to the end of the path in the very top right corner.

 

[TH2002]

I know I'm flooding the thread with Palm Sunday (sorry), but here's some more stuff from the "F1" in Monroe, WI:

And from the Watertown, WI "F2" as well:

Again, I'm far from an expert, but I feel fairly confident in saying the official ratings for Palm Sunday are.. not great.

-Anchor bolted home swept away
-F1

Yikes

I really want to know exactly who was responsible for assigning the ratings for this outbreak. It's literally like John Robinson and his cronies went back in time and rated that outbreak and ONLY that outbreak.

 

[locomusic01]

-Anchor bolted home swept away
-F1

Yikes

I really want to know exactly who was responsible for assigning the ratings for this outbreak. It's literally like John Robinson and his cronies went back in time and rated that outbreak and ONLY that outbreak.

Even more amusing and/or baffling when you remember a certain "F5" that happened a year and a half later:

 

[TH2002]

While we're on the topic of egregiously underrated tornadoes, here are some others that popped into my head:

Insane damage from the June 2, 1952 Buck Grove, IA "F2"


Well-built home swept away by the June 7, 1990 Emporia, KS "F2"

Tree damage from the June 15, 2019 Freedom, IN "EF1"

Tree damage from the March 24, 2020 Tishomingo, MS "EF1"

 

[slenker]

Any imagery from Loyal Valley 1999? I've heard some incredible things that I'm admittedly a little skeptical of (such as a foundation apparently being "gone"), but I haven't seen any imagery of the damage from it. From what I have heard it sounds like one of those super slow-moving Plains grinders.

 

[eep]

While we're on the topic of egregiously underrated tornadoes, here are some others that popped into my head:

Insane damage from the June 2, 1952 Buck Grove, IA "F2"


Well-built home swept away by the June 7, 1990 Emporia, KS "F2"

Tree damage from the June 15, 2019 Freedom, IN "EF1"

Tree damage from the March 24, 2020 Tishomingo, MS "EF1"

2024 had a bunch of these IIRC, Custer City, OK, Duke, OK, and one in texas that I forgot the name of.

 

[A Guy]

Oh, last thing for now. I cobbled together the individual aerial photos of the Ruskin Heights path that are available to make a mosaic. It's way too big to post directly so I uploaded it to Google Drive if anyone wants it:



It covers from the KS/MO border (~2mi SW of Martin City) to the end of the path in the very top right corner.

Is there any way make it smaller? Maybe by cutting out around the track and turning the rest into white space? Tried to do the same myself but my computer couldn't handle it.

Did you end up finding any evidence that it was a family? I know Grazulis thinks there may have been a break south of Wellsville, but I see you don't have one.

Whilst coming up largely empty handed in trying to find out whether the 1969 Hazlehurst tornado was family (it's about the only candidate left for a 100+ mile track between 1925 and 2008) I did find a study by someone measuring the magnetism of nails to see if it would confirm his electromagnetic theory of tornadoes. @Grand Poo Bah will be very disappointed to know that no evidence for the theory was found, but more importantly it contained the only the maps detailing any part of the path I've ever seen.

 

[jiharris0220]

I know I'm flooding the thread with Palm Sunday (sorry), but here's some more stuff from the "F1" in Monroe, WI:

And from the Watertown, WI "F2" as well:

Again, I'm far from an expert, but I feel fairly confident in saying the official ratings for Palm Sunday are.. not great.

Eh, I actually agree with the F2 rating for Watertown.

Looking at the house in these photos, even in low quality I can tell it was built like sh$t. Notice the roof on the third photo, its practically in one piece upside down right next to the property.

That thing flew off with no effort at all, likely only took 70knot winds to do that.

Regarding the house itself, it’s clear it was constructed out of hollow cinder blocks, which at that point you might as well have built a house out of matchsticks.

Once that sorry excuse of a roof flipped off the walls fell down like a stack of cards.

Also notice the lack of any significant contextuals, none of the cinder blocks broke apart and even most of the wooden debris (mainly the 2by4s) are still intact.

Now that “F1” rated tornado is a whole other story.

 

[Aaron Rider]

Eh, I actually agree with the F2 rating for Watertown.

Looking at the house in these photos, even in low quality I can tell it was built like sh$t. Notice the roof on the third photo, its practically in one piece upside down right next to the property.

That thing flew off with no effort at all, likely only took 70knot winds to do that.

Regarding the house itself, it’s clear it was constructed out of hollow cinder blocks, which at that point you might as well have built a house out of matchsticks.

Once that sorry excuse of a roof flipped off the walls fell down like a stack of cards.

Also notice the lack of any significant contextuals, none of the cinder blocks broke apart and even most of the wooden debris (mainly the 2by4s) are still intact.

Now that “F1” rated tornado is a whole other story.

Watertown was rated F3.....I think

Edit: Correction: You're right. It was rated F2.

I agree with you. Monroe should definitely have been F4 minimum, though. Williams Bay, probably F3, possibly F2.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

I wonder if there's actually other photos from the June 5th, 1917 Kiro/Elmont tornado aside from the schoolhouse photo that was featured in Grazulis' book

 

[Central Ohio Wx]

Any imagery from Loyal Valley 1999? I've heard some incredible things that I'm admittedly a little skeptical of (such as a foundation apparently being "gone"), but I haven't seen any imagery of the damage from it. From what I have heard it sounds like one of those super slow-moving Plains grinders.

No idea on imagery, but here's a photo of the tornado:

Edit: Check out this damage photo, it may be sort of what you're looking for?

 

[HAwkmoon]

Alright, some photos of Gorham from Tri-State, as many photos often cited as Gorham are in fact Griffin or De Soto. These came from Nick Quigley and Jackson County Historical Society. I actually helped identify some.

The Post Office in Gorham.

General destruction in town across from the railroad.


Complete carnage along the railroad. In the background is a large hickory tree that is 3 feet wide at the base. It has been entirely stripped of its limbs and bark right down to the base and left completely white per resident's statements. Also visible is some kind of tender/locomotive that has been blown away. The small home at the right was actually the two-story log home of the Kahne family and was the oldest home in town. It was quite strong and survived better than the frame homes nearby.



General devastation, note the debarked trees and crushed car.

Northeastern Gorham, note the 2x4 impaled into the ground.

More absolute devastation looking towards the school.

The school facing north. The core passed behind this photo. It's large frame sheltered some of the homes opposite it. Many were killed inside.


Front of the school.


Two views showing the damage along the railroad from southeast to northeast. Part 1.

 

[HAwkmoon]

Part 2 of Gorham.


Southern end of town.


Debarked and denuded tree and the 18 room Boulting Rooming House.


On the left is what was once a two-story brick business. To the right and continuing down that street all the other businesses, shops and homes were leveled.

To the right is the Crain home where one was killed and blown onto the tracks. South is the Post Office, and further south are businesses. On the other side is the badly damaged MOPAC Station.


The wrecked MOPAC station.


The Coal Chute completely razed. 18 Boxcars in the core along the railroad were destroyed along with some buildings, and even the railtracks were ripped up. Below is a crushed car from that area.




Complete destruction in Gorham and many debarked trees.

A view similar to image 3 in part 1, that shows the debarked Hickory Tree and devastation across the RR.

Damage path in Gorham. Red is devastating (F4-F5 level), green is severe, (F2-F3), yellow is moderate (F0-F1).