Significant Tornado Events

[Western_KS_Wx]

So I came across some damage photographs form Andover 1991, some I've seen before and some I haven't. They're in black and white so I took the time to colorize them, check it out:

This is from McConnell AFB:

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Greenwich subdivision:

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Damage aerials from Andover and the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park:
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Last 2 pics are of a spade and tack jammed into a tree and a better photo of the mangled vehicle from the mobile home park, not the scoured ground and bent grass and trees around the vehicle:


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Speaking of Andover, that reminded me of this gem I found a while ago regarding the Andover and Winfield, KS damage surveys from that day.



So NWS Wichita — using some interesting criteria — initially finalized the Andover tornado as an F4, but it was later upgraded due to a car being thrown a mile. The same surveyor also assigned an F4 rating to Winfield, but expressed regret saying he “should have rated that tornado an F5.” Now the second instance of a NWS Wichita surveyor wishing they would’ve rated a past tornado an F5. Do what you will with this information.

 

[Aaron Rider]

Happy Harper Day!

Reposting this to get more attention:


I'll have an OTD post later.

Well, it certainly looks like that part of Georgia.

 

[Aaron Rider]

Speaking of Andover, that reminded me of this gem I found a while ago regarding the Andover and Winfield, KS damage surveys from that day.

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So NWS Wichita — using some interesting criteria — initially finalized the Andover tornado as an F4, but it was later upgraded due to a car being thrown a mile. The same surveyor also assigned an F4 rating to Winfield, but expressed regret saying he “should have rated that tornado an F5.” Now the second instance of a NWS Wichita surveyor wishing they would’ve rated a past tornado an F5. Do what you will with this information.

Andover, Red Rock, and Winfield were all F5s while Skiatook and Oologah were VERY high-end F4s at the lowest.

 

[BayouWeatherGeek]

Has anyone seen this video of the 2011 Tuscaloosa as it was approaching Birmingham? I don't know from where it was taken(though there is an interstate highway in the shot that's likely 59/20) but you can clearly see the wedge as it comes closer. Also at around the 35 second part rain begins wrapping around it which would eventually give it the familiar huge dark mass appearance it had when it was filmed on TWC's ground coverage.

 

[Tomcats Forever!]

Alternate angle of the trenched house from the 2011 El Reno Piedmont. What a wipeout.

 

[AJS]

Alternate angle of the trenched house from the 2011 El Reno Piedmont. What a wipeout.

That is extremely violent ground scouring. I swear, the more I learn about El Reno 2011, the more I am convinced that this tornado really was one of the most violent of all time and ( controversial opinion ) the most violent of the 21st century in terms of the contextual damage produced.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

OTD 21 years ago...

The Harper KS F4 became one of the strongest in Kansas History. It has been rated a TF5 on the unofficial Theoretical Fujita (TF) Scale.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

OTD....

2004: Harper. Blatant F5. Probably one of the Top 20 strongest of all time.

May 12th 2004 strong tornadoes

Same day also saw an intense tornado near Attica that produced this legendary video:


Other events:
1886 Potomac, IL and Attica (lol), IN F4s
1942 Nebraska F4s
1956 Flint and Detroit, MI F4s
1997 Miami, FL F1

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The map:

 

[morimementos]

Vehicle damage from Smithville. This thing is on par with Andover, Bridge-Creek Moore and Jarrell in terms of vehicles being mangled, compacted down to size and chewed up.

First off, these 2 pics, I think of the same vehicle from different angles:

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Not sure what kind of car this was but it's mangled beyond recognition:l

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These 3 vehicles, one has it's engine & possibly rear end torn off, the other are smashed & partially granulated:
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A chewed up tractor intertwined with trees, house and other debris:

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Whatever this is, it's barely recognizable as it's been chewed up to hell and back & is practically fused with the house debris:

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Was scrolling through older posts, and I’ve been looking at Smithville car damage. I really wish I was good at math and physics stuff, because I would assume that compressing a car from the side like that to a width of 2 feet or less requires some ungodly force. I’d calculate it if I had any chance of getting the right answer lol. One more absurd thing about the compressed car is that it looks “completely normal” on the other side (photo by Darnell Collums on flickr). There’s also the tree-impaled truck (missing its engine and possibly other front parts) from a video by MSBaptists - took me quite a while to even understand what I was looking at.

 

[TH2002]

OTD 21 years ago...

The Harper KS F4 became one of the strongest in Kansas History. It has been rated a TF5 on the unofficial Theoretical Fujita (TF) Scale.

Ok I'm sorry, but might as well say what many of us are probably thinking...

What on earth is the "Theoretical Fujita Scale" and why even mention it here?

Not calling anyone out in particular, but I don't think I'm alone in my opinion that lately, this site has been getting clogged with minimal effort, uninformed, garbage posts that don't contribute jack. So many that I haven't even been able to keep up with the site in recent weeks...

I'm starting to agree with a user who said that "Talkweather seems to be slowly morphing into r/tornado and I personally don't think that's a good thing"...

(I'll add that this thread hasn't suffered quite as bad as some of the other ones on this site, but said low-effort posts have still become pretty pervasive here...)

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

Alternate angle of the trenched house from the 2011 El Reno Piedmont. What a wipeout.

Speaking of Piedmont, I found an alternate angle of this green tractor that I believe is seen on Tornado Talk, but I'll have to verify

Top photo was from a blog on photography; the files from it are odd, so im having to screenshot the files themselves to show them.
But yes, this looks to be that same green tractor!
Bottom image is the Tornado Talk article!

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

Ok I'm sorry, but might as well say what many of us are probably thinking...

What on earth is the "Theoretical Fujita Scale" and why even mention it here?

Not calling anyone out in particular, but I don't think I'm alone in my opinion that lately, this site has been getting clogged with minimal effort, uninformed, garbage posts that don't contribute jack. So many that I haven't even been able to keep up with the site in recent weeks...

I'm starting to agree with a user who said that "Talkweather seems to be slowly morphing into r/tornado and I personally don't think that's a good thing"...

(I'll add that this thread hasn't suffered quite as bad as some of the other ones on this site, but said low-effort posts have still become pretty pervasive here...)

Part of me feels like I came to this site as this transformation happened; which is slightly upsetting.

But really, lets reserve this for:
-New tornado media
-Rare/Unknown material
-Scientific discussion
-Posts with effort or contribute something of value
-Valid observations and information which can be discussed and debated

Not:
-Random things which have no basis
-Artwork (please make an artwork thread, that would be beneficial!!)
-False information
-Low effort material
-Unscientific info

Like I want to maintain a good platform I can be more serious on; over something like Weather Twitter. And if I do these things, please call me out, thats only fair

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Speaking of Piedmont, I found an alternate angle of this green tractor that I believe is seen on Tornado Talk, but I'll have to verify

Top photo was from a blog on photography; the files from it are odd, so im having to screenshot the files themselves to show them.
But yes, this looks to be that same green tractor!
Bottom image is the Tornado Talk article!
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Here’s two additional angles of the same tractor:


I’ve got numerous photos from this event if you’re interested!

I'm starting to agree with a user who said that "Talkweather seems to be slowly morphing into r/tornado and I personally don't think that's a good thing"...

This right here. I whole heartedly agree with keeping the discussion going and having new posters join the thread, it’s what keeps this site thriving. However some of the recent posts are filling the thread up with straight up misinformation or clearly were made with minimal effort etc. I think certain posts are best left on Reddit (ex. On This Day events, YouTube videos, short and minimalistic posts) and what not to prevent clogging up the discussion. This isn’t meant to deter away people from posting, more so keeping the quality and integrity of the thread intact. Now back to where we left off in the discussion.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Hello everyone I would like to share some damage photos from the 1965 Lebanon-Sheridan IN F4 I obtained thanks to the Boone County Historical Society. This is a part of a DI mapping project I'm working on.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

What on earth is the "Theoretical Fujita Scale" and why even mention it here?

For the record, the TF scale he mentions was a scale he whipped up himself on the EF Debate thread. It was mainly designed around contextual/"non-conventional" DIs. He was really gung ho about it, although that scale had some oddities in some ratings itself (he rated Matador as TF4, I have gone on recording as calling that tornado of the top 5 strongest of all time).

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Alright, one last OTD post. It may continue in a different thread, though.

1923: That one TX F5 no one remembers (Howard-Mitchell County, TX F5)


1980: Kalamazoo, MI F3 (the more famous Kalamazoo tornado)

Item Replacement

Video footage, photos show destruction wrought by 1980 Kalamazoo tornado

A tornado ripped through the heart of downtown Kalamazoo on May 13, 1980.

www.mlive.com

1995: Illinois F4s

Raritan, IL F4 Tornado - May 13, 1995

The map:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1klvgrk/strongest_tornado_on_this_day_in_history_by/

 

[sripey]

Alright, one last OTD post. It may continue in a different thread, though.

1923: That one TX F5 no one remembers (Howard-Mitchell County, TX F5)


1980: Kalamazoo, MI F3 (the more famous Kalamazoo tornado)

Item Replacement

Video footage, photos show destruction wrought by 1980 Kalamazoo tornado

A tornado ripped through the heart of downtown Kalamazoo on May 13, 1980.

www.mlive.com

1995: Illinois F4s

Raritan, IL F4 Tornado - May 13, 1995

The map:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1klvgrk/strongest_tornado_on_this_day_in_history_by/

These may be more appropriate in the Tornado Anniversaries thread.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

1923: That one TX F5 no one remembers (Howard-Mitchell County, TX F5)

Apparently, the damage weren't photographed due to the photographer unable to photograph anything aside from "barren earth"

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

@locomusic01 (sorry for the mention) Do you have anything on May 14th, 1923 Howard-Mitchell County, Texas F5

 

[locomusic01]

@locomusic01 (sorry for the mention) Do you have anything on May 14th, 1923 Howard-Mitchell County, Texas F5

I have a grand total of one, which I apparently don't have any more info on:

I'm sure there's gotta be more out there, I just haven't gone looking for it.