Significant Tornado Events

[Lake Martin EF4]

Today is the 12th anniversary of the Rozel, KS EF4 tornado. Instead of an OTD post, I'd like to posit a question: Was this tornado worthy of an EF4 or even an EF3 rating? The common consensus is that it wasn't, but I'd like to get word from some of our members here.

Also, off topic, there were a LOTTA chasers busting on this tornado. I think more people Atmospheric Anti-Climax on this event than scored on it, and it appears many of them were lured to other supercells in the area (or walled off by a squall line while throwing up everything they ate that day....poor Skip!). Reminds me of Chapman in terms of spectacularly bustable Kansas events.

EDIT: AJS liked my post instantly. Like, as soon as I made it. Wow.

 

[A Guy]

Today is the 12th anniversary of the Rozel, KS EF4 tornado. Instead of an OTD post, I'd like to posit a question: Was this tornado worthy of an EF4 or even an EF3 rating? The common consensus is that it wasn't, but I'd like to get word from some of our members here.

Also, off topic, there were a LOTTA chasers busting on this tornado. I think more people Atmospheric Anti-Climax on this event than scored on it, and it appears many of them were lured to other supercells in the area (or walled off by a squall line while throwing up everything they ate that day....poor Skip!). Reminds me of Chapman in terms of spectacularly bustable Kansas events.

EDIT: AJS liked my post instantly. Like, as soon as I made it. Wow.

IMO more appropriate to put this in the EF scale discussion thread, and the OTDs in the anniversaries thread.

 

[SilentShadow87]

So like I said in the other thread, I decided to do some number crunching on violent tornadoes by day of the week. And I was a bit surprised at what I found. Wednesday might be infamous as the "tornado day" in the Southeast, but overall it's actually only the third most active day of the week for violent tornadoes. Accounting for all violent tornadoes around the world, the day with the most F4/EF4+ tornadoes is Friday, followed by Saturday. Apparently tornadoes really live for the weekend.

Note: I decided to only include violent tornadoes from 1980 to present, since ratings were way more liberal in the past and it was only around the 80s that they started to become more in line with modern standards. Even then, a few of the F4 ratings in the 80s are very questionable, along with a few more recent ones.

Violent tornado totals, 1980-2025:

Monday - 36
Tuesday - 41
Wednesday - 48
Thursday - 32
Friday - 65
Saturday - 50
Sunday - 46

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Good point. Reading the Significant Tornadoes entry, Grazulis writes that 6/8/47 was "probably the largest and most intense Colorado tornado on record" - but again, damage imagery is completely lacking. Frustratingly, the main newspaper in Logan County (the Sterling Journal-Advocate) is owned by a massive media conglomerate, which makes contacting the paper directly way more difficult, and their archives only go back to 2001. The other newspaper, the South Platte Sentinel didn't even exist until 1988. Great start...

Aight so I happened to stumble on this post and out of curiosity I referred to the ol' Google and looked up the event. It led me to this article, which I'm not sure of the validity of it, but the author does appear to have at least done his research. And if it's correct, I think Grazulis was right on at least the "strongest in Colorado history" part.

Sterling-Kelly-LeRoy, Colorado tornado of 1947

Article written by Jonah Bailey, a 14 year old who has invested years into researching historical weather events, especially violent tornadoes, in the US State of Colorado. This study or reanalysis of this event is meant to make important information on this tornado and it’s impacts more easily...

tornado-database.fandom.com

First, a photo of the tornado itself:


Anywho, this was a farmstead owned by Marvin Felzein. Apparently it was a pretty large building judging by the size of the foundation but it didn't matter, the building was still quite literally smashed to splinters.


Photo documentation ends there, but textual evidence (if fully truthful, take it with a grain of salt) fills in a number of gaps. Among the most impressive claims:

• Essentially every single structure on all of the eight (!) farmsteads it directly hit was swept completely away. Apparently photos exist for most if not all of the other farmsteads, although if they do the author didn't put them in the article.
• Judging by the rural location, it is likely that no debris loading was involved in the above sweep-aways.
• At the Heist Farmstead, the owner described everything over 2 feet tall as completely gone, which implies the farmstead was essentially vaporized and also may imply that very little debris was left over.
• Not only was large and possibly heavy farm equipment carried (not thrown, carried) away into the tornado at multiple locations, but there was no documentation stating that any of it was found, possibly implying that the farm equipment was either deposited in inaccessible locations Buttermilk 5/23/08-style or completely destroyed.

All in all, I am fairly convinced that this was an F5 and the strongest in Colorado state history. Not the largest (the author of this article has an entire database on strong-violent Colorado tornadoes and he estimated the 1925 Wray tornado as being two miles wide at minimum), but still over a mile wide, and the distance involved between the relevant structures proves it.

In conclusion, I think Grazulis was right calling the 1947 Logan County tornado the strongest in Colorado state history, and it rounds out the 1947 "Terrible Trio" of F5s along with Leedey and Woodward.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

I believe NIST and ASCE rated the Jarrell 1997 tornado a high-end F3. I am totally speechless as to where they came up with that.

As far as i know, NIST report (Jarrell 1997) mentions that they only inspected six of the homes at Double Creek Estates and those homes (the six homes that were inspected) had no anchor bolts, only nailing

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

IMO more appropriate to put this in the EF scale discussion thread, and the OTDs in the anniversaries thread.

Well, then I wonder where IS the anniversary thread? If so, a link would be fantastic!

 

[A Guy]

So like I said in the other thread, I decided to do some number crunching on violent tornadoes by day of the week. And I was a bit surprised at what I found. Wednesday might be infamous as the "tornado day" in the Southeast, but overall it's actually only the third most active day of the week for violent tornadoes. Accounting for all violent tornadoes around the world, the day with the most F4/EF4+ tornadoes is Friday, followed by Saturday. Apparently tornadoes really live for the weekend.

Ooh this was a hang up of this forum that used to irritate me much more than it should have, being based on an n=2 sample*. I'd always think 'come on guys, there's been four major outbreaks on Palm Sunday. That's one specific (if movable) Sunday' (ofc those weren't all in the SE).

*somehow I don't remember the '98 F5 being mentioned even though it was on a Wednesday

 

[OH-IOan]

Y’all may be interested in this;

 

[AJS]

Y’all may be interested in this;

Without a doubt up there with one of the most legendary tornado coverage’s.

I think WPSD’s coverage of the Mayfield tornado is insane as well. They really did an outstanding job and saved many lives that night.

 

[OH-IOan]

Without a doubt up there with one of the most legendary tornado coverage’s.

I think WPSD’s coverage of the Mayfield tornado is insane as well. They really did an outstanding job and saved many lives that night.

James Spann's incredible 12-hour+ 4/27/11 coverage is without a doubt the best storm coverage ever. He saved so many lives that day; it's a shame that radar bugged out right as the Tuscaloosa tornado was over town.

 

[locomusic01]

So, I've mentioned that I'm working on my next big article for my blog, but I've had a lot going on that's made the process even slower than usual. I still intend to finish it as soon as I can, but I'd really like to be able to put out something in the meantime. With that in mind, what kinda stuff would you guys be interested in? A few ideas I've been thinking about:

- Broad, high-level overviews of major outbreaks

- Random violent tornadoes that are more obscure/poorly documented

- High-end tornadoes that got overshadowed in larger outbreaks

- Overviews of "tornado towns" like OKC/Moore, St. Louis, Birmingham, etc.

I dunno - I'm not convinced I can do shorter articles without going overboard, but lemme know if y'all have any ideas.

 

[OH-IOan]

So, I've mentioned that I'm working on my next big article for my blog, but I've had a lot going on that's made the process even slower than usual. I still intend to finish it as soon as I can, but I'd really like to be able to put out something in the meantime. With that in mind, what kinda stuff would you guys be interested in? A few ideas I've been thinking about:

- Broad, high-level overviews of major outbreaks

- Random violent tornadoes that are more obscure/poorly documented

- High-end tornadoes that got overshadowed in larger outbreaks

- Overviews of "tornado towns" like OKC/Moore, St. Louis, Birmingham, etc.

I dunno - I'm not convinced I can do shorter articles without going overboard, but lemme know if y'all have any ideas.

Hm... third one. I can name at least five incredibly violent tornadoes during the 2011 Super Outbreak that people even in the Wx community haven't heard of. Would be great to see one of those being talked about (Cordova, )

 

[OH-IOan]

Also, do any of y'all know when Tornado Archive is going to update for 2024? I believe around this time last year they added 2023's tracks, but they haven't done it for 2024 yet.

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

I think people forget how truly violent the 2013 Moore/Newcastle EF5 really was. Out of the unbelievable 4253 objects considered damaged by the tornado, 4222 were surveyed for an EF-Scale assessment:

-50% were EF0 in rating
Excluding EF0 damage:
-38% were EF1 (825 DIs)
-24% EF2 (502 DIs)
-21% EF3 (462 DIs)
-17% were violent, EF4 DIs (363 DIs)
-0.4% EF5 (9 DIs)
17% of the 14-mile long, 1.05 mile wide surveyed area, was damage of EF4 intensity.
That is an unbelievably vast swath of violent damage, with 363 individual damage indicators of EF4 strength.

I dont think that's truly something we've seen since; sure, the lack of an EF5 rating in now 12 years is downright stupid: but I cannot deny that Moore 2013 really does stand out. Zones had to be made just for people to recognize their streets, it produced some of the worst vegetation damage from an EF5, plus mangled cars to the point of being unrecognizable.

Here are some rare views of the damage I've discovered on YouTube:





Combined with these; here are photos from the aerial survey of this EF5; this is what gave the surveyors the ability to determine many of the EF2-EF4 damage indicators; the (9) EF5 DIs were examined on the ground: these pics are by Dr. Roger Wakimoto




Just LOOK at how violent the core vortex scar is; you can visibly see how consistent, stable, and strong the end-wall, core vortex is.
Such a rare level of strength

 

[Aaron Rider]

Ooh this was a hang up of this forum that used to irritate me much more than it should have, being based on an n=2 sample*. I'd always think 'come on guys, there's been four major outbreaks on Palm Sunday. That's one specific (if movable) Sunday' (ofc those weren't all in the SE).

*somehow I don't remember the '98 F5 being mentioned even though it was on a Wednesday

All I know is May 31 is a day of infamy in Pennsylvania. Not just the 5/31/85 outbreak but another one in the 90s and, of course, the creme de la creme of disasters, the Johnstown Flood in 1889. I keep my head up on May 31.

 

[locomusic01]

I think people forget how truly violent the 2013 Moore/Newcastle EF5 really was.

I'm sure I (and probably others) have said it before, but 5/20/13 is basically Bridge Creek if it had remained at peak size and intensity moving through Moore itself. I won't clog things up with a bunch more photos that're probably already here elsewhere in the thread, but it's firmly in the "about as extreme as it gets" category.

As horrific as it was for Moore, it's probably a good thing they'd already gone through 5/3/99 (among other events). I don't even want to imagine what would've happened had it struck a city less prepared for high-end tornadoes - although I suppose we already saw that to some extent with Joplin.

 

[HAwkmoon]

So, I've mentioned that I'm working on my next big article for my blog, but I've had a lot going on that's made the process even slower than usual. I still intend to finish it as soon as I can, but I'd really like to be able to put out something in the meantime. With that in mind, what kinda stuff would you guys be interested in? A few ideas I've been thinking about:

- Broad, high-level overviews of major outbreaks

- Random violent tornadoes that are more obscure/poorly documented

- High-end tornadoes that got overshadowed in larger outbreaks

- Overviews of "tornado towns" like OKC/Moore, St. Louis, Birmingham, etc.

I dunno - I'm not convinced I can do shorter articles without going overboard, but lemme know if y'all have any ideas.

What is your next big project on? Not sure if you have already mentioned it so apologies if its already been said.

 

[Aaron Rider]

So, I've mentioned that I'm working on my next big article for my blog, but I've had a lot going on that's made the process even slower than usual. I still intend to finish it as soon as I can, but I'd really like to be able to put out something in the meantime. With that in mind, what kinda stuff would you guys be interested in? A few ideas I've been thinking about:

- Broad, high-level overviews of major outbreaks

- Random violent tornadoes that are more obscure/poorly documented

- High-end tornadoes that got overshadowed in larger outbreaks

- Overviews of "tornado towns" like OKC/Moore, St. Louis, Birmingham, etc.

I dunno - I'm not convinced I can do shorter articles without going overboard, but lemme know if y'all have any ideas.

I'd REALLY love to see an article on the 1944 Appalachian outbreak and perhaps the Frostburg outbreak (forget the date) back in 98. Talk about unusual and strange.


As for random tornadoes, I'd have to think but that's a good idea.

 

[Aaron Rider]

I think people forget how truly violent the 2013 Moore/Newcastle EF5 really was. Out of the unbelievable 4253 objects considered damaged by the tornado, 4222 were surveyed for an EF-Scale assessment:

-50% were EF0 in rating
Excluding EF0 damage:
-38% were EF1 (825 DIs)
-24% EF2 (502 DIs)
-21% EF3 (462 DIs)
-17% were violent, EF4 DIs (363 DIs)
-0.4% EF5 (9 DIs)
17% of the 14-mile long, 1.05 mile wide surveyed area, was damage of EF4 intensity.
That is an unbelievably vast swath of violent damage, with 363 individual damage indicators of EF4 strength.

I dont think that's truly something we've seen since; sure, the lack of an EF5 rating in now 12 years is downright stupid: but I cannot deny that Moore 2013 really does stand out. Zones had to be made just for people to recognize their streets, it produced some of the worst vegetation damage from an EF5, plus mangled cars to the point of being unrecognizable.

Here are some rare views of the damage I've discovered on YouTube:
View attachment 42683
View attachment 42684
View attachment 42685
View attachment 42686

Combined with these; here are photos from the aerial survey of this EF5; this is what gave the surveyors the ability to determine many of the EF2-EF4 damage indicators; the (9) EF5 DIs were examined on the ground: these pics are by Dr. Roger Wakimoto
View attachment 42687
View attachment 42688
View attachment 42697
View attachment 42699
Just LOOK at how violent the core vortex scar is; you can visibly see how consistent, stable, and strong the end-wall, core vortex is.
Such a rare level of strength

It does seen as if there's a collective concept that nothing can be EF5 if it isn't like Moore.

 

[slenker]

It does seen as if there's a collective concept that nothing can be EF5 if it isn't like Moore.

I fully agree. I've heard a general sentiment that Moore 2013 is a "marginal" EF5, which is simply ridiculous to anyone who has seen the imagery of the most intense damage. It was without a doubt well into the EF5 range - personally, I consider it more violent than Joplin. It definitely has played a role in the fact that the rating is impossible to reach nowadays, we just had a string of extremely violent tornadoes in 2011 and 2013 that were very anomalous to regular years, it seems like.