Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

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

No worries, I've made a couple posts about it, but things get buried really quickly in this thread. It's the Ruskin Heights outbreak (May 19-22, 1957):

Significant Tornado Events

On the contrary, here is the tornado as it appeared near Fairdealing, MO. I think they connected the path of this EF3 (now the same tornado) ... 2 days ago?

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

For my fellow Piedmont/Calumet/El Reno EF5 junkies; I have uncovered a source of almost every angle of the Cactus 117 Oil Rig. Here's some of the pictures Ive never seen anyone post before. Just immense levels of destruction; smashed, mangled, and unrecognizable machinery. I also found out this...

talkweather.com

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.

Yeah, I started doing a little work on the Apps outbreak before I decided on 5/31/85 last time; it's pretty high on my list of events I'd like to get to someday. Did the same with Udall-Blackwell this time around, but then I sort of fell down the Ruskin Heights rabbit hole and now here we are lol

Frostburg was 6/2/98 - also notable that it came just two days after 5/31 Pt. II.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

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.

#3 all the way, although I'd also like to see a Plainfield article for obvious lost media reasons.

 

[locomusic01]

I wonder if there's damage photos from June 5th-6th, 1917 tornado outbreak

I haven't really looked for them specifically, but here's what I've got.

Kiro-Elmont, KS F4:

Morse, KS - Dodson, MO F3 (first photo is the home in which the three KS fatalities occurred):

Springport, MI F4:

 

[locomusic01]

And lastly the Overton-Centralia, MO F4 (adding words for word count):

 

[Aaron Rider]

No worries, I've made a couple posts about it, but things get buried really quickly in this thread. It's the Ruskin Heights outbreak (May 19-22, 1957):

Significant Tornado Events

On the contrary, here is the tornado as it appeared near Fairdealing, MO. I think they connected the path of this EF3 (now the same tornado) ... 2 days ago?

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

For my fellow Piedmont/Calumet/El Reno EF5 junkies; I have uncovered a source of almost every angle of the Cactus 117 Oil Rig. Here's some of the pictures Ive never seen anyone post before. Just immense levels of destruction; smashed, mangled, and unrecognizable machinery. I also found out this...

talkweather.com

Yeah, I started doing a little work on the Apps outbreak before I decided on 5/31/85 last time; it's pretty high on my list of events I'd like to get to someday. Did the same with Udall-Blackwell this time around, but then I sort of fell down the Ruskin Heights rabbit hole and now here we are lol

Frostburg was 6/2/98 - also notable that it came just two days after 5/31 Pt. II.

Random tornadoes that come to mind - obscure F5s:

Brownwood 1976
Spiro 1976
Broken Bow 1982

These are often regarded as weaker F5s but occasionally I come across contrary sounds.

Some others
La Plata - you KNOW you want to lol
Colonial Heights 93 - anything East Coast fascinates me
Spencer 98
Van Wert 02


And then if I could suggest one probably big overview, how about the major late season twisters of 04? Noot Farm, Roanoke, Campbelltown etc.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

I haven't really looked for them specifically, but here's what I've got.

Kiro-Elmont, KS F4:

Morse, KS - Dodson, MO F3 (first photo is the home in which the three KS fatalities occurred):

Springport, MI F4:

I have never seen these photos before, thanks for sending them

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Random tornadoes that come to mind - obscure F5s:

Brownwood 1976
Spiro 1976
Broken Bow 1982

These are often regarded as weaker F5s but occasionally I come across contrary sounds.

Some others
La Plata - you KNOW you want to lol
Colonial Heights 93 - anything East Coast fascinates me
Spencer 98
Van Wert 02


And then if I could suggest one probably big overview, how about the major late season twisters of 04? Noot Farm, Roanoke, Campbelltown etc.

Yeah, there's been a LOT of big'uns over the years that have just fallen off the map. I personally consider literally every single tornado you listed aside from Colonial Heights, Campbelltown and MAYBE Spiro as F5, so a deep dive into those would be interesting, although you could also list Windsor Locks 1979 (another F5 candidate) as an example as well, along with the 1989 NY and New Haven F4s.

Still not as interested in that as in a dive into forgotten major outbreak tornadoes, though. (Also still waiting on @locomusic01's opinion on the Dover photos' legitimacy, btw - sorry!)

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

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

These previous posts on it. The debris granulation, ground scouring and vegetation damage is something else:

Significant Tornado Events

I wonder if there are any damage photos from Salix 1899?

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

Moore ‘13 is one of a very select few tornadoes that caused essentially incomprehensible devastation. There really was nothing left other than mud, pulverized structural debris, and mangled vehicles strewn all over the place. If Bridge Creek went through South OKC and Moore at its maximum...

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

I believe that damage-wise, Piedmont Bridge Creek and Moore 2013 are all fairly equal. Though I think Bridge Creek is a slightly worse version of Moore 2013, and Piedmont has feats on par with May 3rd. The only tornado that did worse damage in my humble opinion is Jarrell. Piedmont and Bridge...

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

I think Canada is pretty conservative on how they rate their tornadoes. They've had that reputation for awhile, there was an article on Edmonton that mentioned that, some surveyors wanted to go with F5 but ultimately high-end F4 was decided. Similar to quite a bit of tornadoes in the U.S. under...

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

Moore ‘13 is one of a very select few tornadoes that caused essentially incomprehensible devastation. There really was nothing left other than mud, pulverized structural debris, and mangled vehicles strewn all over the place. If Bridge Creek went through South OKC and Moore at its maximum...

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

On a bit of an unrelated note, do I have any fellow hoarders of tornado videos? Here are the stats of my collection so far; keep in mind that the first picture isn't even CLOSE to the total number of videos in the archive. Yes, I also have the habit to hoard tornado videos also damage...

talkweather.com

 

[AJS]

Wicked scouring here from the massive Plevna, KS mega wedge from this past weekend.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

And lastly the Overton-Centralia, MO F4 (adding words for word count):

I wonder if Centralia, MO tornado reached F5 intensity at one point

 

[NixboiHurb]

I want to ask for a little bit of help with a project I have been working on for a while now. I don't ask for anyone to finish this and do the rest of the work for me but I want to see if anyone has any knowledge about the problem I am dealing with. I am currently recreating the path of the May 31st 1985 Barrie, Ontario F4 in detail and including various damage points such as the first structure to be impacted and where the tornado peaked in strength. I have mapped the entire path including intensity except for the Tollendal Woods subdivision next to Lake Simcoe. My problem is finding information and damage photos done to the row of homes along Ardagh Road. Ardagh Road is where the tornado peaked in width and swept through the forest plantation. The row of homes were directly impacted by the core but there seems to be little to no information about them but there may have been F4 damage done to one of the homes. According to the Barrie Banner the tornado struck 354 Ardagh Road and "destroyed" the home there while 358 Ardagh Road was only slightly damaged. According to one of Michael Newarks documents one of the homes along Ardagh Road was swept away and had its basement "blown in" possibly indicating F4 damage. In the aerial photo of the track of Barrie showing its scouring before entering the city you can see the row of homes at the bottom of the image but that seems to be the closest you can get to them. I have checked the Barrie City Archives for more photos to see if they had one and I cannot say for sure. They have lots of photos showing the damage but most are not given a location. If anyone could help or even already knows about these homes I would appreciate the help with it. I am planning to make a video about the outbreak and go in depth on each tornado that spawned in Ontario on that fateful day. I will post my current path of Barrie and if you need to ask me a question to clear anything up I will answer the best I can. I have taken away the damage points that I currently have so you can actually see the path. Keep in mind this is not finished obviously especially the Tollendal Woods subdivision which I am still trying to research because there is a small chance the tornado lifted and touched town again near the end of its life. That was noted by Michael Newark and his team at Western University but they couldn't confirm if it was true or not. Either the tornado lifted or it just expanded weirdly. Anyways thanks for reading this if you did and hopefully I didn't type too much.

 

[lake.effect]

Just some random philosophical thoughts here...

It's interesting how most tornado events fade from memory after a year or so for most of us, other than those directly impacted. Despite all the hype before and during the event, and the shock following the event, the dates all seem to blend together. In two or three years from now, I doubt most of us will immediately associate March 15th, 2025 with a significant tornado date.

Perhaps I'm in the minority here. But for me, this highlights the rarity and impact of the truly historic and special tornado days that are etched in memory's stone. The dates that, when read, are immediately associated with "tornado" above all else. For me, those dates are

May 3rd, 1999
April 27th, 2011
May 22nd, 2011
May 20th, 2013
May 4th, 2007
March 18th, 1925
April 3rd/4th, 1947

When I see these dates, even outside of the context of a discussion about the weather, my mind immediately connects the date with the tornado events of that day.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

March 18th, 2025

Did you mean March 14th? Or May 18th? Don't remember anything happening on March 18th

 

[lake.effect]

Just looking at what's forming now, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it becomes way too messy for storms to take full advantage of the environment that will be in place.

Did you mean March 14th? Or May 18th? Don't remember anything happening on March 18th

My mistake. I meant 1925. Edited

(Tri state tornado)

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

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

Moore was an exceptional event; by all means "The worst case situation"

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

I want to ask for a little bit of help with a project I have been working on for a while now. I don't ask for anyone to finish this and do the rest of the work for me but I want to see if anyone has any knowledge about the problem I am dealing with. I am currently recreating the path of the May 31st 1985 Barrie, Ontario F4 in detail and including various damage points such as the first structure to be impacted and where the tornado peaked in strength. I have mapped the entire path including intensity except for the Tollendal Woods subdivision next to Lake Simcoe. My problem is finding information and damage photos done to the row of homes along Ardagh Road. Ardagh Road is where the tornado peaked in width and swept through the forest plantation. The row of homes were directly impacted by the core but there seems to be little to no information about them but there may have been F4 damage done to one of the homes. According to the Barrie Banner the tornado struck 354 Ardagh Road and "destroyed" the home there while 358 Ardagh Road was only slightly damaged. According to one of Michael Newarks documents one of the homes along Ardagh Road was swept away and had its basement "blown in" possibly indicating F4 damage. In the aerial photo of the track of Barrie showing its scouring before entering the city you can see the row of homes at the bottom of the image but that seems to be the closest you can get to them. I have checked the Barrie City Archives for more photos to see if they had one and I cannot say for sure. They have lots of photos showing the damage but most are not given a location. If anyone could help or even already knows about these homes I would appreciate the help with it. I am planning to make a video about the outbreak and go in depth on each tornado that spawned in Ontario on that fateful day. I will post my current path of Barrie and if you need to ask me a question to clear anything up I will answer the best I can. I have taken away the damage points that I currently have so you can actually see the path. Keep in mind this is not finished obviously especially the Tollendal Woods subdivision which I am still trying to research because there is a small chance the tornado lifted and touched town again near the end of its life. That was noted by Michael Newark and his team at Western University but they couldn't confirm if it was true or not. Either the tornado lifted or it just expanded weirdly. Anyways thanks for reading this if you did and hopefully I didn't type too much.View attachment 43066

I am BEYOND delighted to see someone so dedicated over this outbreak (5/31/85). The Moshannon PA tornado is a personal fixation of mine; same for a lot of the PA F4's that day.
I really do wish you luck; have you investigated newspaper archives around the area? Or historical societies, or libraries there? That might be of help, although looking at your work, I bet you have! Ive got a friend around Barrie, (His name is Ethan Bolzicco! fellow weather nerd) if it would help, I can ask him if he knows anything about that area.

Doing a little skim; I did find this rare book surrounding the 5/31/85 outbreak, unsure if it has anything on Barrie; but it may be a lead!

 

[Aaron Rider]

I have seen references here and elsewhere to the 2011 New England tornadoes, especially Springfield, as having potentially been rather violent. Does anyone have any information on these? I went looking for pictures, especially of the Monson tornado, but came up empty due to paywalls and so on.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Moore was an exceptional event; by all means "The worst case situation"

Yet, only 24 fatalities. Given the circumstances, that's a small miracle.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I am BEYOND delighted to see someone so dedicated over this outbreak (5/31/85). The Moshannon PA tornado is a personal fixation of mine; same for a lot of the PA F4's that day.
I really do wish you luck; have you investigated newspaper archives around the area? Or historical societies, or libraries there? That might be of help, although looking at your work, I bet you have! Ive got a friend around Barrie, (His name is Ethan Bolzicco! fellow weather nerd) if it would help, I can ask him if he knows anything about that area.

Doing a little skim; I did find this rare book surrounding the 5/31/85 outbreak, unsure if it has anything on Barrie; but it may be a lead!
View attachment 43093View attachment 43094

Found a PDF of this online, I'll see what it's got.

 

[Nightking2021]

Yet, only 24 fatalities. A miracle in all regards.

Still very sad.