Significant Tornado Events

[AJS]

I know this has probably been posted somewhere in this thread, but when researching a bit more about the 2014 Vilonia tornado, I came across this image that absolutely infuriated me even more as to why was this tornado given an EF4…

Notice how this house not only has its exterior walls anchored down, but if you look at this image, you can see how the interior walls were also bolted down! I genuinely thought Vilonia couldn’t get any more infuriating, but here we are. That is insanely strong anchoring and it’s such a shame that the one tornado in Arkansas history that caused such extreme/classic EF5 damage was robbed of its rating. Robinson was a straight up clown and i’m so glad he left LZK.

 

[HAwkmoon]

View attachment 44869
I know this has probably been posted somewhere in this thread, but when researching a bit more about the 2014 Vilonia tornado, I came across this image that absolutely infuriated me even more as to why was this tornado given an EF4…

Notice how this house not only has its exterior walls anchored down, but if you look at this image, you can see how the interior walls were also bolted down! I genuinely thought Vilonia couldn’t get any more infuriating, but here we are. That is insanely strong anchoring and it’s such a shame that the one tornado in Arkansas history that caused such extreme/classic EF5 damage was robbed of its rating. Robinson was a straight up clown and i’m so glad he left LZK.

As much as I agree Vilonia deserved EF5. That home did not meet the far too stringent criteria set by the Moore 2013 survey. It was bolted yes but wall studs were straight nailed, and a couple bolts were missing nuts and washers. Also some bolts were spaced to close to the edge of the foundation and failed that way. These seemingly minor things are enough to prevent EF5. If it happened before 2013 it would have without question got EF5.

 

[AJS]

As much as I agree Vilonia deserved EF5. That home did not meet the far too stringent criteria set by the Moore 2013 survey. It was bolted yes but wall studs were straight nailed, and a couple bolts were missing nuts and washers. Also some bolts were spaced to close to the edge of the foundation and failed that way. These seemingly minor things are enough to prevent EF5. If it happened before 2013 it would have without question got EF5.

Based on LZK’s recent survey of the March 14, 2025 Diaz, AR tornado, I have absolutely no doubt that they would probably rate this particular DI EF5 if they were to survey Vilonia today.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

and a couple bolts were missing nuts and washers.

Buckeye05 said it best and I can't top it:

I mentioned in another thread though that I really question the validity of this, as I find it highly unlikely that construction workers framing a house would randomly skip the installation of washers on some bolts, yet install them on others at the same residence. Over the years, I've come to suspect that many of these "missing washers" cases are actually a result of some the bolts being stripped as the sill plates are ripped off.

I think this can be concluded as a construction error only in cases when every bolt is missing washers

Not sure about the others but I can reasonably debunk the washers one.

 

[HAwkmoon]

Buckeye05 said it best and I can't top it:

Not sure about the others but I can reasonably debunk the washers one.

Some bolts indeed had no nuts or washers whereas others did. I highlighted some here along with straight nailed wall studs.




In this image we see bolts too close to the edge and straight nailed wall studs.


Pre 2013 this would be overlooked and given EF5, since the criteria wasnt as strict. But post moore and during the moore 2013 survey they got much more stringent (hence why several homes in moore actually got downgraded from EF5 to EF4). I dont agree with it, but well not much we can do until the revision comes out in a few years.

 

[AJS]

Probably a silly question to ask, but does anyone here happen to have any damage photos from the 2008 Mullinville, KS tornado?? This beast had one of the most incredible radar presentations i’ve ever seen and I have little doubt it could have easily been the most violent of the day. Finding damage photos has been so difficult.

 

[N0mz]

I still support the Plainfield Isn’t Real conspiracy theory

 

[AJS]

I was recently stumbling across looking for some damage photos from the 2013 Washington, Illinois tornado and I happened to stumble across this image. I tend to be on the fence regarding if this tornado had EF5 potential and in no way shape or form am I trying to overhype the intensity of this tornado, but if you look closely at the ground, it might appear to show some pretty severe grass scouring. If that’s the case, the damage from this tornado impresses me quite a bit more. I think this tornado would’ve undoubtedly achieved an F5 rating had it occurred in the 90s. I’m more impressed with the damage from this tornado than certain F5s like the 1998 Birmingham tornado. @Western_KS_Wx I definitely agree with you now that it’s highly probable this tornado did at some point reach EF5 strength during its passage through the city.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

I still support the Plainfield Isn’t Real conspiracy theory

???

What are you talking about?

 

[AJS]

???

What is the Plainfield Isn't Real theory?

I was wondering the exact same thing. Also what is your opinion on the Washington tornado as far as it goes to being an EF5 candidate? I’d be curious to hear what you think!

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Probably a silly question to ask, but does anyone here happen to have any damage photos from the 2008 Mullinville, KS tornado?? This beast had one of the most incredible radar presentations i’ve ever seen and I have little doubt it could have easily been the most violent of the day. Finding damage photos has been so difficult.

There is quite literally nothing you can find on the internet of the worst damage, this image I have is the only one I’ve seen. It’s pretty crappy quality, but you can clearly make out multiple stripped/debarked trees.


Here’s a before and after aerial of the area where the velocity couplet was pretty much maxed out. Clearly some intense tree damage across a strikingly large swath as well. I measured the area of visible damage and got values approaching and even at times exceeding 2 miles wide.

 

[AJS]

There is quite literally nothing you can find on the internet of the worst damage, this image I have is the only one I’ve seen. It’s pretty crappy quality, but you can clearly make out multiple stripped/debarked trees.
View attachment 44921

Here’s a before and after aerial of the area where the velocity couplet was pretty much maxed out. Clearly some intense tree damage across a strikingly large swath as well. I measured the area of visible damage and got values approaching and even at times exceeding 2 miles wide.
View attachment 44922
View attachment 44923

Gotta wonder if Mullinville may have been wider than its official width. I also have been suspicious if Trousdale may have been larger than 2.2 miles wide.

 

[N0mz]

???

What are you talking about?

It's a joke I've seen around twitter and discord etc. I think it's mostly because there isn't any media of it when it hit Plainfield at F5 intensity, combined with the fact that it was mostly unwarned and during the month of August. Just a very anomalous tornado.

 

[N0mz]

Got my hands of SHARPpy and found the infamous Columbus AFB 4/27 RUC sounding… looping hodo literally off the chart

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Gotta wonder if Mullinville may have been wider than its official width. I also have been suspicious if Trousdale may have been larger than 2.2 miles wide.

You’d be surprised at the amount of tornadoes that were very likely larger than officially documented. There’s clear evidence that Greensburg was approximately 2 miles wide along and east of Highway 183. Trousdale is tougher to discern since tornadoes tracked over the same area the day after, but from what I’ve gathered it appeared the damage swath is about as large as El Reno ‘13, perhaps wider but with greater uncertainty. Based on radar and ground reports, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say the circulation may have been 3 miles wide.

Probably the most egregious example would be the Macksville EF3, or the last massive tornado from the ‘Big 4’ on May 4th, 2007. Not only is the official track in the wrong location, but the width is severely underestimated. Ground photos and several chaser reports along Highway 50 all confirm that the damage path was 2 miles wide, perhaps even greater in some locations.

This also isn’t just a limited occurrence, if you read TornadoTalk’s summaries they find a discrepancy for almost every tornado they’ve covered, whether it be in path width or length.

 

[TH2002]

Some bolts indeed had no nuts or washers whereas others did. I highlighted some here along with straight nailed wall studs.

View attachment 44880


In this image we see bolts too close to the edge and straight nailed wall studs.

View attachment 44881
Pre 2013 this would be overlooked and given EF5, since the criteria wasnt as strict. But post moore and during the moore 2013 survey they got much more stringent (hence why several homes in moore actually got downgraded from EF5 to EF4). I dont agree with it, but well not much we can do until the revision comes out in a few years.

Actually, I’m pretty confident it would have been rated EF5 during the Moore survey. Three of the EF5 homes in Moore had straight nailed studs and actually, one of them was upgraded AFTER the fact.

I am aware of at least one EF5 home in Moore that was later downgraded due to missing nuts/washers on the exterior anchor bolts - and typical resistance is that exterior walls are bolted, interior walls use cut nails. Some of the INTERIOR bolts on the Vilonia home may have been missing nuts/washers, but tbh I’m more inclined to believe they were stripped off by the tornado. No issues with the exterior bolts missing anything on the Vilonia home as far as I know.

Most of the Moore EF4 homes I looked at on the DAT were the typical EF4/170 “all walls collapsed” homes, with a few being given EF4/199 or 200 due to a lack of anchor bolts or no ground survey, usual stuff.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I found some ground photos of the area in Moore where 4 neighboring homes were rated EF5, specifically of the home closest to Moore Medical Center.


This last photo is looking towards the west.


Here’s an additional one of the area north of the homes where the tornado looped, and an aerial of the same location.




While I think the EF5 rating was appropriate in this area, I’m not sure the home pictured above would receive that same rating under the current state of the scale.

 

[Asha627]

Rare photos of the Picher EF4

 

[Brice W]

Here a video about the Picher tornado that quite literally wiped the town from existence.

 

[N0mz]

I was looking for Parkersburg tornado live coverage and all I found was this video, has anyone seen anything else?


As an aside, in my opinion, this was really bad casting. A PDS warning over a town, and they're trying to figure out where an intersection is??