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Significant Tornado Events

OH-IOan said:
If you think that’s bad, check out WLBT’s coverage of the 2023 Rolling Fork tornado (it’s available on YouTube). They focus on hail for most of the time prior to the tornado hitting town; it’s easily the single worst tornado broadcast I’ve ever seen.
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Here's a link for that coverage. I typically refrain from criticizing broadcast coverage, but this was particularly poor execution. He glosses over the storm in general for several minutes and talks haphazardly, and then does a poor job of conveying the significance of the TORP when issued. His assisting met, Peyton Garrison, was clocked-in by comparison, and she pointed out the strong couplet and BWER repeatedly.

I could forgive all those things, of course, broadcasting and communicating is difficult on-the-fly. But, as the tornado was on the ground, punching a clear hole through reflectivity and rapidly approaching Rolling Fork, he spent 5 minutes talking about quarter-sized hail, making sure to bring up VIL immediately after being told the tornado was spotter-confirmed. CC wasn't even used until 8:09 PM, at which point there was a very large TDS visible. Again, I get communicating to the public is tricky, but this was just not great and likely impacted some people's reactions.

 
TH2002 said:
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.
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Only one home in Moore rated EF5 had solely straight nailing but vilonia's home had some bolts too close to the edge. Nuts if tightened properly cannot really be pulled off the bolt unless the entire bolt is sheared in tension failure (as was seen in tri-state). However now you mention Moore you do actually have a point and you got me questioning now. Thanks for this insightful comment.
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IMG_0659.jpegIMG_0661.jpegIMG_0657.jpegIMG_0655.jpegView attachment 45204IMG_0651.jpeg


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On this day 14 years ago, an exceptionally powerful tornado touched down near Berlin, North Dakota. While this tornado was rated EF3, this beast managed to mangle vehicles, scour the ground, and debark trees at a level that suggested a much higher intensity. One of the countless underrated tornadoes from 2011.

Some damage photos are above.IMG_0650.jpeg
 
AJS said:
View attachment 45203View attachment 45206View attachment 45207View attachment 45208View attachment 45204View attachment 45202


View attachment 45205
On this day 14 years ago, an exceptionally powerful tornado touched down near Berlin, North Dakota. While this tornado was rated EF3, this beast managed to mangle vehicles, scour the ground, and debark trees at a level that suggested a much higher intensity. One of the countless underrated tornadoes from 2011.

Some damage photos are above.View attachment 45201
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Yup. One of I think close to 20 EF5 candidates (IMO) that year. From April to November, from Askewville to Tipton.
 
AJS said:
View attachment 45203View attachment 45206View attachment 45207View attachment 45208View attachment 45204View attachment 45202


View attachment 45205
On this day 14 years ago, an exceptionally powerful tornado touched down near Berlin, North Dakota. While this tornado was rated EF3, this beast managed to mangle vehicles, scour the ground, and debark trees at a level that suggested a much higher intensity. One of the countless underrated tornadoes from 2011.

Some damage photos are above.View attachment 45201
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Trees stripped naked of their bark, vehicles crushed and dismembered, This is at least TF4 on the Theoretical Fujita Scale, probably even TF5!
 
SpotlightForRareTornadoes said:
Trees stripped naked of their bark, vehicles crushed and dismembered, This is at least TF4 on the Theoretical Fujita Scale, probably even TF5!
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I thought you were told not to bring the Theoretical Fujita Scale into the main Significant Tornadoes thread.

On an unrelated note, the Oakfield outbreak has always kinda been odd to me. Literally the final violent tornado in Wisconsin history, and it's an F5 in a minor outbreak with only 1 other significant tornado on it. Man, I wish Talkweather were around back then.
 
Lake Martin EF4 said:
I thought you were told not to bring the Theoretical Fujita Scale into the main Significant Tornadoes thread.

On an unrelated note, the Oakfield outbreak has always kinda been odd to me. Literally the final violent tornado in Wisconsin history, and it's an F5 in a minor outbreak with only 1 other significant tornado on it. Man, I wish Talkweather were around back then.
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30th anniversary next year!

I find that rating slightly suspect (unlike New Richmond and Barneveld) and have my doubts it would stand up to present-day scrutiny, although it might well get EF4, perhaps high-end. Vehicles were mangled in classic violent tornado fashion, and at least one house was swept away with little debris remaining (if cleanup hadn't been done by the time of the photos), which I assume was the basis for the F5 rating. I suppose that might still get EF5, but the photos aren't high-res/close enough to get a good look at the anchoring.

As you noted, MKX has so little experience with surveying high-end tornadoes in recent years (the last one was Stoughton, which is coming up on 20 years a month from now), it's really hard to guess what they'd do now.
 
I know y’all probably aren’t interested in criminology/missing persons, but here’s something interesting I found related to the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham EF4, the case of Latoya Tee Brown on April 27, 2011. She’s one of only four people to remain unaccounted for in the Northport/Birmingham area and it’s also unknown whether she was killed in the tornado or if something else had happened that day (her family believes the latter). I’ve never seen a “tornado missing person” before, so I thought I’d share.

 
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