Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Anyone notice that MEG deleted all of their 2011 Smithville, MS damage pics? That is really unfortunate. That office never seems to be interested in photographing and documenting tornado events. Their summaries are always brief and vague, and they usually don't even post pics. It just seems that it isn't very important to them.

Thankfully I have like 30 pics of the EF5 Smithville damage saved. I can post them if you guys want to see them.

Yes please! I

 

[Shakespeare2016]

The Piedmont tornado, in my opinion, is the scariest tornado i've ever seen. The motion of it was beyond violent, at some cases you didn't even know if it was a car or just sheet metal, houses we're completely swept away, and the tree damage is some of the worst i've ever seen.

Watching the Andover, Jarrell, Bridge Creek, and El Reno 2011 tornado as they all have extremely violent motion.

 

[Shakespeare2016]

Here is a vid of the Hesston, KS F5 tornado on March 13, 1990. It is quite jaw dropping as well.

 

[buckeye05]

Smithville, MS EF5 damage. Note the Philadelphia-like scouring that occurred outside of down. Very deep trench digging occurred. Also note the scouring of lawn grass in the yards of several homes in town. The first and last pics are of the same house, which sustained the worst damage to a concrete slab foundation I've ever seen as a result of any tornado. Smithville was in my opinion, the most impressive of the 4/27 tornadoes in terms of damage.

Also , I have damage photo collections of every official EF5 since the implementation of the EF scale. Will slowly post them on this thread.

 

[buckeye05]

Some more. The last two are of a very large, well-built brick funeral home that completely vanished at the east edge of Smithville.

 

[Shakespeare2016]

Some more. The last two are of a very large, well-built brick funeral home that completely vanished at the east edge of Smithville.

That Ford Explorer that was thrown 1/2 mile and hitting the water tower is crazy. It was additionally thrown another 1/4 mile and wadded up like how you would wad up aluminum foil.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

One of the few videos of the Smithville tornado. The incredible forward speed on this thing is apparent as it reaches the distant horizon within a minute:

 

[Brice]

I remember watching this one, the low level cloud bases was unreal, the motion on the meso was absolutely violent.

 

[Shakespeare2016]

I remember watching this one, the low level cloud bases was unreal, the motion on the meso was absolutely violent.

It is definitely not something you see very often with a tornado.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's the formation video of it, nothing spectacular but interesting. Quite eerie hearing the videographer mention it's heading straight toward Smithville.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Smithville, MS EF5 damage. Note the Philadelphia-like scouring that occurred outside of down. Very deep trench digging occurred. Also note the scouring of lawn grass in the yards of several homes in town. The first and last pics are of the same house, which sustained the worst damage to a concrete slab foundation I've ever seen as a result of any tornado. Smithville was in my opinion, the most impressive of the 4/27 tornadoes in terms of damage.

Also , I have damage photo collections of every official EF5 since the implementation of the EF scale. Will slowly post them on this thread.

I'm pretty sure that ground scouring in those fields is still visible on google maps.

 

[buckeye05]

I'm pretty sure that ground scouring in those fields is still visible on google maps.

Yup. It was very deep.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So, the Gans, OK tornado of January 22, 1957 is an interesting case, as it supposedly dug holes in the ground. I think what really happened is that the soil was wet due to melted winter precipitation which made this damage much easier to do. A really unusual winter event in Oklahoma.

 

[buckeye05]

So, the Gans, OK tornado of January 22, 1957 is an interesting case, as it supposedly dug holes in the ground. I think what really happened is that the soil was wet due to melted winter precipitation which made this damage much easier to do. A really unusual winter event in Oklahoma.

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That last pic is very Philadelphia-esque

 

[Shakespeare2016]

That last pic is very Philadelphia-esque

I have a feeling these tornadoes that dig into the earth for 12 + inches have got to be extremely violent. That one case and point in addition to these photos, the Philadelphia, MS tornado and even the Kelwood MB tornado which dug over 18 inches in some areas.

 

[pohnpei]

Some ground souring damage and additional car damage of Chapman KS EF4 2016, I remember these photos were once posted in the old forum.

before and after comparison around US-40

 

[warneagle]

And that's why Chapman is my personal pet "EF4 that should've been rated EF5"

 

[CheeselandSkies]

I'm sure we're all familiar with this list. I find it interesting that his top two (Jarrell and Smithville) were on opposite ends of the forward speed spectrum. Lends credence IMO to the argument that they both would have been exceptionally violent and destructive even had they been moving at a more "average" speed.

 

[skelly]

To me a slower forward speed in some ways gives it the opportunity to inflict more severe damage, i.e. ground scouring.

 

[Equus]

Kelwood MB certainly doesn't get brought up enough, very little information online about that one but the ground damage is extremely interesting given its small size