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Significant Tornado Events

buckeye05 said:
You know, the more I look at Delmont, the more I think it may have possibly reached EF4 strength. It leveled and swept away quite a few homes, and the third pic from the top in that earlier post shows what appears to be grass scouring consistent with a violent tornado. Ridiculously underrated event.

Now that I think of it, the same office (NWS Sioux Falls) also applied an EF2 rating to a tornado that completely destroyed structures and swept away at least one home in Wessington Springs, SD on June 18, 2014. Again, at least EF3 would have been appropriate. Seems like this office is one of the worst when it comes to lowballing ratings.
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Yeah, and also Capitol, Montana. I have seen high-end EF3 and low-end EF4 damage be rated mid to high-end EF2 by this office. Then again I have seen high-end EF1 to mid-range EF2 damage rated mid EF3 to low-end EF4 damage by other offices.
 
Shakespeare2016 said:
Yeah, and also Capitol, Montana. I have seen high-end EF3 and low-end EF4 damage be rated mid to high-end EF2 by this office. Then again I have seen high-end EF1 to mid-range EF2 damage rated mid EF3 to low-end EF4 damage by other offices.
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Seems like the whole ratings system and every office needs some sort of reform, or at least an investigation into how they apply the EF scale.
 
Brice said:
View attachment 3225


View attachment 3226



This picture of the Carney OK 2013 tornado reminds me of the 1999 Moore tornado given the size and radar presentation. This tornado was more underrated than Shawnee and Moore (2013)but, the vortices during its early stages we're almost certainly above 200 MPH. The horizontal vortex look as textbook I will ever see.

It had GTG shear over 200 MPH right when it was about to hit Carney
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Is there an official name for those horizontal vortices yet? What exactly causes them, and why they are associated with only the most violent of tornadoes?
 
Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
Is there an official name for those horizontal vortices yet? What exactly causes them, and why they are associated with only the most violent of tornadoes?
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Horizontal vortices are typically associated with EF4 and EF5 tornadoes. I am sure some weaker tornadoes have carried horizontal vortices. At minimum I would say a tornado with horizontal vortices is at least an EF3 and likely greater.
 
buckeye05 said:
Yeah I remember thinking the same thing when they rated Delmont EF2. An EF2 is not under any circumstances going to cause that degree of tree and structural damage. It was a solid EF3, likely a high-end one at that. I have no idea what the survey team was thinking. What a complete and utter farce...
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I would say possibly low-end EF4 as well.
 
buckeye05 said:
The thing is, that area of trees was likely hit by both tornadoes, so it’s hard to say how much of the debarking was from one individual tornado. Also had that house not been hit by a vehicle, it would have been an EF5 candidate for sure.
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Based on DAT, this woods area was located at the periphery area of Pilger West tornado and near the center of Pilger East tornado. Tornado path an DAT files certainly can be imprecise in many situations, but in this case, Pilger West tornado did a High-end EF4 damage 730m away from that debarking area at almost the same time. So the core of Pilger West tornado was impossible to go through both these two area. Actually, on account of visual estimation and the DAT files, both area likely not hit by the center of the tornado which winds was certainly stronger(RMW should be very small in these kinds of tornado based on DOW research). So I suppose that the extreme debarking area was very largely done by Pilger East tornado or at least one of the twin tornado was incredibly strong at this point.
QQ截图20200611180826.jpg
 
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Some car damage made by Pilger East tornado(some of them can belong to the West one, not entirely sure). It hit so little in its entire path.
172557h6zi5lmcuccscoi3.jpgQQ图片20200505125940.jpgQQ图片20200505125922.jpgQQ图片20200505125951.jpg
an interesting DI inside Pilger, the center of the tornaodo did not go through Wisner-Pilger Middle School directly but it almost pulled the entire slide in front of the school out of the ground.
dataomaha.com

Pilger, Nebraska tornado damage map - Omaha.com

As residents pick up the pieces from Monday's tornado, learn more about Pilger's main attractions — some of which survived the tornado and others that didn't fare as well.
dataomaha.com
school-before.jpg
school-after.jpg
impressive shrub damage when the West tornado was about to leave the town
j1dCnpB2_1403031510639.jpg
 
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Hi everybody. First-time poster, long-time lurker. Started reading sometime after 4/27 and sometime before the original site/archives were taken down. This thread(and the original as well) is one of my favorite places on the internet and has some amazing contributors(JBK, pohnpei, buckeye, Shakespeare2016, etc). But anyways on to the tornadoes.

One tornado I've always felt deserved more recognition, even though it was officially rated F5, is the tornado that struck the west side of Chandler, MN on June 16, 1992.

June 16 was the climax of a four day severe weather event that primarily affected the central plains into the northern plains. June 15 qualifies on its own as a significant tornado day with two F4's and two F3's in central KS and another two F3's in eastern NE. For the most part, these tornadoes were very short track, perhaps owing to relatively weak mid-level flow, but apparently violent. According to this Stormtrack thread(https://stormtrack.org/community/threads/1992-06-15-nc-kansas-outbreak.17605/) an outflow boundary from a remnant MCS that morning was responsible for a very prolific tornado producing supercell in central KS. It's virtually impossible to find damage pictures from the 15th, although there is some chase footage from KS on that day that can be found on youtube. The 17th(the 2nd high risk of the sequence after the 16th) also featured a mid-morning/early afternoon F3 just south of Madison, WI and a F2 south of Clifton, IL but paled compared to the two days prior.

The 16th featured a strong 300mb jet coming in from the WSW at a magnitude 60-80 kts near Chandler and peak magnitude of 110-130 kts over the Rocky mountains. A broad, neutral tilt trough was centered over the MT, SD, ND border regions and an attendant 500mb jet of 50-70 kts was approaching from the SW(over Nebraska) to SSW(near chandler). 850mb winds were backed from SSE to SE(near chandler and adjacent areas of SD) at a magnitude of 30-40 kts during tornado formation. The soundings from that day are very impressive over a wide area and frankly remind me a little bit of the 19z OAX sounding from the day of the Pilger tornado. From OVN:
1992061700_full_ovn_obssounding.gif

Anyway, the 16th was prolific to say the least. There were 12 F3+ tornadoes across SD, IA, and MN. Two violent tornadoes touched down in Minnesota apparently produced by the same supercell. The Chandler, MN tornado was the first produced by this supercell and it began in NE Nobles county and ended 16 miles later one county to the north in eastern Murray county. Most of the photographed damage comes from Chandler proper. And while the center of town did experience substantial damage, most of it appears to be in the F2 to F3 range. The violent core of the tornado passed to the west of the city and impacted more rural and less densely populated areas. Grazulis tagged this tornado with his maxi-tornado designation due to the damage in this area I believe. I wish there were better documentation of this part of the damage path and I think this lack of documentation is the main reason why this tornado isn't held in higher regard by us tornado nerds. Anyways , a few pictures that seem to have been taken from the worst affected areas of Chandler:
Classic F5, vehicles stripped down to the frame, some ground scouring, debarked trees, and a house taken off its foundation
chandler6a.jpg
Note the debarked trees way in the back. This tornado had a wide swath of violent damage
Chandler Tornado Damage.jpg
Pretty extreme debris granulation
Debris in Ditch.jpg
If there are any formatting issues in this post feel free to correct me. Also, I'm not a met and my analysis is culled from the SPC violent tornado page. This link is the source for two of the above pictures and features some rare photos I hadn't seen anywhere else:https://www.mnopedia.org/event/chandler-lake-wilson-tornado-1992
 
Fascinating write-up. As a lifelong resident of Minnesota, that tornado as well as the 1968 Tracy, MN F5 have always been of particular interest to me. I made a couple posts on them in the old thread.

I've got a camcorder video of the Chandler tornado uploaded on my YouTube channel:

 
DDM said:
Fascinating write-up. As a lifelong resident of Minnesota, that tornado as well as the 1968 Tracy, MN F5 have always been of particular interest to me. I made a couple posts on them in the old thread.

I've got a camcorder video of the Chandler tornado uploaded on my YouTube channel:

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Oh sweet, that footage is what began my fascination actually. That video, the bonkers soundings that day, and the relative paucity of information(what is it with these 90's mystery tornadoes?) regarding the most intense damage have drawn me toward it. The Tracy tornado is another one that I suspect might have been more violent than it's reputation suggests, though I only have a few grainy clips of aerial footage to support that view. Here's another sounding from the 16th, this one a little further south at TOP
1992061700_full_top_obssounding.gif
Llvl shear was pretty dang nice over a large area that day in combination with the beefy thermos. Again, sourced from the SPC Violent tornadoes page.
 
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manofthenaders23 said:
Hi everybody. First-time poster, long-time lurker. Started reading sometime after 4/27 and sometime before the original site/archives were taken down. This thread(and the original as well) is one of my favorite places on the internet and has some amazing contributors(JBK, pohnpei, buckeye, Shakespeare2016, etc). But anyways on to the tornadoes.

One tornado I've always felt deserved more recognition, even though it was officially rated F5, is the tornado that struck the west side of Chandler, MN on June 16, 1992.

June 16 was the climax of a four day severe weather event that primarily affected the central plains into the northern plains. June 15 qualifies on its own as a significant tornado day with two F4's and two F3's in central KS and another two F3's in eastern NE. For the most part, these tornadoes were very short track, perhaps owing to relatively weak mid-level flow, but apparently violent. According to this Stormtrack thread(https://stormtrack.org/community/threads/1992-06-15-nc-kansas-outbreak.17605/) an outflow boundary from a remnant MCS that morning was responsible for a very prolific tornado producing supercell in central KS. It's virtually impossible to find damage pictures from the 15th, although there is some chase footage from KS on that day that can be found on youtube. The 17th(the 2nd high risk of the sequence after the 16th) also featured a mid-morning/early afternoon F3 just south of Madison, WI and a F2 south of Clifton, IL but paled compared to the two days prior.

The 16th featured a strong 300mb jet coming in from the WSW at a magnitude 60-80 kts near Chandler and peak magnitude of 110-130 kts over the Rocky mountains. A broad, neutral tilt trough was centered over the MT, SD, ND border regions and an attendant 500mb jet of 50-70 kts was approaching from the SW(over Nebraska) to SSW(near chandler). 850mb winds were backed from SSE to SE(near chandler and adjacent areas of SD) at a magnitude of 30-40 kts during tornado formation. The soundings from that day are very impressive over a wide area and frankly remind me a little bit of the 19z OAX sounding from the day of the Pilger tornado. From OVN:
View attachment 3775

Anyway, the 16th was prolific to say the least. There were 12 F3+ tornadoes across SD, IA, and MN. Two violent tornadoes touched down in Minnesota apparently produced by the same supercell. The Chandler, MN tornado was the first produced by this supercell and it began in NE Nobles county and ended 16 miles later one county to the north in eastern Murray county. Most of the photographed damage comes from Chandler proper. And while the center of town did experience substantial damage, most of it appears to be in the F2 to F3 range. The violent core of the tornado passed to the west of the city and impacted more rural and less densely populated areas. Grazulis tagged this tornado with his maxi-tornado designation due to the damage in this area I believe. I wish there were better documentation of this part of the damage path and I think this lack of documentation is the main reason why this tornado isn't held in higher regard by us tornado nerds. Anyways , a few pictures that seem to have been taken from the worst affected areas of Chandler:
Classic F5, vehicles stripped down to the frame, some ground scouring, debarked trees, and a house taken off its foundation
View attachment 3776
Note the debarked trees way in the back. This tornado had a wide swath of violent damage
View attachment 3777
Pretty extreme debris granulation
View attachment 3778
If there are any formatting issues in this post feel free to correct me. Also, I'm not a met and my analysis is culled from the SPC violent tornado page. This link is the source for two of the above pictures and features some rare photos I hadn't seen anywhere else:https://www.mnopedia.org/event/chandler-lake-wilson-tornado-1992
Click to expand...
The bottom picture is quite impressive.
 
Juliett Bravo Kilo said:
Still curious, what causes them? Why do they only happen with violent tornadoes?
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It usually happens in very high SRH environment and it can happen on a non-violent tornado such as Lovelaceville EF2 on March 14 2019, Foshan Guangdong Province China EF3 tornado on October 4 2015 and so on. I guess a part of reason may lies in the low level shear which is strong enough to tilt the vertical vortex into horizontal one.
 
Wow, you have to wonder if/when the upper Midwest will see a sequence like 6/16-17/93 again given how quiet the last few Junes (including this one) have been. I would have been 7 at the time and although I don't have specific memories of that event, I'm sure I was glued to TWC listening to the ominous forecasts and we probably got rocked by a decent thunderstorm.

Pilger was really the last June outbreak sequence of note. I Atmospheric Anti-Climax that day (got to the storm too late, it produced a last-gasp spin up, shriveled and died), around midnight that night a brief but strong (EF2) tornado hit less than a mile from my apartment back in Madison, then the next day I cap Atmospheric Anti-Climax in Iowa when if I'd just stayed in Nebraska I might have gotten that nearly stationary wedge.
 
CheeselandSkies said:
Wow, you have to wonder if/when the upper Midwest will see a sequence like 6/16-17/93 again given how quiet the last few Junes (including this one) have been. I would have been 7 at the time and although I don't have specific memories of that event, I'm sure I was glued to TWC listening to the ominous forecasts and we probably got rocked by a decent thunderstorm.

Pilger was really the last June outbreak sequence of note. I Atmospheric Anti-Climax that day (got to the storm too late, it produced a last-gasp spin up, shriveled and died), around midnight that night a brief but strong (EF2) tornado hit less than a mile from my apartment back in Madison, then the next day I cap Atmospheric Anti-Climax in Iowa when if I'd just stayed in Nebraska I might have gotten that nearly stationary wedge.
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This April was really active, but May has been really quiet. And June so far is relatively quiet. Well, we could be in for a nasty surprise later this month or maybe a July-August outbreak. Who knows?
 
April's activity was primarily confined to Dixie. The northern Midwest has been the dullest I've ever seen it, storm-wise. We had a moderate risk in late March that largely Atmospheric Anti-Climax due to early-day convection stabilizing the warm sector, and another event in late May that produced a few small tornadoes in Iowa and Illinois, but the one that was reported in Wisconsin turned out to be a smoke plume being drawn into the storm's updraft.
 
pohnpei said:
I am always wondeing the fact that why most violent tornados in Ohio Alley and Northeast Aera such as Rochelle IL in 2015, Henryville in 2012, Washinton IL in 2013, Peeryville IL in 2017, Wheatland-Niles OH-PA in 1985 or maybe includes Cookeville TN this year, can hardly find any high end tree debarking damage? Such damage like trees largely or completely debarked usually can be found in Great Plains and Dixie. I am having a hard time to find any largely debarked tree damage pictures in this area. Is it because tree species in these areas are different? Besides, all these tornados mentioned above had clear slabs but the overall vehicle damage was somehow weaker compared with most other violent tornados of the same damage level.
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Some impressive tree damage made by Roanoke F4 in 2004. So trees in this area certainly can be heavily debarked if the tornado was violent enough.
QQ图片20200616174503.jpgQQ图片20200616174626.jpgQQ图片20200616174712.jpg
 
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