Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'm not very clear though I think those were not the cars been thrown into air.The famous footage which caught semi and pickup truck been thrown for 250m were actually fliming the moment tornado entering pampa industrial park,From the TLC documentary,you can see the same level car damage in pampa industrial park.
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Ted's house and his car were located at the edge of pampa residential area.So according to his words,the tornado firstly impacted his house and then moved to the industrial park.It's just astonishing that a drillbit type tornado can have some many violent car damage.

Holy crap, looks like the axles got torn out of some vehicles, similar to Westminster, TX of 2006:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's a collection of photos from the Worth, MO April 29, 1947 tornado. It sort of got lost in the shadow of the Glazier-Higgins-Woodward event but it was quite violent in its own right. 14 were killed in the small town, large trees were debarked, and fairly large and well constructed homes were completely destroyed and in some cases swept away. Grazulis considered it a possible F5.
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Some aerial shots
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Definitely quite violent.

I think Grazulis said if it wasn't for the frail structures he would have rated this an F5.

 

[manofthenaders23]

What's amazing and frustrating is how some older events (such as Richmond) have better documentation of them than modern ones (Lawrence County, 1998 or many of the Alabama tornadoes of April 3, 1974).

Guin, AL 1974 is really such a mystery. I've heard all the legends(twisted i-beams, foundations scoured) but have only seen grainy black and white photos of the aftermath. Brandenburg seems astoundingly well documented by comparison. The forgotten F5 is just frustrating with the crazy apocryphal accounts and lack of damage photographs.

 

[andyhb]

A detailed account of the last F/EF4+ rated tornado in the US in July until the Dalton/Ashby MN tornado on 7/8 this year. This thing produced some truly incredible damage and is essentially forgotten. Seems the surveyors now think it should’ve been rated F5, and I can’t say I blame them given the descriptions here.

 

[Shakespeare2016]

A detailed account of the last F/EF4+ rated tornado in the US in July until the Dalton/Ashby MN tornado on 7/8 this year. This thing produced some truly incredible damage and is essentially forgotten. Seems the surveyors now think it should’ve been rated F5, and I can’t say I blame them given the descriptions here.

Thank You!!! I have been looking for damage photos from that tornado.

 

[Shakespeare2016]

2004 had quite a few underrated violent tornadoes...this and Roanoke being the two that stand out the most in my mind. The ground scouring from this thing is incredible, I think Lawrence County, TN 1998 ("Forgotten F5") also did massive ground scouring in fields like this, at least according to Grazulis, but I've yet to find pictures of that.
While we're on North Dakota, another forgotten event is the Northwood, ND EF4 of 2007. The majority of damage in the city was no more than EF3, but on the edge of town a small area of EF4 damage was observed. To quote NOAA:
"Just to the east of the trailer park, in the area that sustained the extreme damage, three businesses were hit particularly hard. An agricultural company, the towns largest employer, had its buildings heavily damaged. A nearby construction company lost two large steel buildings and other equipment. Steel beams from the two steel buildings were twisted and tossed nearby. Finally, a car dealership lost 15 to 20 vehicles from its parking lot along highway 15. Many of these vehicles were damaged beyond recognition and tossed into nearby fields. One corn field to the north of highway 15 (across from the 3 businesses on the northeast side of town) had it stalks snapped off several inches from the root bases, with pieces of husked corn laying around.
Hangers and airplanes were also damaged at the airport. The local health center, school, supermarket, and grain elevator were damaged. Near the elevator, several rail cars were knocked off the tracks. Hundreds of trees were snapped, uprooted, or damaged. Power was also knocked out to many customers, but eventually was turned off (for safety reasons) to the entire town. A total of about 2600 truckloads of debris were hauled to the town landfill. In the days following the tornado, a Presidential Disaster Declaration was granted."
1. The construction company's remains:
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2. Bent anchor bolts at a building slab:
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3. Metal tank from construction building thrown 1.5 miles. Keep in mind the entire path of the tornado was only 5 miles.
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4. Cars thrown hundreds of yards from a dealership into a field nearby and severely mangled:
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Also don't forget the Harper County, Kansas tornado on May 12, 2004. That tornado also should have been rated F5.

 

[manofthenaders23]

Aerial photographs of the 1976 Jordan, IA F5. The F5 damage is at upper left(I think) in this first picture.

It apparently maintained violent intensity as it moved NE away from Jordan. This next one was taken in between Jordan and Story City and, given the violence, is almost assuredly the work of the main cyclonic circulation.

Ground-level

One piece of heavy farm machinery was thrown about half a mile and compressed into a ball shape. Maybe some ground scouring and certainly some wind-rowing in the second picture as well

Believe that these are from the June 14 edition of The Des Moines Register

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Aerial photographs of the 1976 Jordan, IA F5. The F5 damage is at upper left(I think) in this first picture.
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It apparently maintained violent intensity as it moved NE away from Jordan. This next one was taken in between Jordan and Story City and, given the violence, is almost assuredly the work of the main cyclonic circulation.
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Ground-level
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One piece of heavy farm machinery was thrown about half a mile and compressed into a ball shape. Maybe some ground scouring and certainly some wind-rowing in the second picture as well

Believe that these are from the June 14 edition of The Des Moines Register

Some more Jordan pics:
Pancaked and mangled car:

Two aerial shots of the town and direction of the tornado:

Possible ground scouring in the next two pics, hard to tell:

Various scenes of destruction around town:

 

[manofthenaders23]

That vehicle damage outside of town is really high-end. That, in combination with the completeness of home damage, possible scouring and wind-rowing, leads me to believe it may have peaked north of Jordan. At the very least, vehicle damage was considerably more intense outside of town as far as we know. Fujita's comments on the strength of the damage then might be based on the rural part of the damage path that's largely undocumented. One thing that's interesting to me is the radar presentation of the supercell that day.


Even with the primitive radar of the day, I see a pretty uncanny resemblance to Greensburg 2007, another NNE moving cylic supercell that may have been more intense outside of the town it became known for striking. They both produced an extensive array of satellite tornadoes as well with Jordan featuring two F2's and an F3 while the main tornado was ongoing. Link to a neat page with a reflectivity/velocity loop and archived SPC mesoscale parameter loops for 05/04/2007. http://bmcnoldy.rsmas.miami.edu/tmp/greensburg/
Images of the Greensburg supercell:


It'd be interesting to see if the Jordan supercell had a mesocyclone as intense and fascinatingly complex as Greensburg's was. I imagine that's probably the case.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That vehicle damage outside of town is really high-end. That, in combination with the completeness of home damage, possible scouring and wind-rowing, leads me to believe it may have peaked north of Jordan. At the very least, vehicle damage was considerably more intense outside of town as far as we know. Fujita's comments on the strength of the damage then might be based on the rural part of the damage path that's largely undocumented. One thing that's interesting to me is the radar presentation of the supercell that day.
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Even with the primitive radar of the day, I see a pretty uncanny resemblance to Greensburg 2007, another NNE moving cylic supercell that may have been more intense outside of the town it became known for striking. They both produced an extensive array of satellite tornadoes as well with Jordan featuring two F2's and an F3 while the main tornado was ongoing. Link to a neat page with a reflectivity/velocity loop and archived SPC mesoscale parameter loops for 05/04/2007. http://bmcnoldy.rsmas.miami.edu/tmp/greensburg/
Images of the Greensburg supercell:
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It'd be interesting to see if the Jordan supercell had a mesocyclone as intense and fascinatingly complex as Greensburg's was. I imagine that's probably the case.

There does some to have been some wind-rowing that occurred in the town as seen in the first aerial photograph, but yeah the worst of the damage seems to have been in rural and remote areas. I'm honestly not sure what to think of this tornado's intensity, as it would have been early in Fujita's career and he likely didn't have much to compare it to. Quite a few of the F5 ratings from this era are a bit questionable.

 

[eric11]

Today I attended a Chinese tornado investigation conference held by professors from Beijing University Atmospheric and Oceanic Science institution.They've mentioned three EF4 occurred on 8/11/2017 in Chifeng city,Inner Mongolia,China.Unfortunately,only one of the three EF4s had great documentation and the other two occurred in rural areas so little information I can get,I talked to one professor who were in the damage survey team at that time and she told me they were still collecting damage photos and trying to write research papers about these three EF4s.So here's what I've got and what I can find from that event.
The first one,which was an at least a mile-wide wedge,touched town in a shallow valley,It only last 10 mintues and covered a damage path only 2 miles,which means this tornado was rather slow moving.The tornado first moved slowly to the north,stayed stagnant for a while,and then recurved to the northeast,disappered on a mountain.A town,abbreviated "QJC",was on the edge of the tornado's path.Two concrete-red brick mixed FR12 was completely demolished,only left a pile of debris on its basement.Bricks and concrete fragments were thrown long distances.
track map.The red line area indicates EF4 damage.

house leveled

The second one,which also touched down in a river valley,has the least information.I have no idea when the tornado touched down,how long it lasted,how far it went,but one thing for sure,this one was also at least a mile-wide in his full life span,maybe even bigger than the first one.A town,abbreviated "SLP" was on the left edge of the tornado.I've heard this one also leveled numerous houses but I can't make sure whether some damage photos were belonged to this one so here's only the track map.

As the second EF4 missing the town.The third EF4 formed to the east of the second one in the same river valley,the two EF4s were on the ground simultaneously for about 3-5 mintues,like the pilger twins event.The second one quickly curved to the north and disspates while the third one heading directy to the east and then climbed a mountain, growing in size and strength,the third one then directly went through the town abbreviated "WTS",here was the most severe damage occurred,entire rows of brick-concrete-mixed one or two story big houses were completeley swept away,some only left clean foundation,debris was scattered downwind for long distances,reinforced concrete poles are broken off at ground level,hardwood trees nearby only left debarked trunks and no leaves or branches remaining,small branches deeply embedded into concrete walls,tractors were mangled and thrown several hundred yards away,a water tank weighing between 3-5 tons were thrown four miles away according to local residents.Ground scouring was obvious as the tornado left the town and went downhill.Again the tornado "dived"into another valley and again climbed another mountain,slightly shrinking in width and strength,tornado encountered another town,abbreviated "SZZ".EF4 damage took place again where numerous well-anchored brick homes were completely swept away left only piles of rubbles,the tornado then climbed to the peak of the mountain and quickly disspated. In all,five people were killed,58 were injured.
track map.

damage at WTS town.



damage near SZZ town

Forgive for the photo quality,cuz I screenshot from the conference and resolution may lose a bit.If anyone needs more damage photos,I'll add some.

 

[eric11]

Jordan IA F5 attracts me for a long time,not only its beauty,but its insane damage,like the ground scouring and mangled cars as well.Thanks for sharing those photos,It maybe the only one gaining EF5 intensity in 1976.
Besides jordan itself,it's two anticyclone tornadoes are absolutely rare event.I remember having seen some cyclone-anticyclone pairs(Simla CO,DDC,El reno,Sulphur),but all of these anticyclone tornadoes are weak and short-lived(Well,sulphur may be a particular one I guess).But in jordan's case,this two anticyclones rated F2 and F3,and one of them lasted more than ten minutes,I've never seen a similarity case after jordan event,the closest I can remembered was the pocahontas tornado family,but that's still far from jordan.Fujita wasn't able to explain how this happen and even nowadays it remains a mystery.

6/13/1976 was really a strange day, I agree the greensburg type supercell mentioned above,but just considering extreme humid feeling,extreme high dew points,great instability,modest shear....sounds familiar?It sounds like just the day when Jarrell took place in such an huge instability low shear mode but not that extreme and the day didn't have too much similarities with greensburg's environment.Aside from jordan,Lemont IL F4 that day was another special tornado needs explanation.This rather slow moving tornado curved a special J shaped track accompanied by two anticyclone tornadoes and strong downbursts,exact same with jordan.In some home videoes,the violent rotation is evident and even unforgettable though its damage was not that strong.

 

[eric11]

I'm questionable about the EF4 rating applied to Northwood ND tornado since its contextual damage didn't quite fit an actual EF4 and mostly those outbuildings,warehouses and delarshops in the hardest hit area which were given EF4 looks like some SDB SRB or MBS facilities.These facilities may prevent tornado get a higher rating than EF3 even completely demolished or total destruction.I just want to say NWS GRAND FOLKS has always been generous to those strong tornadoes in its area like wilkin and dalton.
Apart from other damage,the car damage really stands out.Just like NWS said,you can find numerous completely mangled beyond recognition cars in nearby fields.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'm questionable about the EF4 rating applied to Northwood ND tornado since its contextual damage didn't quite fit an actual EF4 and mostly those outbuildings,warehouses and delarshops in the hardest hit area which were given EF4 looks like some SDB SRB or MBS facilities.These facilities may prevent tornado get a higher rating than EF3 even completely demolished or total destruction.I just want to say NWS GRAND FOLKS has always been generous to those strong tornadoes in its area like wilkin and dalton.
Apart from other damage,the car damage really stands out.Just like NWS said,you can find numerous completely mangled beyond recognition cars in nearby fields.
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The EF4 rating was given to a very small and localized area of damage on the edge of town, the majority of damage in Northwood was no more than EF3, so the rating doesn't seem that erroneous to me, but again, not a damage surveyor so I'm happy to be corrected.
Also, are the NWS Grand Forks folks really that generous with giving tornadoes high ratings? I honestly don't know their reputation all that well, so I'm just curious.

 

[eric11]

The EF4 rating was given to a very small and localized area of damage on the edge of town, the majority of damage in Northwood was no more than EF3, so the rating doesn't seem that erroneous to me, but again, not a damage surveyor so I'm happy to be corrected.
Also, are the NWS Grand Forks folks really that generous with giving tornadoes high ratings? I honestly don't know their reputation all that well, so I'm just curious.

As far as I can remember, Northwood ND EF4,Parkers Piarie MN EF4,wadena MN EF4,Wilkin MN EF4,Dalton MN EF4 happened in its region.All these EF4s look either borderline or specialize in some non-official damage indicators(like ground scouring and violent motion).So some Nothern Plains NWS like grand folks aren't strict with house type or anchoring issues and they'll take more damage indicators into consideration like laramie's EF3 rating was given for the ground scouring and big telephone poles.But you can't hope Memphis or Fort Worth will closely look into these type of damage.So,comparing to these NWS,Grand Folks is generous of course.

 

[eric11]

Shadowed by wadena and albert lea,parker's prairie MN EF4 had little information and easily be confused with wadena EF4.This tornado occurred mostly in rural farmlands.Its EF4 rating looks really marginal to me.


cars and toilet thrown

This pic was taken a year later,ground scouring still can be seen

radar data

tornado entering Parker's prairie

 

[Shakespeare2016]

Shadowed by wadena and albert lea,parker's prairie MN EF4 had little information and easily be confused with wadena EF4.This tornado occurred mostly in rural farmlands.Its EF4 rating looks really marginal to me.
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cars and toilet thrown
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This pic was taken a year later,ground scouring still can be seen
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radar data
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tornado entering Parker's prairie
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That tornado looks like the Wayne County, TN F4-F5 tornado from 1998.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That tornado looks like the Wayne County, TN F4-F5 tornado from 1998.

Is that the "Forgotten F5"? If so, then it does:



Write up the outbreak that spawned it: https://www.weather.gov/ohx/19980416

Turns out the F5 was actually part of a family of 3 closely-spaced tornadoes, the other two being F4 in strength, and the 3 fatalities initially attributed to it were actually the fault of the F4 tornadoes. If you scroll down you can see some damage pics from it, they definitely look intense but unfortunately the worst of the damage is yet again not available. Really frustrating how hard it can be to get photographs of the worst damage of violent tornadoes sometimes. Unfortunately, due to the remote rural location this thing occurred in we may just have to deal with a lack of photos for some time to come.

 

[buckeye05]

Today I attended a Chinese tornado investigation conference held by professors from Beijing University Atmospheric and Oceanic Science institution.They've mentioned three EF4 occurred on 8/11/2017 in Chifeng city,Inner Mongolia,China.Unfortunately,only one of the three EF4s had great documentation and the other two occurred in rural areas so little information I can get,I talked to one professor who were in the damage survey team at that time and she told me they were still collecting damage photos and trying to write research papers about these three EF4s.So here's what I've got and what I can find from that event.
The first one,which was an at least a mile-wide wedge,touched town in a shallow valley,It only last 10 mintues and covered a damage path only 2 miles,which means this tornado was rather slow moving.The tornado first moved slowly to the north,stayed stagnant for a while,and then recurved to the northeast,disappered on a mountain.A town,abbreviated "QJC",was on the edge of the tornado's path.Two concrete-red brick mixed FR12 was completely demolished,only left a pile of debris on its basement.Bricks and concrete fragments were thrown long distances.
track map.The red line area indicates EF4 damage.
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house leveled
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The second one,which also touched down in a river valley,has the least information.I have no idea when the tornado touched down,how long it lasted,how far it went,but one thing for sure,this one was also at least a mile-wide in his full life span,maybe even bigger than the first one.A town,abbreviated "SLP" was on the left edge of the tornado.I've heard this one also leveled numerous houses but I can't make sure whether some damage photos were belonged to this one so here's only the track map.
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As the second EF4 missing the town.The third EF4 formed to the east of the second one in the same river valley,the two EF4s were on the ground simultaneously for about 3-5 mintues,like the pilger twins event.The second one quickly curved to the north and disspates while the third one heading directy to the east and then climbed a mountain, growing in size and strength,the third one then directly went through the town abbreviated "WTS",here was the most severe damage occurred,entire rows of brick-concrete-mixed one or two story big houses were completeley swept away,some only left clean foundation,debris was scattered downwind for long distances,reinforced concrete poles are broken off at ground level,hardwood trees nearby only left debarked trunks and no leaves or branches remaining,small branches deeply embedded into concrete walls,tractors were mangled and thrown several hundred yards away,a water tank weighing between 3-5 tons were thrown four miles away according to local residents.Ground scouring was obvious as the tornado left the town and went downhill.Again the tornado "dived"into another valley and again climbed another mountain,slightly shrinking in width and strength,tornado encountered another town,abbreviated "SZZ".EF4 damage took place again where numerous well-anchored brick homes were completely swept away left only piles of rubbles,the tornado then climbed to the peak of the mountain and quickly disspated. In all,five people were killed,58 were injured.
track map.
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damage at WTS town.
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damage near SZZ town
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Forgive for the photo quality,cuz I screenshot from the conference and resolution may lose a bit.If anyone needs more damage photos,I'll add some.

WOW! this is incredible. I had no idea that China experienced so many violent tornadoes in recent years. I’m beginning to think that significant tornadoes occur there much more frequently than previously thought, but aren’t consistently reported and documented.

 

[eric11]

WOW! this is incredible. I had no idea that China experienced so many violent tornadoes in recent years. I’m beginning to think that significant tornadoes occur there much more frequently than previously thought, but aren’t consistently reported and documented.

Yes,5 EF4s are given from 2016-2019.China shares the same downward trend like Great Plains but an upward trend in strong to violent tornadoes in 2010s.