Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The tornadoes that go through Northern Alabama also have a tendency to cross into far southern Tennessee (Lincoln and Franklin County, specifically) before dissipating. The second 1974 Tanner tornado did damage in Franklin and Lincoln TN before lifting and its TN portion is not that far off from 2011 Hackleburg.
That April 1920 tornado outbreak is remarkable for its similarities between 4/2/7/11. There were 6 unofficial F4s that day (I'm sure at least half of them were actually F5s but couldn't be ranked as such due to the lack of damage photographs & for most of the structures they hit being frail sharecropper shacks or log cabins).
One F4 of that outbreak had a path through Neshoba & Winston County, MS, passing a short distance just south of Philadelphia, striking the Deemer community. It's path is very close to the 2011 Philadelphia tornado.
That long-track F4 you mention (the 130 miles one) is interesting in that the official termination of it's path is in Lawrence County, AL but that's simply because it lost detection near the Tennessee River. It may have crossed the river into Limestone County, AL and dissipated there or into far southern TN before dissipating, again, much like Hackleburg. Another interesting thing about this tornado is that it maintained its intensity for over 100 miles before finally losing strength when it was nearing the Tennessee River, this also happened with Hackleburg. If it continued into Tennessee then that would make it another Tri-State Tornado (or the Mississippi portion of the path was actually another tornado from a family or downburst damage) but ultimately there's no way to know for sure. I have some PDFs on that outbreak, I'll try to upload them later.

Link to only known damage from that day:

Various Towns, AL, TN, MS Tornado Damage, Apr 1920 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods

www.gendisasters.com

Parts 1 & 2 of the MWR on it:

FYI J-Rab I just edited the post again with more links so feel free to refresh:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

FYI J-Rab I just edited the post again with more links so feel free to refresh:

Another interesting thing about this outbreak is that it occurred in the early morning hours, many of the real violent Dixie outbreaks were in the late afternoon-nighttime range.

Another brief article on it: https://www.alabamawx.com/?p=132483

The thing I've noticed is that it's specifically the section of northwestern Alabama from Marion and Lamar Counties to Limestone and Madison Counties that seems to be a highway for long-tracked, rain-wrapped and fast moving F/EF4 to F/EF5 tornadoes. It must be the perfect balance of geography, climate, local topography, dew points and atmospheric instability.

 

[J-Rab]

The tornadoes that go through Northern Alabama also have a tendency to cross into far southern Tennessee (Lincoln and Franklin County, specifically) before dissipating. The second 1974 Tanner tornado did damage in Franklin and Lincoln TN before lifting and its TN portion is not that far off from 2011 Hackleburg.
That April 1920 tornado outbreak is remarkable for its similarities between 4/2/7/11. There were 6 unofficial F4s that day (I'm sure at least half of them were actually F5s but couldn't be ranked as such due to the lack of damage photographs & for most of the structures they hit being frail sharecropper shacks or log cabins).
One F4 of that outbreak had a path through Neshoba & Winston County, MS, passing a short distance just south of Philadelphia, striking the Deemer community. It's path is very close to the 2011 Philadelphia tornado.
That long-track F4 you mention (the 130 miles one) is interesting in that the official termination of it's path is in Lawrence County, AL but that's simply because it lost detection near the Tennessee River. It may have crossed the river into Limestone County, AL and dissipated there or into far southern TN before dissipating, again, much like Hackleburg. Another interesting thing about this tornado is that it maintained its intensity for over 100 miles before finally losing strength when it was nearing the Tennessee River, this also happened with Hackleburg. If it continued into Tennessee then that would make it another Tri-State Tornado (or the Mississippi portion of the path was actually another tornado from a family or downburst damage) but ultimately there's no way to know for sure. I have some PDFs on that outbreak, I'll try to upload them later.

Link to only known damage from that day:

Various Towns, AL, TN, MS Tornado Damage, Apr 1920 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods

www.gendisasters.com

Parts 1 & 2 of the MWR on it:

The 130 mile long track you’re talking about, is that the 1920 Hackleburg twin? If it is, I also think it continued past the Tenn River. So many of those violent storms do tend to go up across the state line, or at least into Limestone county.

I have a link to the weather report done by P. H. Smyth right after that 1920 outbreak, which is very interesting, but I don’t remember the Philadelphia storm that you mentioned, although I could be forgetting it. Even without that, I have felt there were many similarities between that outbreak and the 2011 super outbreak. Come to think of it, I think it was just the Alabama tornadoes so the Philadelphia storm probably wasn’t there. I’ll try to find the link if you haven’t read it.

EDIT: Here’s the link to Smyth’s report:

ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/048/mwr-048-04-0205.pdf

 

[J-Rab]

Another interesting thing about this outbreak is that it occurred in the early morning hours, many of the real violent Dixie outbreaks were in the late afternoon-nighttime range.

Another brief article on it: https://www.alabamawx.com/?p=132483

The thing I've noticed is that it's specifically the section of northwestern Alabama from Marion and Lamar Counties to Limestone and Madison Counties that seems to be a highway for long-tracked, rain-wrapped and fast moving F/EF4 to F/EF5 tornadoes. It must be the perfect balance of geography, climate, local topography, dew points and atmospheric instability.

Awesome. Thanks man.

 

[J-Rab]

The tornadoes that go through Northern Alabama also have a tendency to cross into far southern Tennessee (Lincoln and Franklin County, specifically) before dissipating. The second 1974 Tanner tornado did damage in Franklin and Lincoln TN before lifting and its TN portion is not that far off from 2011 Hackleburg.
That April 1920 tornado outbreak is remarkable for its similarities between 4/2/7/11. There were 6 unofficial F4s that day (I'm sure at least half of them were actually F5s but couldn't be ranked as such due to the lack of damage photographs & for most of the structures they hit being frail sharecropper shacks or log cabins).
One F4 of that outbreak had a path through Neshoba & Winston County, MS, passing a short distance just south of Philadelphia, striking the Deemer community. It's path is very close to the 2011 Philadelphia tornado.
That long-track F4 you mention (the 130 miles one) is interesting in that the official termination of it's path is in Lawrence County, AL but that's simply because it lost detection near the Tennessee River. It may have crossed the river into Limestone County, AL and dissipated there or into far southern TN before dissipating, again, much like Hackleburg. Another interesting thing about this tornado is that it maintained its intensity for over 100 miles before finally losing strength when it was nearing the Tennessee River, this also happened with Hackleburg. If it continued into Tennessee then that would make it another Tri-State Tornado (or the Mississippi portion of the path was actually another tornado from a family or downburst damage) but ultimately there's no way to know for sure. I have some PDFs on that outbreak, I'll try to upload them later.

Link to only known damage from that day:

Various Towns, AL, TN, MS Tornado Damage, Apr 1920 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods

www.gendisasters.com

Parts 1 & 2 of the MWR on it:

I haven’t ever seen this, so much appreciated.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The 130 mile long track you’re talking about, is that the 1920 Hackleburg twin? If it is, I also think it continued past the Tenn River. So many of those violent storms do tend to go up across the state line, or at least into Limestone county.

I have a link to the weather report done by P. H. Smyth right after that 1920 outbreak, which is very interesting, but I don’t remember the Philadelphia storm that you mentioned, although I could be forgetting it. Even without that, I have felt there were many similarities between that outbreak and the 2011 super outbreak. Come to think of it, I think it was just the Alabama tornadoes so the Philadelphia storm probably wasn’t there. I’ll try to find the link if you haven’t read it.

Show me the Smyth link if possible. Anyways, the Philadelphia storm I mentioned is mentioned on the top page of Part 1 of the PDF under 'Neshoba County tornado'.

 

[J-Rab]

Show me the Smyth link if possible. Anyways, the Philadelphia storm I mentioned is mentioned on the top page of Part 1 of the PDF under 'Neshoba County tornado'.

I just added it to my post above (and this one) but it isn’t linking. Not sure why not. Try to copy and paste into your browser, I guess.

ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/048/mwr-048-04-0205.pdf

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I just added it to my post above but it isn’t linking. Not sure why not. Try to copy and paste into your browser, I guess.

Oh it turns out I had the Smyth article, in fact it's part of the PDF files I sent lol. But yeah, it's so hard to get much information on this outbreak.

 

[J-Rab]

The thing I've noticed is that it's specifically the section of northwestern Alabama from Marion and Lamar Counties to Limestone and Madison Counties that seems to be a highway for long-tracked, rain-wrapped and fast moving F/EF4 to F/EF5 tornadoes. It must be the perfect balance of geography, climate, local topography, dew points and atmospheric instability.

Yeah, that area just seems to draw violent tornadoes. Even the ones that hit in MS like Tupelo, Aberdeen, Smithville, etc. seem to be on a trajectory that leads to Lamar/Marion counties in that same corridor.

I’d love to know why. Like you said, it is probably a combination of factors. I do know that there are many times when the jet stream comes down and exits northeast right over that northern border between MS and AL... or maybe I’m just looking for it now so I always notice it.

 

[J-Rab]

Oh it turns out I had the Smyth article, in fact it's part of the PDF files I sent lol. But yeah, it's so hard to get much information on this outbreak.

Oh, ok. My bad, lol.

 

[J-Rab]

Oh it turns out I had the Smyth article, in fact it's part of the PDF files I sent lol. But yeah, it's so hard to get much information on this outbreak.

It looks like the pdf you linked only has the first half page of the Alabama tornadoes. Unless I’m missing something, the link that I sent has a few pages that weren’t in the pdf you linked.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

It looks like the pdf you linked only has the first half page of the Alabama tornadoes. Unless I’m missing something, the link that I sent has a few pages that weren’t in the pdf you linked.

Oops you're right. Alright, I got them sorted out properly now on my laptop. Yeah, it's confusing to dig through the archives sometimes with awkwardly scanned print documents from a century ago.

 

[J-Rab]

Oops you're right. Alright, I got them sorted out properly now on my laptop. Yeah, it's confusing to dig through the archives sometimes with awkwardly scanned print documents from a century ago.

Yeah, I had what you had... which was the first half page of the AL tornadoes tagged on to the end of the MS one’s, so I looked all over the place until I finally found the rest of the report, haha. It was in a place where you could put in the month and year to get that months reports going back to the late 1800’s.

 

[jbn60]

Picture of the remains of a Lawrence County house where a family of 6 were killed in the first Tanner tornado of 1974.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I wish there were more ground-level damage photographs of the 1957 Sunfield IL F5. As these are the only photographs of damage we have.

 

[jbn60]

Guin 1974

 

[jbn60]

Thanks. I hadn't looked that far back in the thread. Here are a couple more photos from April 27, 2011. The first is the Smithville tornado. The second is from the Hackleburg EF5.

 

[J-Rab]

TView attachment 5409View attachment 5410hanks. I hadn't looked that far back in the thread. Here are a couple more photos from April 27, 2011. The first is the Smithville tornado. The second is from the Hackleburg EF5.

That is the only picture of the Smithville tornado that I’ve seen. I wish there were more. I have seen one video of it as well, and you can tell just how crazy fast that thing was moving.

There is just not much out there from that storm.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I found an engineering study about damage from the Tri-State tornado in Murphysboro, De Soto, some rural areas, and West Frankfort. It included examples of extreme damage that I'll list below;
Orient Mine, West Frankfort
- A Buick roadster was carried ~200 ft and demolished.
- One 60,000 gallon steel water tank that was anchored with bolts was blown away. One of the steel bearing plates supporting the water tower was bent upwards at a 45-degree angle while another one was twisted.
- A 20-ton locomotive crane was lifted off its tracks and laid against a building.
- A "Cyclone fence" was bent.
- An overhead conveyor was totally destroyed with some of its concrete piers being pulled out of the ground.

Peabody Mine 18, West Frankfort
- A steel pier of a mining tipple was torn completely out of the ground and hurled 45 ft away.

Rural Areas
- An Illinois Central steel railroad bridge over the Big Muddy River (that weighed over 100 tons) was moved 8 inches while a nearby pump house was completely swept away.

Journal of the Western Society of Engineers

www.google.com

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Amazon product ASIN 1468560964 There is also apparently a book dedicated to the Tri-State Tornado in Franklin, White, and Hamilton Counties.