• Welcome to TalkWeather!
    We see you lurking around TalkWeather! Take the extra step and join us today to view attachments, see less ads and maybe even join the discussion.
    CLICK TO JOIN TALKWEATHER

buckeye05

Member
Messages
3,121
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
Personally I gotta disagree with the F5 rating for Rocksprings
View attachment 5639
View attachment 5640
Hmmm idk about that conclusion. The reports of the damage in Rocksprinfs that I’ve read suggest an extremely violent tornado, with the worst damage occurring in residential areas of town. Apparently, some areas of neighborhoods were completely obliterated and swept away, with little debris recovered. The thing is, when the destruction is this complete, photographers may actually skip photographing these areas in favor of areas where there are still recognizable portions of buildings.
 

MNTornadoGuy

Member
Messages
1,612
Reaction score
2,568
Location
Apple Valley, MN
Hmmm idk about that conclusion. The reports of the damage in Rocksprinfs that I’ve read suggest an extremely violent tornado, with the worst damage occurring in residential areas of town. Apparently, some areas of neighborhoods were completely obliterated and swept away, with little debris recovered. The thing is, when the destruction is this complete, photographers may actually skip photographing these areas in favor of areas where there are still recognizable portions of buildings.

79683972_1015763755470226_1120852405441789952_o.jpg

You can see intense damage in the background of this photograph.
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
Hi Juliett, I am a writer for Tornado Talk. Did this photo come from the summary on tornadotalk.com?
I forgot where exactly I got this photo (I just found it via google without initially bothering to check the site it was from, my bad ) but after checking the tornadotalk.com article I see it's right there. I'll take the photo down if you'd like, my apologies in advance.
 

WIL9287

Member
Messages
26
Reaction score
94
Location
Brownsville, PA
Special Affiliations
  1. SKYWARN® Volunteer
I forgot where exactly I got this photo (I just found it via google without initially bothering to check the site it was from, my bad ) but after checking the tornadotalk.com article I see it's right there. I'll take the photo down if you'd like, my apologies in advance.
If you could just link the summary with that photo, that would be great! We got exclusive permission from the survivors of Smithville to use these photos in the summary. Thank you! :)
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
If you could just link the summary with that photo, that would be great! We got exclusive permission from the survivors of Smithville to use these photos in the summary. Thank you! :)

Check link to my post here, you are properly credited now.

 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
I think that some attention should be given to the EF3 that preceded Smithville. Satellite imagery revealed extensive swaths of ground scouring, and a photo of it shows a decent sized wedge, like Smithville was.

The Entire Track
View attachment 5642

Zoomed in parts of the track
View attachment 5643
View attachment 5644
View attachment 5645

The last part of the track revealed very intense scouring swaths
View attachment 5646

The tornado itself
View attachment 5647
Fascinating, that thing looks almost exactly like Smithville, it's uncanny. I wonder how many potential EF5s there were that day and (like this one) weren't recorded as such as they didn't hit any DIs capable of registering them.
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
I consider the 2/19/1884 Enigma tornado outbreak to be a “Super Outbreak” as the scale and intensity of the outbreak is really unmatched with the exception of the 1932, 1974 and 2011 Super Outbreaks. It’s likely that the Rockingham NC, Leeds AL, Cave Spring GA and the Cagle GA tornadoes reached F5 intensity as they all completely swept away multiple large homes, produced intense ground scouring and produced intense debarking along with other extreme contextual damage. I really do wish there were damage photographs and more information about the event though as it was rather poorly-documented.

Check out Stormstalker's article on it: https://stormstalker.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/the-enigma-outbreak/


Also, I normally don't do this but the Wikipedia entry for it is surprisingly informative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_tornado_outbreak

I'd love to get more information on this thing, but once again, like many older events, it was so poorly documented.
 

Marshal79344

Member
Messages
361
Reaction score
1,064
Location
Chicago, IL
Why exactly do most tornadoes in Dixie Alley have really low-hanging cloud bases that are not clearly visible like in the Cordova video?
This is because Dixie Alley is really close to the Gulf of Mexico. The closer you are to a body of water, the lower cloud bases you tend to be due to greater moisture influence than the middle of Oklahoma. Lakes also have influence on storm bases too. Storms also tend to be lower based when they are closer to the cold front or in the triple point due to greater moisture influence, such as the 1925 Tri State Tornado. Another great example of this occurred during the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes, the Kokomo Tornado (which was well over land) was rather mid-based, but the Manitou Beach Tornado was also really low-based, due to it's closer proximity to the surface low.
 
Last edited:

Marshal79344

Member
Messages
361
Reaction score
1,064
Location
Chicago, IL
Found some Goliad 1902 pics. They certainly suggest an F4 rating is appropriate. Poor people had no chance. The weird thing with the Goliad Tornado was how suddenly it approached, with a roar only becoming audible as the tornado was right on the town, and no funnel being visible as the tornado approached around mid-day, suggesting it may have been low-based or too wide to be recognized as an actual tornado.
19020518GOLIAD.jpg19020518GOLIAD2.jpg19020518GOLIAD3.jpg19020518GOLIAD4.jpg19020518GOLIAD5.jpg
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
Found some Goliad 1902 pics. They certainly suggest an F4 rating is appropriate. Poor people had no chance. The weird thing with the Goliad Tornado was how suddenly it approached, with a roar only becoming audible as the tornado was right on the town, and no funnel being visible as the tornado approached around mid-day, suggesting it may have been low-based or too wide to be recognized as an actual tornado.
View attachment 5662View attachment 5663View attachment 5664View attachment 5665View attachment 5666
A while back I found this stuff on Goliad that I posted earlier in this thread so I'll repost it hear:

Supposedly this photograph is of damage from Goliad: https://devastatingdisasters.com/goliad-tornado-texas-may-18-1902/

This is an interesting news story that contains several photographs of damage from the Goliad, TX tornado of 1902 that killed at least 114 people, tied with Waco of 1953 for deadliest tornado in the state. Some of the damage looks quite intense:

 

Marshal79344

Member
Messages
361
Reaction score
1,064
Location
Chicago, IL
A while back I found this stuff on Goliad that I posted earlier in this thread so I'll repost it hear:

Supposedly this photograph is of damage from Goliad: https://devastatingdisasters.com/goliad-tornado-texas-may-18-1902/

This is an interesting news story that contains several photographs of damage from the Goliad, TX tornado of 1902 that killed at least 114 people, tied with Waco of 1953 for deadliest tornado in the state. Some of the damage looks quite intense:

Pretty sure that is not from Goliad. Background doesn't match up, Goliad isn't too big of a city and doesn't have big skyscrapers.
 

MNTornadoGuy

Member
Messages
1,612
Reaction score
2,568
Location
Apple Valley, MN
A while back I found this stuff on Goliad that I posted earlier in this thread so I'll repost it hear:

Supposedly this photograph is of damage from Goliad: https://devastatingdisasters.com/goliad-tornado-texas-may-18-1902/

This is an interesting news story that contains several photographs of damage from the Goliad, TX tornado of 1902 that killed at least 114 people, tied with Waco of 1953 for deadliest tornado in the state. Some of the damage looks quite intense:

That photograph seems to be from the 1953 Waco TX tornado which was probably weaker than Goliad.
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
Pretty sure that is not from Goliad. Background doesn't match up, Goliad isn't too big of a city and doesn't have big skyscrapers.
The photograph? Yeah you're right, I saw the article and didn't pay too much attention to any photographs, so many articles on tornadoes have damage photographs from other ones erroneously attributed to them.
 
Messages
2,157
Reaction score
2,714
Location
Missouri
The photograph? Yeah you're right, I saw the article and didn't pay too much attention to any photographs, so many articles on tornadoes have damage photographs from other ones erroneously attributed to them.
That photograph seems to be from the 1953 Waco TX tornado which was probably weaker than Goliad.
The video in the other link is genuine damage photos of Goliad, it looks like it was a pretty violent tornado.
 

MNTornadoGuy

Member
Messages
1,612
Reaction score
2,568
Location
Apple Valley, MN
I wish I could find more damage photographs from the 4-17-1970 Plainview TX tornado. It was reported to have produced some very intense damage; 50-ft tall grain tanks were thrown 1/4 of a mile, a 750-ton bushel tank was moved 50 ft, numerous homes were leveled in Plainview and homes were reportedly swept away in rural areas.
 

andyhb

Member
Messages
1,033
Reaction score
2,689
Location
Norman, OK
I wish I could find more damage photographs from the 4-17-1970 Plainview TX tornado. It was reported to have produced some very intense damage; 50-ft tall grain tanks were thrown 1/4 of a mile, a 750-ton bushel tank was moved 50 ft, numerous homes were leveled in Plainview and homes were reportedly swept away in rural areas.
Here's the setup from that night. Apparently many of these tornadoes were cloaked in fog as they tracked near the surface warm front and it was well after dark when LCLs had lowered.
 
Back
Top