Significant Tornado Events

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

It's been quite a while now but IIRC they didn't actually have the Brandenburg photos posted anywhere at the time. I was just poking around the root directory and saw them listed in a folder somewhere. They might have them posted publicly now, I haven't checked.

Anyway, yeah, there are boxes full of survey photos, film, slides, documents, news clippings, interviews, etc. It's hard to say exactly what they have since many of the labels are so generic, but here's an inventory of their holdings: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00271/tsw-00271.html

It's like a treasure hoard for severe weather nerds. As you'd imagine, there's a bunch of stuff from decades' worth of events. Incidentally, I believe all (or at least most) of the survey photos from 5/31/85 are stored there, too.

Really neat, I think I have found PDFs of some of Fujita's files online (including his original map of Guin's path, I'll have to dig through my computer for it later) where exactly in here did you find Brandenburg? Or is it basically impossible to answer that question as they were in a generically-labeled folder? Really cool if 1985 survey photos are stored there, as the only ones I've seen are from Storm Data or various online sources.

 

[Equus]

I scanned in this Super Outbreak book a while back if y'all do a collab on that

 

[locomusic01]

Really neat, I think I have found PDFs of some of Fujita's files online (including his original map of Guin's path, I'll have to dig through my computer for it later) where exactly in here did you find Brandenburg? Or is it basically impossible to answer that question as they were in a generically-labeled folder? Really cool if 1985 survey photos are stored there, as the only ones I've seen are from Storm Data or various online sources.

No, I found the Brandenburg stuff (and the Jarrell survey photos, come to think of it) digging through the website's root directory, but it appears that's no longer accessible. The root directory is basically a listing of all the files and folders for the website itself - the inventory I linked to is for all the physical files they have stored. The Brandenburg photos might be publicly accessible somewhere on the site now but I haven't checked it in a long time. Probably should, actually.

 

[locomusic01]

So, looking through my Super Outbreak files quick, there were ~50 survey photos from Brandenburg, 13 from Xenia, 27 from North Alabama (not labeled but it's the Tanner/Harvest area IIRC) and two from Monticello. I might've posted some of them before, I dunno. Anyway, it's not much and I'm sure it's only a tiny fraction of what's in the archives, but some of it is pretty interesting.

Aside from the Super Outbreak, there were also about 60 from Jarrell, most of which I've either used in my article or posted here at some point. I think there were some from Lubbock and a couple other events as well, but I can't remember which ones.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So, looking through my Super Outbreak files quick, there were ~50 survey photos from Brandenburg, 13 from Xenia, 27 from North Alabama (not labeled but it's the Tanner/Harvest area IIRC) and two from Monticello. I might've posted some of them before, I dunno. Anyway, it's not much and I'm sure it's only a tiny fraction of what's in the archives, but some of it is pretty interesting.

Aside from the Super Outbreak, there were also about 60 from Jarrell, most of which I've either used in my article or posted here at some point. I think there were some from Lubbock and a couple other events as well, but I can't remember which ones.

Would it be some that you posted in this forum years ago?

Most violent tornado in history?

I know people have different opinions. There have been many violent tornados such as El Reno and others. What is the general consensus of the most violent tornado in US history? Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

stormtrack.org

 

[Marshal79344]

I usually depend on newspapers and lucky finds on Facebook to find most of my tornado information. I have dug through eBay, WorthPoint, Flickr, and Twitter in order to find most of my archives. Occasionally, you will find an old gem. A good example of this is this Facebook photo showing damage from the Waupaca, WI Tornado of September 26, 1951.

 

[locomusic01]

Would it be some that you posted in this forum years ago?

Some of them, yeah.

Speaking of the TTU archives, you can get a look at just a small fraction of the insane amount of stuff they have in this video on the Lubbock tornado:

 

[Marshal79344]

Twitter has a unique search algorithm that allows you to filter in tweets from certain dates, which is especially helpful when looking for more recent and better-documented events. That was the only reason I was able to come across these Chapman photos:

The anvil of the parent supercell



Damage Photos





The tornado itself

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Some of them, yeah.

Speaking of the TTU archives, you can get a look at just a small fraction of the insane amount of stuff they have in this video on the Lubbock tornado:

I wonder if they have stuff from the May 6 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak because I see they have files listed with that date.

 

[locomusic01]

I usually depend on newspapers and lucky finds on Facebook to find most of my tornado information. I have dug through eBay, WorthPoint, Flickr, and Twitter in order to find most of my archives. Occasionally, you will find an old gem. A good example of this is this Facebook photo showing damage from the Waupaca, WI Tornado of September 26, 1951.

View attachment 9799

Nice! It's rarely mentioned anywhere, but it was a pretty significant event.

(Btw, I was today years old when I learned the forum can embed imgur albums so that you don't have to post them all individually.)

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Some of them, yeah.

Speaking of the TTU archives, you can get a look at just a small fraction of the insane amount of stuff they have in this video on the Lubbock tornado:

Wow, I haven't been able to find much in the way of damage photographs from Lubbock; I don't think it deserved an F5 rating but it is a historic event so I've always wished I could dig up more photos from it
I'll bet they have a lot of stuff on Palm Sunday 1965 and possibly photographs from April 1-2, 1974, the outbreak that preceded 4/3/74 (to me, I think they're all part of the same outbreak cycle, similar to how 4//27/11 was preceded by April 25 and 26, 2011 but that's a whole other discussion).

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Nice! It's rarely mentioned anywhere, but it was a pretty significant event.

(Btw, I was today years old when I learned the forum can embed imgur albums so that you don't have to post them all individually.)

Lol same here, if I had done this sooner that would've saved me lots of time and effort on adding contributions and saved space; on the other hand, this forum may not have to gotten to 200+ pages if I had saved space sooner lol.

 

[locomusic01]

I wonder if they have stuff from the May 6 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak because I see they have files listed with that date.

From what I understand, they basically have all of the photos, notes, etc. from all of the surveys Fujita and his team did. Or at least everything that he saved.. which is probably everything given how meticulous he was lol

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

No, I found the Brandenburg stuff (and the Jarrell survey photos, come to think of it) digging through the website's root directory, but it appears that's no longer accessible. The root directory is basically a listing of all the files and folders for the website itself - the inventory I linked to is for all the physical files they have stored. The Brandenburg photos might be publicly accessible somewhere on the site now but I haven't checked it in a long time. Probably should, actually.

Supposedly Fujita planned to write a book on the 1974 Super Outbreak and there would have been tons of damage survey photos in it; unfortunately he never got around to it. Perhaps if he did that would save us lots of trouble in digging through archives or sending out emails to survivors and eyewitnesses of historic events.

 

[locomusic01]

Wow, I haven't been able to find much in the way of damage photographs from Lubbock; I don't think it deserved an F5 rating but it is a historic event so I've always wished I could dig up more photos from it
I'll bet they have a lot of stuff on Palm Sunday 1965 and possibly photographs from April 1-2, 1974, the outbreak that preceded 4/3/74 (to me, I think they're all part of the same outbreak cycle, similar to how 4//27/11 was preceded by April 25 and 26, 2011 but that's a whole other discussion).

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So, what was the F5 rating for Lubbock based on, my Internet is a bit iffy tonight so I can't really watch videos on YT right now.

 

[locomusic01]

So, what was the F5 rating for Lubbock based on, my Internet is a bit iffy tonight so I can't really watch videos on YT right now.

Been a long time since I've really researched Lubbock much, but if memory serves, the F5 rating came from the Guadalupe neighborhood where many of the deaths occurred. A number of homes were swept cleanly away (though most were older and probably not that well-built), vehicles were thrown significant distances and destroyed, etc.

There's also a pretty fascinating paper here that explores the damage in detail, focusing particularly on engineered structures:

http://lubbocktornado1970.com/pdf/ResponseStructuralSystems_TTUResearch.pdf

Pretty sure I've got some photos from the Guadalupe area. I'll check and post them tomorrow.

Edit: I should add that, from what I remember, it probably wouldn't have warranted an EF5 by modern standards. Violent for sure, but not exceptionally so.

 

[Marshal79344]

Definitely is going to take me some time to get used to the brand new Talkweather haha, spoiler I love the way it looks! Anyways, the video archive that I found has given me access to a LOT of precious tornado damage footage of events that I simply could not find anywhere else. Here are some below:

Aerial of Hesston:



Looking north in the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park after the F5 Tornado of April 26, 1991



Manila, Arkansas after the F4 Tornado of April 15, 1998



Scenes of F4 destruction from the first EF4 Tornado to come from the Lawrenceburg Supercell on April 16th, 1998



A subdivision in Jackson, TN after January 17th, 1999



Total devastation after the 1999 Benton, LA Tornado



A farmstead after an F4 Tornado on August 11, 2002

 

[locomusic01]

Definitely is going to take me some time to get used to the brand new Talkweather haha, spoiler I love the way it looks! Anyways, the video archive that I found has given me access to a LOT of precious tornado damage footage of events that I simply could not find anywhere else. Here are some below:

Nice! For some reason, I rarely remember to check for video when I'm doing research. Speaking of which, the Texas Archive has several videos available, mostly focusing on Wichita Falls I and II, Waco & Lubbock but also including some others.

Tornadoes

texasarchive.org

I haven't had time to check most of them yet, but it looks like there might be some good stuff there.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Nice! For some reason, I rarely remember to check for video when I'm doing research. Speaking of which, the Texas Archive has several videos available, mostly focusing on Wichita Falls I and II, Waco & Lubbock but also including some others.

Tornadoes

texasarchive.org

I haven't had time to check most of them yet, but it looks like there might be some good stuff there.

When do you think you will be finished with the 1985 Northeast Outbreak article?