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buckeye05

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Major damage and two fatalities from a strong tornadic waterspout in Pantelleria, Italy yesterday. Looking like F2 or F3 damage.

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TH2002

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Yakutsk, Russia is certainly most well known for being the coldest inhabited large city on Earth. Contrary to popular belief, however, Yakutsk does have actual seasons and severe weather is not unheard of. This video, while very poor quality, does appear to show a genuine landspout tornado:
 
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Yakutsk, Russia is certainly most well known for being the coldest inhabited large city on Earth. Contrary to popular belief, however, Yakutsk does have actual seasons and severe weather is not unheard of. This video, while very poor quality, does appear to show a genuine landspout tornado:

I wonder how many times stuff like this has occurred this far north and has simply never been recorded by any human; a massive violent wedge could go through a large section of Siberian forest or wide frozen plain and unless it was caught on radar or a random person's phone/camera will never be mentioned or heard of.
 

buckeye05

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Found some pics that I've never seen before of the Marion ND F4 tornado from 7/18/2004 on Facebook posted by Lindsey Hansen.

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This one not only should have been rated F5, but it may very well have been the most violent documented tornado in North Dakota state history based on the damage it produced.

More impressive than Fargo imo, and Fort Rice wasn’t even close to either.
 
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This one not only should have been rated F5, but it may very well have been the most violent documented tornado in North Dakota state history based on the damage it produced.

More impressive than Fargo imo, and Fort Rice wasn’t even close to either.
Of note the ground scouring from this thing was around 700 yards wide, only Jarrell was wider (at 800 yards or so), at least according to the Tornado Talk article (that is now behind a paywall but once upon a time was free). One of the surveyors wishes they could have gone back and rated it F5, I have a feeling being in 2004 at the height of the whole La Plata deal likely was a factor in this thing being labeled F4 instead of F5.
 

TH2002

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I wonder how many times stuff like this has occurred this far north and has simply never been recorded by any human; a massive violent wedge could go through a large section of Siberian forest or wide frozen plain and unless it was caught on radar or a random person's phone/camera will never be mentioned or heard of.
What's extremely interesting to me is this 1913 log from a crewmember on the SY Aurora, which was on an Antarctic expedition at the time:

"The wind blows in gusts. One time you will see the smoke going straight up from the funnel for about five or ten minutes, then a gust will come across picking the water up in its course and whirling it round and round like a waterspout, high up in the air, as far as you can see. It minded me of the water spouts I see across the Northern Atlantic Ocean, only there is not so much water in them. The spouts on the Western Ocean are solid water, and these are only sprays being whirled around."

Here is the source: https://antarcticdiary.wordpress.com/part-4/
 

MNTornadoGuy

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What's extremely interesting to me is this 1913 log from a crewmember on the SY Aurora, which was on an Antarctic expedition at the time:

"The wind blows in gusts. One time you will see the smoke going straight up from the funnel for about five or ten minutes, then a gust will come across picking the water up in its course and whirling it round and round like a waterspout, high up in the air, as far as you can see. It minded me of the water spouts I see across the Northern Atlantic Ocean, only there is not so much water in them. The spouts on the Western Ocean are solid water, and these are only sprays being whirled around."

Here is the source: https://antarcticdiary.wordpress.com/part-4/
Sounds like these might just be eddies.
 

locomusic01

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This one not only should have been rated F5, but it may very well have been the most violent documented tornado in North Dakota state history based on the damage it produced.

More impressive than Fargo imo, and Fort Rice wasn’t even close to either.
Speaking of North Dakota, one tornado I was surprised to see that we haven't mentioned in this thread is the 8/20/1911 Antler, ND F4. It killed at least seven people in total (two in Lyleton, Manitoba), narrowly missing Antler itself as it curved northward but striking a picnic area instead. Officially it killed two people there, but I've also seen reports listing four or five. At least one of the people killed was thrown more than a quarter-mile, and in the same area the "soil was plowed up." A nearby field was also scoured of grain such that "not a sheaf is visible anywhere on the farm."

A number of "fine" farmhouses were "literally torn to splinters," and heavy farm machinery was reportedly carried for miles (probably not quite that far in reality). The tornado was also well-photographed as it passed the outskirts of town.























 

Oakhurst_Wx

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Texas always has the most interesting violent tornadoes, with deviant storm motion, juicy CAPE, boundary interactions, but when it goes wrong down there, my oh my it goes REALLY wrong. Events like Bakersfield 1990, Saragosa 1987, Laguna Park 2000, Jarrell 1997, and this one come to mind. That region also gets the LLJ driven tornadoes, such as the early morning May 1989 Brackettville, TX F4, the one that got rated as such based on extreme crop damage, and the March 22, 2000 Mexico Tornado, which actually left a pretty significant scar behind.

Radar scan of the Mexico Tornado

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Scar left behind by the tornado

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ERA-5 Reanalysis environment for the tornado

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In the official Weather Bureau report on the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, it is reported that the Rockaway tornado tore up a section of a railroad right of way. I wonder if there are any photos of this damage?
 
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In the official Weather Bureau report on the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, it is reported that the Rockaway tornado tore up a section of a railroad right of way. I wonder if there are any photos of this damage?
Way back in the thread an F1 tornado from Palm Sunday was shown having damaged railroad tracks, but I don't think it's the one you mentioned. Nonetheless, it's worthy of mention here as it's one of the few clear photos of rail damage I've found.

 

locomusic01

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In the official Weather Bureau report on the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, it is reported that the Rockaway tornado tore up a section of a railroad right of way. I wonder if there are any photos of this damage?
I wasn't able to find photos back when I wrote my article years ago (which is one of the reasons Rockaway is high on my list to revisit), but I did find multiple independent accounts that mentioned a section of track being torn up, so it at least lends some credence to it. Of course, "torn up" is pretty subjective.

There were a number of really impressive accounts from that tornado. There was a truck carrying a ton of heavy equipment (the combined weight was something crazy like 80,000 lbs IIRC) that was apparently picked up and thrown across a highway. Several brick homes, apparently built recently by fairly well-off residents, were said to have been swept clean from their foundations. In at least one place, concrete jersey barriers were picked up and rolled/tossed around.

Here are the few photos I have on hand. This was a farm south of Rockaway where a bunch of machinery was thrown and "twisted beyond recognition":



This is the home where a woman was killed - the only fatality according to some sources, while others list four:



This is the crossroads at the center of town:



Concrete bridge railings ripped up - the remains of a house were apparently blown into the creek below:



A home south of Republic that was demolished:

 

locomusic01

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Whoops, I missed a group of photos from around the Tiffin area, near the start of the path. These are all from the same property.

A before and after of the family's home:





Two of the family cars destroyed:





Their barn and other assorted wreckage:









 
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