locomusic01
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Looks kinda like the petroleum storage tanks at the Ashland Oil terminal in Niles, some of which were 30 ft. tall and 80,000+ lbs.
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Significant Tornado Events
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Some photos of Rick Douglas after he survived being thrown through the air by the 1966 Topeka F5. He was a reporter who was covering the tornado as it entered town, and was trying to get a better vantage point by leaving his car and attempting to observe the approaching tornado from Burnett's Mound. Unfortunately, the tornado had reached peak intensity and was pretty much already crossing the mound when he arrived. He was thrown through the air and dragged along the ground before he could get back into his car, remaining conscious the entire time. His hair was left completely full of mud and scoured grass, and when he arrived at the hospital, a nurse put a covering over him, thinking he was dead, and was shocked when he pulled it back off. While at the hospital, nurses removed the circular bottom section of a glass Coca-Cola bottle from his head, which had been wedged between his skull and the skin. Douglas reported that for the next four years, and he would occasionally find and remove small glass fragments and wooden splinters embedded in his skin.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
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I'm gonna go ahead and say those tanks were empty?Looks kinda like the petroleum storage tanks at the Ashland Oil terminal in Niles, some of which were 30 ft. tall and 80,000+ lbs.
Also, amazing how the 80,00+ Ib tanks were crumpled and thrown like soda cans but the houses literally next door don't even have a scratch on them.
locomusic01
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Some were, but others were full and the fire department had to shut the area down to make sure it was safe.
And yeah, it's a good illustration of how narrow the extreme core of the tornado was. The structures on either side were more or less okay, but the house next to the tank in the road was absolutely obliterated. There were some points where it was even narrower.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
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I'd say the propane tank farm in Niles is a seriously candidate for heaviest objects moved by a tornado; I wonder what the official record is?
MNTornadoGuy
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The oil rig moved the 2011 El Reno EF5 is probably the top candidate.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
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Oh duh, forgot about that thing; the oil rig and the tanker trailer of an oil truck being thrown a mile across the freeway really solidified that thing as being among the most violent of 2011.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
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4/27/11 alone is a demonstration of how futile "most violent" lists are; that being said, I could definitely make a top 10 for pre-1950 events and F-scale era events. Not sure about EF5-era events though, as 4/27/11 has so many that could be in the top 10 lol.
Juliett Bravo Kilo
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Holy crap, this thread has finally hit 300 pages! Man, y'all are awesome, amazing how far this thing's gotten in the space of less then 2 years.
Narrow tornados can often have very abrupt damage level change whithin even 10-20m like this one from Katie 2016 tornado.
This was the exact place where one of the most violent tornado motion ever photographed took place
It seems that tornado was able to remove grassed and some topsoils from the ground. Trees standing in the scouring area was snapped and tossed and trees adjacent all left intact with leaves.
EF4 rating house was on the lift side of the circulation.
btw, in a recent video posted online, you can see a pickup truck tossed by tornado
This was the exact place where one of the most violent tornado motion ever photographed took place
It seems that tornado was able to remove grassed and some topsoils from the ground. Trees standing in the scouring area was snapped and tossed and trees adjacent all left intact with leaves.
EF4 rating house was on the lift side of the circulation.
btw, in a recent video posted online, you can see a pickup truck tossed by tornado
One thing that may worth mentioned here was I think the oil rig was very likely not a direct hit by El Reno tornado. The centerline determination was mostly from all ground scouring pictures what I can collect.
Two pictures West of N courtney Road help me to determine the centerline
The center of the tornado seems already acrossed Us.66 in industry area. Tornado was also shrinking its size and later weakened before reintensified after 21：18 based on RaxPol and damage.
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Juliett Bravo Kilo
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My guess is the Cactus oil rig was on the edge of the core or was struck by a subvortex, incredible it wasn't in the direct core path.
locomusic01
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At some point I'd like to do a quick article on the topic of the largest/heaviest objects moved/rolled/thrown by tornadoes. Would also be fun to do some (very rough) calculations of what it'd take to move them if enough information was available. Anyway, one incident that comes to mind that I never see mentioned for some reason is the 10/3/79 Windsor Locks F4. It destroyed over a dozen airplanes at the Bradley Air Museum, including a massive C-133 Cargomaster. Some sources list the C-133 as weighing 100 tons, but official specs indicate an empty weight of 60 tons. Still huge though, obviously.
MNTornadoGuy
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One of the worst tornado outbreaks in the pre-1870 period in American history is the 6/3/1860 IA-IL outbreak. At least 11 tornadoes touched down and 148 people were killed making it one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in US history. This was the climax of an active late May-early June period that included other intense/violent tornadoes in Pennsylvania and Kansas.
Newspapers usually exaggerated stuff at this time so take these descriptions with a grain of salt though I do believe that ~3 of the tornadoes from this outbreak were violent. The first major tornado from this event was the New Providence IA tornado which was probably one of the strongest tornadoes of this outbreak. The small communities of Pritchard's Grove & Quebec were devastated. In Pritchard's Grove, 7 people were killed as the entire community was devastated. A brick home was leveled, cornfields were reportedly scoured, and "the timber and every movable thing was swept away like dust before the broom." In the town of Quebec was structural damage was reportedly worse but the death total was either zero or not known. Here "not a vestige of the settlement remained where it stood. Cellar holes marked the former sites of structures which, with their contents were distributed in fragments over the wide prairie."
The next major tornado passed north of Cedar Rapids and devastated rural areas. A dozen farms were reportedly completely swept away and a sill from one of the swept away farmhouses was reportedly carried 500 ft and embedded in the ground. Some of the descriptions in this area also seem to hint towards ground scouring as "the ground was literally plowed up, covered with rails, stakes, etc., standing upright, some of them buried half their length in the ground. The grass was cut shorter than it could have been with a scythe." 9 people were killed by this tornado.
The Rogers Grove tornado was the 3rd (technically 4th but I'll talk about that tornado later) intense tornado from this outbreak. Homes were destroyed by this tornado and animal corpses were smeared with mud. Not but is known about this tornado though it killed 8 people.
The next two intense tornadoes moved parallel to each other and later underwent a merger similar to Gossell. The northernmost tornado moved through rural areas of Linn, Cedar, and Cedar Counties. Numerous homes and barns were destroyed by this "storm demon" with some reported having been completely swept away and scattered over the countryside. Wheatfields were reported to have been scoured.
The southernmost of the "twins" and the deadliest tornado of this entire outbreak began in eastern Cedar County and moved parallel to the previous event. Eventually, it merged with the tornado near Dewitt and rapidly intensified. In rural areas west of Comanche, numerous farmhouses were razed, and "beautiful homes were swept out of existence." Ground scouring may have also occurred near these areas as "In many places, plowed soil was wholly blown away, as if washed off by a freshet, and in several authenticate instances, the freshly turned prairie sod was wholly swept away." 28 people died on farms in this area. The tornado then tore through the town of Comanche which was absolutely devastated. Numerous homes and buildings were reported to have been destroyed, rail-cars were thrown, "trunks, clothing, beds, carpets and all kinds of furniture, including even stoves, absolutely vanished," and a 3-story brick hotel was reportedly leveled. 41 people were killed instantly and some likely died from their injuries later. The tornado then moved across the Mississippi River, sinking a raft (23 deaths) and crossing into Illinois. Buildings in the town of Albany were destroyed with several fatalities. The tornado then continued destroying farms in rural IL before dissipating somewhere in Whiteside County.
The last major tornado from this outbreak was a long-tracked tornado family that destroyed farms in Whiteside, Lee, and Dekalb Counties in IL. Some farms were reported to have been completely leveled and 8 people were killed.
Newspapers usually exaggerated stuff at this time so take these descriptions with a grain of salt though I do believe that ~3 of the tornadoes from this outbreak were violent. The first major tornado from this event was the New Providence IA tornado which was probably one of the strongest tornadoes of this outbreak. The small communities of Pritchard's Grove & Quebec were devastated. In Pritchard's Grove, 7 people were killed as the entire community was devastated. A brick home was leveled, cornfields were reportedly scoured, and "the timber and every movable thing was swept away like dust before the broom." In the town of Quebec was structural damage was reportedly worse but the death total was either zero or not known. Here "not a vestige of the settlement remained where it stood. Cellar holes marked the former sites of structures which, with their contents were distributed in fragments over the wide prairie."
The next major tornado passed north of Cedar Rapids and devastated rural areas. A dozen farms were reportedly completely swept away and a sill from one of the swept away farmhouses was reportedly carried 500 ft and embedded in the ground. Some of the descriptions in this area also seem to hint towards ground scouring as "the ground was literally plowed up, covered with rails, stakes, etc., standing upright, some of them buried half their length in the ground. The grass was cut shorter than it could have been with a scythe." 9 people were killed by this tornado.
The Rogers Grove tornado was the 3rd (technically 4th but I'll talk about that tornado later) intense tornado from this outbreak. Homes were destroyed by this tornado and animal corpses were smeared with mud. Not but is known about this tornado though it killed 8 people.
The next two intense tornadoes moved parallel to each other and later underwent a merger similar to Gossell. The northernmost tornado moved through rural areas of Linn, Cedar, and Cedar Counties. Numerous homes and barns were destroyed by this "storm demon" with some reported having been completely swept away and scattered over the countryside. Wheatfields were reported to have been scoured.
The southernmost of the "twins" and the deadliest tornado of this entire outbreak began in eastern Cedar County and moved parallel to the previous event. Eventually, it merged with the tornado near Dewitt and rapidly intensified. In rural areas west of Comanche, numerous farmhouses were razed, and "beautiful homes were swept out of existence." Ground scouring may have also occurred near these areas as "In many places, plowed soil was wholly blown away, as if washed off by a freshet, and in several authenticate instances, the freshly turned prairie sod was wholly swept away." 28 people died on farms in this area. The tornado then tore through the town of Comanche which was absolutely devastated. Numerous homes and buildings were reported to have been destroyed, rail-cars were thrown, "trunks, clothing, beds, carpets and all kinds of furniture, including even stoves, absolutely vanished," and a 3-story brick hotel was reportedly leveled. 41 people were killed instantly and some likely died from their injuries later. The tornado then moved across the Mississippi River, sinking a raft (23 deaths) and crossing into Illinois. Buildings in the town of Albany were destroyed with several fatalities. The tornado then continued destroying farms in rural IL before dissipating somewhere in Whiteside County.
The last major tornado from this outbreak was a long-tracked tornado family that destroyed farms in Whiteside, Lee, and Dekalb Counties in IL. Some farms were reported to have been completely leveled and 8 people were killed.
MNTornadoGuy
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Speaking of the Pennsylvania tornado, it was a pretty violent/intense event for that region. It moved from near Adams to 3 miles S of Brookville, destroying the village of Maysville. It devastated farm after farm, reportedly sweeping away multiple homes, and there are some interesting (though probably exaggerated) reports of contextual damage:
"It carried everything before it where it was widest, but its force was greatest where it was narrowest, plowing up the ground two feet deep and from three to five feet wide, swinging trees on the ground, large oaks around, as if on pivots, one-fourth of a circle, and pruning off all the branches within reach."
"The orchard, except six stumps of apple trees whose bark was stripped off, was uprooted and borne along in the irresistible current of the tornado. Pieces of stone were driven so deeply into these stumps that Lewis W. Corbett could not draw them out."
These reports remind me of the 2011 Philadelphia tornado.
"It carried everything before it where it was widest, but its force was greatest where it was narrowest, plowing up the ground two feet deep and from three to five feet wide, swinging trees on the ground, large oaks around, as if on pivots, one-fourth of a circle, and pruning off all the branches within reach."
"The orchard, except six stumps of apple trees whose bark was stripped off, was uprooted and borne along in the irresistible current of the tornado. Pieces of stone were driven so deeply into these stumps that Lewis W. Corbett could not draw them out."
These reports remind me of the 2011 Philadelphia tornado.
Yes. This guy was really lucky. We he faced was likely the peak intensity of one of the strongest of all time.
gregassagraf
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Impressive tree damage near the community of Mendes Baixos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil - June 12 2018
CheeselandSkies
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Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition
Here we go, a new thread dedicated to past and present significant tornadic events around the globe! Anything outside the USA and Canada goes here, so we can keep track of the many tornadoes occurring around the world without them being lost in the discussions on American and Canadian tornadoes.
talkweather.com
I wonder what the car in the headlights looked like after the tornado. In the video you can see it literally get blown away.