Significant Tornado Events

[Shakespeare 2016]

The sheer amount of granulated debris covering the ground and how completely debarked some trees were tells me this was an event likely on par with Parkersburg, Hackleburg and/or Smithville and going through a heavily urbanized area at full intensity.

I was even thinking El Reno 2011.

 

[buckeye05]

I'd personally make the comparison to Joplin. The left side of the one panoramic photo of New Richmond shows one of the most thoroughly obliterated residential areas I have ever seen.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I'd personally make the comparison to Joplin. The left side of the one panoramic photo of New Richmond shows one of the most thoroughly obliterated residential areas I have ever seen.

Good point, forgot about Joplin. This thing also reminds me of Joplin in that it was moving through a densely populated urban area on a day where there was even more people than normal there (there was a large circus being held, so lots of out-of-towners were there, much like how Joplin had lots of people visiting that day for the high school graduation). I can't tell if this thing did any grass or ground scouring though, due to the black and white photos. If it did that's even more remarkable and solidifies its place as the most violent tornado in Wisconsin history.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The elevated views really do help give a complete perspective of how widespread and total the devastation was.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The elevated views really do help give a complete perspective of how widespread and total the devastation was.
View attachment 13553
View attachment 13554

Keep in mind these photos were taken several days after the event, so some clean up has occurred. That being said, the way one whole side of the town was almost swept away reminds me a lot of Hackleburg/Phil Campbell.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

New Richmond probably did produce vegetation/ground scouring as newspapers reported that mud and “uprooted grass” was plastered against standing objects.

 

[TH2002]

The 2/28/1987 Glade, MS tornado is somewhat shrouded in mystery. This February tornado was reportedly two miles wide at its peak (though Tornado Talk lists the width as 1230 yards, or 0.7 miles) and killed six people, all in Glade. It was on the ground for 35 miles across three counties. Four of the fatalities were in mobile homes, one person died in his car as he tried to escape the tornado and another person was crushed by a falling tree as he ran around trying to warn people of the approaching tornado. Multiple homes were reportedly swept off their foundations, though unfortunately no photos are currently available of this damage. In fact there aren't many damage photos available outside of what's on the Tornado Talk article, but on a news article I found a color photo of Glade Elementary School, which was destroyed. The article seems to have had more photos at one point, but naturally...

 

[Marshal79344]

The 2/28/1987 Glade, MS tornado is somewhat shrouded in mystery. This February tornado was reportedly two miles wide at its peak (though Tornado Talk lists the width as 1230 yards, or 0.7 miles) and killed six people, all in Glade. It was on the ground for 35 miles across three counties. Four of the fatalities were in mobile homes, one person died in his car as he tried to escape the tornado and another person was crushed by a falling tree as he ran around trying to warn people of the approaching tornado. Multiple homes were reportedly swept off their foundations, though unfortunately no photos are currently available of this damage. In fact there aren't many damage photos available outside of what's on the Tornado Talk article, but on a news article I found a color photo of Glade Elementary School, which was destroyed. The article seems to have had more photos at one point, but naturally...

Definitely not the first time Laurel was almost eliminated. Interesting to note how it remained rather weak and small for some time before it suddenly appeared to just EXPLODE in strength.



ERA-5 data makes it pretty self-explanatory that this was a typical Dixie Alley HCLS event.

 

[Marshal79344]

Definitely not the first time Laurel was almost eliminated. Interesting to note how it remained rather weak and small for some time before it suddenly appeared to just EXPLODE in strength.

View attachment 13555

ERA-5 data makes it pretty self-explanatory that this was a typical Dixie Alley HCLS event.

View attachment 13556

Forgot to attach the context for the "Laurel was eliminated" part. The scar of the 12/16/2019 EF3 is visible in this image, although it severely pales in comparison to the Bassfield scar. Good luck finding it

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are there any pictures of the actual tornadoes from the Carolinas outbreak of 1984? I've looked but haven't had any luck. Plenty of damage photos and (for that matter) videos, and I wouldn't expect videos since this was before portable video recorders really became a thing, but you'd think there would be some photos of the supercell tornadoes, some of which in South Carolina occurred while it was still daylight. (I think most of the NC tornadoes were after dark.)

The reason I ask is that I was a kid on spring break from school, visiting relatives in Columbia, SC, and I remember seeing the supercell off to the NW as it went through Newberry. It was ferociously huge; even from 20 miles away, I had to tilt my head back to see the top of the thing as my great-aunt pointed it out to me. I wish someone in our family had taken a picture of it. I also recall an hour or two later, Columbia itself got hit by a violent thunderstorm with pretty large hail, but it wasn't tornadic and from this loop:

https://projects.ncsu.edu/atmos_collaboration/nwsfo/storage/cases/19840328/032884irloop20.gif

it seemed as if this "trailing" storm that hit Columbia blew up pretty quickly over the Midlands while the killer supercell looked to be in the vicinity of Bennettsville SC or maybe across the NC/SC state line in Maxton.

Wow I've been researching this outbreak today and yesterday & haven't been able to find any photographs of the tornadoes themselves, although it was largely a nocturnal event which is likely the reason. A shame really as this event in on par with the 1884 Enigma Outbreak for the most violent tornadic event in the region.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Found some stuff on the 1984 Carolinas outbreak that hasn't been discussed much on this thread:

1. Anniversary video on it:




2. Another anniversary video on it:




3. Coverage of the event mere hours after it occurred:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Found some information on the 'Forgotten F5' of the April 1998 TN outbreak. Turns out, the pickup truck being carried 20 miles story originates right here. Hopefully this was some sort of typo:



I'd love to find photographs of the 200-yard pasture and more photos of clumps of dirt being pulled up from the ground. What's interesting about this event is that only a single tree seems to have been debarked, when you'd expect tons more trees to be debarked.

Storm Data file:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here's a serious question; what's the longest waterspout track on record? I know the Temperance, MI tornado from 1953 spend ~40 miles over Lake Erie as a massive waterspout but I'm wondering if there's any longer tracks then that. Such as a tornado spending its entire life over a large body of water or a tornado leaving shore and spending in excess of 10+ miles over water? Not sure purists would consider that a true waterspout or not. Anyways, I'm just curious as to what anyone knows on this thread.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Found some information on the 'Forgotten F5' of the April 1998 TN outbreak. Turns out, the pickup truck being carried 20 miles story originates right here. Hopefully this was some sort of typo:

View attachment 13559

I'd love to find photographs of the 200-yard pasture and more photos of clumps of dirt being pulled up from the ground. What's interesting about this event is that only a single tree seems to have been debarked, when you'd expect tons more trees to be debarked.

Storm Data file:

Yeah no a truck was not carried 20 miles by that tornado. Also I’m pretty sure this is a photo of the scouring in the pasture.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah no a truck was not carried 20 miles by that tornado. Also I’m pretty sure this is a photo of the scouring in the pasture.
View attachment 13561

I think that's more clumps of dirt then a full 200-yard wide section of grass being scoured. But then again could be more typos on Storm Data's end.

 

[buckeye05]

Found some information on the 'Forgotten F5' of the April 1998 TN outbreak. Turns out, the pickup truck being carried 20 miles story originates right here. Hopefully this was some sort of typo:

View attachment 13559

I'd love to find photographs of the 200-yard pasture and more photos of clumps of dirt being pulled up from the ground. What's interesting about this event is that only a single tree seems to have been debarked, when you'd expect tons more trees to be debarked.

Storm Data file:

I would say it very likely debarked more than one tree, and that this is just worded strangely. This entry seems to have been written at least partially based on photos, as I distinctly remember a small gallery of damage photos from this tornado, one of which was of a single debarked and labeled "A tree that was debarked by flying debris" or something similar. It seems like someone just saw that photo and included the caption in the entry almost verbatim.

Edit: I see the photo I'm talking about in the PDF you included.

 

[TH2002]

Yeah I think it's been well established that the Lawrence County tornado didn't toss a truck 20 miles... though that got me thinking. Is it even POSSIBLE for a tornado to carry a vehicle for such a distance? I would think if the winds were strong enough to do that the vehicle would be utterly ripped to pieces and scattered for long distances (Culbertson 1990 for example), or simply vanish entirely.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah I think it's been well established that the Lawrence County tornado didn't toss a truck 20 miles... though that got me thinking. Is it even POSSIBLE for a tornado to carry a vehicle for such a distance? I would think if the winds were strong enough to do that the vehicle would be utterly ripped to pieces and scattered for long distances (Culbertson 1990 for example), or simply vanish entirely.

That's always been my guess....or it got lifted high enough that updrafts in the atmosphere could carry it for that far but yeah, odds of that happening are infinitesimal.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Yeah I think it's been well established that the Lawrence County tornado didn't toss a truck 20 miles... though that got me thinking. Is it even POSSIBLE for a tornado to carry a vehicle for such a distance? I would think if the winds were strong enough to do that the vehicle would be utterly ripped to pieces and scattered for long distances (Culbertson 1990 for example), or simply vanish entirely.

So, the entry for the mile-wide F4 that proceeded it is also interesting....pretty clear this thing had F5 potential.



Would love to find photographs of the damage, especially the lumber yard.

 

[TH2002]

So I recently picked up a copy of Year of the Storms: The Destructive Kansas Weather of 1990 By Howard Inglish and I must say, it's a really good book. Highly recommend it for anyone looking for nonfiction meteorology books, and it also portrays just how violent Kansas' 1990 tornado season really was.

Some tidbits I found interesting about Hesston, Goessel and Emporia:

Hesston Decorating Center was completely destroyed. The steel frame of the building was crunched and mangled, and at Troyer's Furniture Restoration steel beams were "torn from the concrete in which they had been set". Numerous homes were swept away (including at least one that was purportedly well constructed) in rural areas outside of Hesston, and the basement of the home where Judy and Jennifer DeWitt survived the tornado was "mud-drenched" (scouring?)

Goessel swept away a well-anchored home belonging to Linden and Dorene Thiessen. The home was not even two years old, as the couple had just rebuilt after losing their previous home (a mobile home) to a fire in 1987.

Yet another tornado (Emporia on June 7) swept an anchor bolted home down to its basement while other homes were leveled. For some reason that tornado was stuck with an F2 rating... I'll let that speak for itself.

There are pictures of Hesston Decorating Center, and the homes in Goessel and Emporia in the book, though not sure if I can post them here (if I can I'll update my post to include them). I also don't wanna spoil the entire book lol

And while on the topic of Hesston this appears to be a swept away home at first glance, though I strongly suspect the second photo is of the same home before cleanup