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Significant Tornado Events

I was wondering if anybody had images of the high-end damage from the Rocksprings Tornado. So far, all I've been able to find at most are leveled buildings within the city limits, but not destroyed to the point where I'd be convinced of F5 damage. That one has always been a mystery to me.
 
Marshal79344 said:
1610800823104.pngI was wondering if anybody had images of the high-end damage from the Rocksprings Tornado. So far, all I've been able to find at most are leveled buildings within the city limits, but not destroyed to the point where I'd be convinced of F5 damage. That one has always been a mystery to me.
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With Rocksprings a lot of the photos seem to have been taken after clean up had occurred, this is the one photo I know of where the damage in the background looks severe (not in the foreground). I am curious as to Grazulis' reasoning behind rating it F5 though.
 
Time for another edition of Lake Martin EF4's personal analysis map, this time updated!
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CANADA - multiple F5 tornadoes, the three most recent being Barrie, Edmonton and Elie
MEXICO - F4 tornadoes in 2007 and 2015

ALABAMA - a whole slew of F5 and EF5 tornadoes, most recent being the Lee County tornado in March 2019
ARKANSAS - Sneed 1929, Vilonia 2014, and Buckeye 2021
ARIZONA - Tuba City 2010
CALIFORNIA - 2 violent tornadoes in 2014 and 2018. Both of them were wildfire-caused.
COLORADO - La Baca 1977. Possibly Thurman as well.
CONNECTICUT - Windsor Locks 1979. It managed to carry a 100 ton cargo plane 50 yards, flip it over, and snap it into 3 pieces and then scatter those pieces across the runway, and then proceeded to wipe out an entire neighborhood.
DELAWARE - Rogers Manor 1961
FLORIDA - February 2, 1998 waterspout off the Keys that had 220+ GTG
GEORGIA - one in the Enigma outbreak, then Ringgold and Barnesville. I originally had Pembroke 2022 as an EF5, but decided EF4 was probably the right call.
IDAHO - Gooding 1940
ILLINOIS - multiple E/F5s, three most recent Allendale-Purcell 1989, Plainfield 1990 and Rochelle 2015
INDIANA - multiple E/F5s, three most recent Sayler Park 1974, Allendale-Purcell 1989 and Henryville 2012
IOWA - multiple E/F5s, most recently Parkersburg 2008
KANSAS - multiple E/F5s, most recently Chapman 2016
KENTUCKY - Brandenburg 1974 and Mayfield 2021. Originally I had Bowling Green and Saloma as EF5s, but rightfully dropped them. Saloma was initially EF5 in my eyes because "It slabbed CMU homes, and Lawrenceburg and Birmingham 98 slabbed CMUs...", while I'm actually fairly certain Bowling Green was only initially EF5 in my eyes because of the feeling that with Mayfield and Saloma upgraded, Bowling Green would basically be the one EF4 in a sea of EF5s that night.
LOUISIANA - Delhi 1971
MAINE - Bridgton 2017
MARYLAND - La Plata 2002, based off a brick structure that was completely mangled in F5 fashion in downtown
MASSACHUSETTS - Worcester 1953. The previously mentioned Windsor Locks tornado started here too.
MICHIGAN - multiple E/F5s, most recently on Palm Sunday 1965
MINNESOTA - multiple E/F5s, three most recent Wadena 2010, Tyler/Doran 2010 and Dalton 2020.
MISSISSIPPI - multiple E/F5s, three most recent Smithville 2011, Louisville 2014 and Bassfield 2020
MISSOURI - multiple E/F5s, most recently Perryville 2017
MONTANA - 2 E/F4s in 1924 and 2014. The Capitol, MT/Camp Crook, SD tornado started here as well.
NEBRASKA - multiple E/F5s, most recently the June 16, 2014 violent tornadoes and Coleridge.
NEVADA - most recent EF1 in 2015
NEW HAMPSHIRE - most recent EF3 in 2008
NEW JERSEY - Montgomery 1990
NEW MEXICO - Maxwell 1964
NEW YORK - most recent EF4 was Smithfield 2014
NORTH CAROLINA - Murphy 1974 and multiple tornadoes from the 1984 outbreak as well as the Philadelphia Church tornado from 1884
NORTH DAKOTA - multiple E/F5s, most recently Berlin 2011
OHIO - multiple E/F5s, most recently Van Wert 2002
OKLAHOMA - multiple E/F5s, most recently Mangum 2019
OREGON - 2021 Bootleg Fire tornado
PENNSYLVANIA - Niles-Wheatland, Atlantic, Tionesta, Kane and Moshannon 1985.
RHODE ISLAND - Providence 1986
SOUTH CAROLINA - multiple E/F4s, most recently Estill 2020. I originally had both Estill and one of the 1984 tornadoes at E/F5, but dropped both - the 1984 tornado (Red Springs IIRC) didn't do it's possible F5 damage until it entered NC, and Estill was literally only on my list because of a single radar image.
SOUTH DAKOTA - multiple E/F5s, most recently Camp Crook 2018
TENNESSEE - multiple E/F5s, most recently New Harmony and Chilhowee 2011. Ringgold also tracked into TN, but its possible EF5 damage was in GA.
TEXAS - multiple E/F5s, most recently Canton 2017
UTAH - High Uintas 1993
VERMONT - two F3s in 1968 and 1998
VIRGINIA - Colonial Heights 1993 and Rixeyville 2001
WASHINGTON - Vancouver 1972
WEST VIRGINIA - Shinnston 1944
WISCONSIN - multiple E/F5s, most recently Oakfield 1996
WYOMING - Cheyenne 1979 (that tornado's downgrade was probably a literal typo that made it into the official records, like Tanner 2 being F5), Teton-Yellowstone 1989 and Douglas 2018.
ALASKA - multiple F0s, most recently Sand Point 2005
HAWAII - Kona 1971
 
Marshal79344 said:
Palm Sunday 94?
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Yup! Some of the paths (glares at Piedmont) might not be that accurate since in cases like that there wasn't much of a damage swath, but stuff like Henderson Mountain I have high confidence in.

UPDATE: finished all the EF3+ tracks.
thunderheadsin1994.png
 
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Marshal79344 said:
I've recently dug into the AP Archive and newspapers.com and have found a few older tornado damage photographs that I've found worthy of sharing here.

The Lubbock Tornado caused 27 deaths along its 9 mile path of death and destruction, but no place suffered harder than this subdivision not far from the airport. 8 lives were lost including a family of four.

View attachment 15059

This image from the Delhi, Louisiana area on February 21st, 1971 shows the remains of a home where 14 people were killed by an F5 tornado, the first of the big three on that date. The home was picked off of its foundation and thrown into the river. Note the major tree debarking, which makes me believe that this tornado was an F5 after all.

View attachment 15063

This is an aerial of San Justo after it was hit by the southern hemisphere's deadliest tornado on January 10th, 1973

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The area north of Grand Rapids, MI suffered terribly at the hands of an F4 tornado during Palm Sunday 1965

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This is a close-up of a home that was destroyed by the 1953 Worcester Tornado

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An aerial of the Colfax, Wisconsin area after the tornado of June 4th, 1958

View attachment 15068

Tree absolutely shredded by the Plainfield Tornado of 1990

View attachment 15069

A home that was completely destroyed by the Zephyr, Texas Tornado of May 29th, 1909

View attachment 15070
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Concerning the Delhi tornado; if the entire home was picked off its foundation and thrown it likely wasn't well-anchored if it was even anchored to begin with. I can see why Grazulis ranks this an F4 instead of F5. The large fatalities from this outbreak were largely due to the tornadoes striking poorly-built sharecropping tenant homes and trailer parks, stuff that doesn't take much to be blown away.
 
Lake Martin EF4 said:
Also, one day I'd love to see a Palm Sunday 94 summary. (Or maybe a Delta 1971 one but...)
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Some day, I'd like to do something on the three Palm Sunday outbreaks together. Or maybe cover them separately then do some little thing tying them together. I've never been very happy with my '65 article and I started doing some research on the '20 outbreak a couple years ago. It's pretty underrated IMO and not discussed much.

I honestly don't know a ton about the '94 event (besides Piedmont obviously) so it'd be nice to get more into that as well.
 
Lake Martin EF4 said:
View attachment 15087
Guess the outbreak, folks!
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A bit ashamed that I didn't get this because I lived in Greenville SC at the time, and I've hiked and camped in the Oconee Natl forest too. I seem to recall something of the event but I wasn't "into" weather back then. I do fear that I might be falling victim to "Old Timer's" disease regards my memory :(

Phil
 
Since it's been mentioned again on this page, I figured I'd attempt to dredge up some discussion on the 1971 Mississippi Delta outbreak. It had quite a large number of deaths (123) for entirely rural areas with low population density. This outbreak is poorly documented, and there's quite a bit of discrepancy with deaths, injuries, path length and width. For example, the Delhi, LA to Schlater, MS tornado (most likely tornado family) is listed by Grazulis as having a maximum path width of 600 yards with 400 injuries while Storm Data listed a path width of 440-660 yards and with 45 fatalities, but unknown number of injuries. The Fitler to Oxford, MS tornado is listed by Grazulis as having a maximum width of 800 yards with 700 injuries while in Storm Data the tornado is stated as having 58 fatalities with an unknown number of injuries and no path width is mentioned. Amazing how these discrepancies haven’t been noticed by that many people.

Anyways, on to damage photos!

This series:

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2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg8.jpg9.jpg10.jpg
 
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Some more:

A bit hard to tell what you're looking at in some of these due to the low quality. The damage from these tornadoes definitely seems intense, but I don't see any ground scouring, tree debarking/denuding, mangled automobiles, or the like. One of the aerials does seem to show some intense wind-rowing, but hard to tell with the low quality again. Of course, the high fatality rate (123) from this event is pretty impressive for an entirely rural area with very low population density.

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Little Yazoo, MS:
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Sources:

The Mississippi Delta Tornadoes – Tornado Talk

www.tornadotalk.com www.tornadotalk.com

 
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