Significant Tornado Events

[Lake Martin EF4]

The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornadoes appearance near downtown Birmingham will never not be terrifying. Seeing the massive tornado with the skyline visible is incredibly freaky. Another thing worth noting is as bad as this tornado was it could’ve been even worse, after exiting Tuscaloosa the tornado was on a direct path for the center of Birmingham and surrounding densely populated areas. Around North Johns however, the tornado took a northerly turn which resulted in Concord-Pleasant Grove-Pratt City sustaining devastating impacts but sparing the heart of Birmingham from a potential worse case scenario.
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Ahahahaha on page 427 too! Here's some Eoline: https://www.tornadotalk.com/sawyerville-eoline-al-ef3-tornado-april-27-2011/

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Ahahahaha on page 427 too! Here's some Eoline: https://www.tornadotalk.com/sawyerville-eoline-al-ef3-tornado-april-27-2011/

Unintentional coincidence lol, might as well dedicate this page to April 27th. Eoline was 100% violent, much like several other EF3’s that day.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Anyone got any information/damage photographs from Wichita Falls when it crossed the Red River into Oklahoma. Apparently it did some damage near a town called Waurika but I can't find anything on it.
While I'm it, anyone got anything else from the February 1971 Delta outbreak? I have a PDF and a collection of photos of damage from MS but haven't been able to find much from the LA side of the outbreak. It's a shame it's so poorly documented.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Here’s an interesting video regarding the Henryville tornado in 2012 where NWS Louisville states that “possible EF5 damage occurred” from this tornado. Skip to around 10:40 in the video for the part.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Anyone got any information/damage photographs from Wichita Falls when it crossed the Red River into Oklahoma. Apparently it did some damage near a town called Waurika but I can't find anything on it.
While I'm it, anyone got anything else from the February 1971 Delta outbreak? I have a PDF and a collection of photos of damage from MS but haven't been able to find much from the LA side of the outbreak. It's a shame it's so poorly documented.

We had a good April 27 thing going for page 427.


You ruined it.


Unrelated but here's some video of the Springdale, AR EF3 from March 30.

 

[TH2002]

We had a good April 27 thing going for page 427.


You ruined it.


Unrelated but here's some video of the Springdale, AR EF3 from March 30.

I'm pretty sure that's the Arabi tornado from eight days earlier.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Back to April 27th appreciation posts lol, here’s some gnarly damage out of Concord from the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado. Always been impressed by the damage in Concord-Pleasant Grove.

 

[TH2002]

Speaking of April 27, a while ago I began working on a mapping project where I was going to trace out the paths of several notable 4/27 tornadoes and highlight intense damage points from each one. For a while I was able to sink in an hour or two each day, but life and work get crazy sometimes (naturally only going to get worse in the next couple of weeks). I don't want to see this bite the dust though so I'm just going to release what I have so far. Included are centerlines + EF5 swaths for Ohatchee and Rainsville - mapped by me in ArcGIS and exported to Google Earth compatible KMZ files so feel free to screw with them.

40.3 KB file on MEGA

mega.nz

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Yeah basically accepting the April 27 streak of this page is dead because there's another rather interesting event I haven't been able to find much on: the Lake Wilson, MN F4 of June 16, 1992. The likely reason I haven't been able to find anything is because it was thoroughly overshadowed by the F5 to the south ten minutes earlier. I saw a YouTube comment from someone who cleaned up his neighbor's auto shop after the tornado and saw "destruction on a scale that shook [him] to the core", but still cannot find any damage/tornado pics. I mean, Lake Wilson's a town of.....oh boy, 251 as of 2010? But you'd think you'd see at least damage pics from a violent direct hit, right?

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Yeah basically accepting the April 27 streak of this page is dead because there's another rather interesting event I haven't been able to find much on: the Lake Wilson, MN F4 of June 16, 1992. The likely reason I haven't been able to find anything is because it was thoroughly overshadowed by the F5 to the south ten minutes earlier. I saw a YouTube comment from someone who cleaned up his neighbor's auto shop after the tornado and saw "destruction on a scale that shook [him] to the core", but still cannot find any damage/tornado pics. I mean, Lake Wilson's a town of.....oh boy, 251 as of 2010? But you'd think you'd see at least damage pics from a violent direct hit, right?
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There is evidence that the F4 was actually not separate from the F5 at all and they were the same tornado. https://www.weather.gov/fsd/19920616-tornado-chandlerlakewilson

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Back to April 27th appreciation posts lol, here’s some gnarly damage out of Concord from the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado. Always been impressed by the damage in Concord-Pleasant Grove.
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Is this the area with the warehouse that was practically vaporized? This area and Alberta City the damage struck me as borderline-EF5 in quite a few places.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

Is this the area with the warehouse that was practically vaporized? This area and Alberta City the damage struck me as borderline-EF5 in quite a few places.

I believe that warehouse was past McDonald Chapel. I’m pretty confident the tornado was at EF5 intensity in Concord, there was a narrow swath where every house and structure impacted was completely swept away and contextual damage was pretty high-end. The first two images show a retail store that was utterly obliterated with steel beams twisted in all sorts of ways, there were multiple well-built buildings in Concord and Pleasant Grove that were swept clean or just completely obliterated.

 

[locomusic01]

There is evidence that the F4 was actually not separate from the F5 at all and they were the same tornado. https://www.weather.gov/fsd/19920616-tornado-chandlerlakewilson

Although the same problem still remains: for such an intense and relatively modern tornado (..he says, dying inside as he realizes 1992 was three freakin' decades ago) there really aren't a lot of photos or videos available. As usual, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff floating around somewhere out there, but it'd probably take a fair bit of legwork to dig it up considering Chandler/Lake Wilson are so tiny.

 

[locomusic01]

Back to April 27th appreciation posts lol, here’s some gnarly damage out of Concord from the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado. Always been impressed by the damage in Concord-Pleasant Grove.

I've got a collection of unsorted/unlabeled Tuscaloosa photos that I'm pretty sure were taken around Concord and Pleasant Grove, but I've never taken the time to try and pin down locations. I'll have to remember to post them sometime in case anyone wants to go through them. I actually don't remember where I got them from so they may be widely available anyway - I dunno.

Either way, some of the damage is definitely striking.

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

I've got a collection of unsorted/unlabeled Tuscaloosa photos that I'm pretty sure were taken around Concord and Pleasant Grove, but I've never taken the time to try and pin down locations. I'll have to remember to post them sometime in case anyone wants to go through them. I actually don't remember where I got them from so they may be widely available anyway - I dunno.

Either way, some of the damage is definitely striking.

I’m still working on a contour map for that tornado so if you have them feel free to post lol. Anywho, yeah the damage in some locations from Tuscaloosa-Birmingham was on par with the EF5’s that day.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I’m still working on a contour map for that tornado so if you have them feel free to post lol. Anywho, yeah the damage in some locations from Tuscaloosa-Birmingham was on par with the EF5’s that day.

I've always felt that Tuscaloosa-Birmingham would've been rated EF5 if it had occurred by itself and not as part of a much larger outbreak. I also think that it achieved EF5 intensity right around it was immediately done hitting those Chastain apartments and left into the massive forested areas between the two cities.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I believe that warehouse was past McDonald Chapel. I’m pretty confident the tornado was at EF5 intensity in Concord, there was a narrow swath where every house and structure impacted was completely swept away and contextual damage was pretty high-end. The first two images show a retail store that was utterly obliterated with steel beams twisted in all sorts of ways, there were multiple well-built buildings in Concord and Pleasant Grove that were swept clean or just completely obliterated.

I've found it interesting how the tornado's appearance completely changed by the time it hit Birmingham, it looked more like a stereotypical rain-wrapped Dixie wedge than when it going through Tuscaloosa.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

I've got a collection of unsorted/unlabeled Tuscaloosa photos that I'm pretty sure were taken around Concord and Pleasant Grove, but I've never taken the time to try and pin down locations. I'll have to remember to post them sometime in case anyone wants to go through them. I actually don't remember where I got them from so they may be widely available anyway - I dunno.

Either way, some of the damage is definitely striking.

If you had to guess, where do you think Tuscaloosa-Birmingham could have achieved EF5 intensity, based on damage pics and aerials?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

On 4/27, this is an incredible video of Smithville. I hope this channel doesn't get taken down due to copyright issues. This is the most thorough analysis of Smithville and the EF3 wedge preceding it I have ever seen:



And this one of Hackleburg-Phil Campbell, a ton of videos I haven't seen of it anywhere else:

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

If you had to guess, where do you think Tuscaloosa-Birmingham could have achieved EF5 intensity, based on damage pics and aerials?

The tornado fluctuated in intensity quite a bit throughout its lifetime but I’d say it likely hit EF5 status briefly in Alberta City and then once more along Chastain Manor (though I’d argue it sort of straddled the line and could go either way) and again in Holt. I can say pretty confidently the tornado was at EF5 strength north of Peterson and along where it took out the train bridge, tree damage and home damage in that area was very intense. It also hit probable EF5 strength several times in its trek through forested areas before hitting very likely EF5 intensity in Concord and a narrow swath through Pleasant Grove where the final instance of EF5 damage occurred. I’d say it’s true peak was near Peterson where it reached max width and had the most intense radar presentation but it remained very violent from Tuscaloosa to Pratt City.