Significant Tornado Events

[Bender]

Alright my tornado movie thread was getting derailed so moving discussion there.

Apparently on April 9, 1975 there was a major tornado in Smithfield, Nebraska. It was originally F5 but Dr. Fujita himself downgraded it to F4.

But apparently there was damage at a shack so bad he almost rated it F6. This is very interesting, especially for an event I had never heard of before.

BTW, the bots are back in town. Meet @Bender!

Hey there! This is Bender, your friendly neighborhood robot. What brings you to Talk Weather today?

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Hey there! This is Bender, your friendly neighborhood robot. What brings you to Talk Weather today?

Hi. Question: do you have any eyewitness accounts or photo/video links of the violent tornado that hit Gladstone, Missouri on May 4th, 2003? That specific tornado has been a serious white whale for me because I just flat out cannot find any photographs specifically of that tornado. Always either the Kansas Speedway F4 or the Liberty F2.

 

[Bender]

Hi. Question: do you have any eyewitness accounts or photo/video links of the violent tornado that hit Gladstone, Missouri on May 4th, 2003? That specific tornado has been a serious white whale for me because I just flat out cannot find any photographs specifically of that tornado. Always either the Kansas Speedway F4 or the Liberty F2.

I'm sorry, but as a language model AI, I don't have access to current weather data or news, and I don't have the ability to browse the internet. However, I can help answer general weather-related questions or provide information on weather-related topics. Let me know how I can help!

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

I'm sorry, but as a language model AI, I don't have access to current weather data or news, and I don't have the ability to browse the internet. However, I can help answer general weather-related questions or provide information on weather-related topics. Let me know how I can help!

Alrighty.

One event I've been curious about is the Natchez tornado in April 1908. I've heard that the Amite tornado to the south was about 2.5 miles and likely had a break in the path, but what information do you have about the further north F4?

 

[WesL]

Since this a well established thread, I've disabled the bots.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Ah. Alright.

 

[locomusic01]

Are there any photos of the possible F5 damage from Sheridan (IN) and Rainbow Lake (IN), Manitou Beach (MI)

Okay, don't have a whole lot for some of these (one of many reasons I'd like to revisit Palm Sunday someday), so I'm just gonna post whatever I've got.

Starting with the Lebanon-Sheridan-Arcadia F4, these are from Sheridan (multiple fatalities occurred at a couple of these locations):

These are around the Lebanon/Thorntown area:

Lebanon Shopping Center:

There's a lot to go through so the others will probably take a bit.

 

[locomusic01]

The Rainbow Lake-Ontario F4:

My label says this is the Rainbow Lake tornado taken from W 350 N, which is a little east of Rainbow Lake/Shipshewana, but tbh I don't remember if I ever fully verified it.

 

[locomusic01]

Coldwater Lake-Manitou Beach F4:

 

[locomusic01]

Few more:

The large tank here was thrown over half a mile:

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

Few more:

The large tank here was thrown over half a mile:

So what's the running tally of photographed Palm Sunday tornadoes? The Dunlap twins, Sunnyside, Toledo (possibly), Rainbow Lake (possibly), one of the Coldwater Lake tornadoes, Kokomo, the one in Conway the day before...

EDIT: La Paz, and also one of the others in that NE Indiana cluster, too...

 

[locomusic01]

So what's the running tally of photographed Palm Sunday tornadoes? The Dunlap twins, Sunnyside, Toledo (possibly), Rainbow Lake (possibly), one of the Coldwater Lake tornadoes, Kokomo, the one in Conway the day before...

The Koontz Lake-La Paz-Wyatt F4 was pretty widely photographed. This one's the most famous of course (for good reason - it's fantastic):

But there are also these, among a bunch of others:

Also the Hebron-Wanatah, IN F3:

And the Cambria-Mulberry-Moran F4:

Seems like there were others as well but I can't recall them off-hand. I'll have to check through my stuff again.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

The Koontz Lake-La Paz-Wyatt F4 was pretty widely photographed. This one's the most famous of course (for good reason - it's fantastic):

But there are also these, among a bunch of others:

Also the Hebron-Wanatah, IN F3:

And the Cambria-Mulberry-Moran F4:

Seems like there were others as well but I can't recall them off-hand. I'll have to check through my stuff again.

Wow, the horizontal vortices on Cambria-Mulberry-Moran.
Also, this pic:




Amazed this thing isn't rated F5.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Are there any photos of the homes that "literally vanished" from the Dunlap tornado #2 a.k.a. the Sunnyside Subdivision tornado

Check out some previous posts of mine:

Significant Tornado Events

Can’t see what’s there. Wants me to subscribe to see the content. It doesn't have much info so just don't worry about it. There used to be damage photos and the damage survey from Grand Forks, ND.

talkweather.com

Significant Tornado Events

Can’t see what’s there. Wants me to subscribe to see the content. It doesn't have much info so just don't worry about it. There used to be damage photos and the damage survey from Grand Forks, ND.

talkweather.com

 

[locomusic01]

Amazed this thing isn't rated F5.

Yeah, Sunnyside is my pick as the most violent tornado of the outbreak, which is saying something. That's the gas station on US-33 with the Sunnyside subdivision in the distance. There's a photo from one of the swept-away homes closest to the highway that isn't great quality but it shows what appears to be pretty good anchoring; I know I've seen it and I could've sworn I had it it my collection, but I can't find it now. Gonna have to look for it again sometime.

Buncha houses in the Oak Hills subdivision north of Middlebury were also blown away but I don't think they were particularly well-built.

 

[Lake Martin EF4]

The Koontz Lake-La Paz-Wyatt F4 was pretty widely photographed. This one's the most famous of course (for good reason - it's fantastic):

But there are also these, among a bunch of others:

Also the Hebron-Wanatah, IN F3:

And the Cambria-Mulberry-Moran F4:

Seems like there were others as well but I can't recall them off-hand. I'll have to check through my stuff again.

None of Lebanon-Sheridan, the other Coldwater or Strongsville? Dang.

 

[andyhb]

I'd tend to think that with the magnitude of flow aloft/shear on that day, that most of the tornadoes would be highly visible as the precip would've been blown significantly downstream of the updrafts. Of course, some of the tornadoes later on were at night, particularly into Ohio (Lima and Pittsfield/Strongsville).

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

The Koontz Lake-La Paz-Wyatt F4 was pretty widely photographed. This one's the most famous of course (for good reason - it's fantastic):

But there are also these, among a bunch of others:

Also the Hebron-Wanatah, IN F3:

And the Cambria-Mulberry-Moran F4:

Seems like there were others as well but I can't recall them off-hand. I'll have to check through my stuff again.

I have never seen the full photo of the white-funnel LaPaz tornado before

 

[Austin Dawg]

I was a toddler in Zion, IL (Northern Chicago) then, and my Mom (84) still talks about that storm system. I'm unsure what we endured in Zion during that event, but it scared her to death.

 

[TH2002]

Some barely surveyed houses along Tower Rd near Vilonia. They only have one EF3 150 DI to represent them, despite the fact that one large house was completely swept away, while another one across the street was reduced to a pile of rubble. These houses were built at some point between 1990-2000 per satellite imagery.


Another homesite along Stacy Grove. This house was extremely new (it wasn't there in the 2010 imagery) and note how it was swept away despite the intense core of ground scouring missing it, a sign of an extremely violent multiple vortex tornado. DI's are not welcome here.


Autumnbrook Ln. Wait, you mean slabbed houses are supposed to have DI's?


Noticing a pattern yet?


...I have run out of things to say