Severe WX Historic April 27-May 1 2024 Midwest Storms

[warneagle]

Confirmed tornado near Turkey, TX.

 

[TH2002]

IMO the Hollister tornado was anywhere from significant to violent, but the most intense winds didn't impact anything. The fact that high end EF1 damage (which puts the event just short of "significant" territory) was confirmed from structures likely far away from the most violent winds leads me to that conclusion.

 

[jiharris0220]

Is this from the main tornado or is this from the anticyclonic tornado?

From the initial wedge tornado.

 

[NorthGaWeather]

Not sure if this is shade towards me considering the quotations.

But I strongly stand by what I said in that this tornado simply wasn’t as strong at ground level despite what the radar displayed, which of course was hundreds of meters up anyways.

As the video I linked above shows, there’s simply nothing that even remotely hints at significant damage, even the few trees in the path of the tornado got off easy all things considered.

Did the strongest winds of this tornado impact structures or other objects? Or were they sideswiped by the outer winds of the tornado? I would argue that the strongest vortices were not sampled by producing rate-able impacts.

Just fyi, Kosiba and Wurman found, in their small sample, that winds in tornadoes at 15m AGL are 30% stronger than those at 100m.

 

[jiharris0220]

Did the strongest winds of this tornado impact structures or other objects? Or were they sideswiped by the outer winds of the tornado? I would argue that the strongest vortices were not sampled by producing rate-able impacts.

Just fyi, Kosiba and Wurman found, in their small sample, that winds in tornadoes at 15m AGL are 30% stronger than those at 100m.

I already know about that research paper.
Obviously though that doesn’t happen with all tornadoes, otherwise this one should’ve had ground scouring and debarking of trees to say the least considering the winds it had a couple hundred meters up.
The two gentlemen of that paper said a crucial key word, which is “usually.” As well as specifying this caveat.

“There was considerable case-by-case variation in the profiles. Most of the profiles exhibit the strongest |Vg| at the lowest levels. However, there are two exceptions, each associated with very weak tornadoes, with DV < 45 m s−1, typical of vortices described as “marginal tornadoes”15. These exhibit |Vg| which increase with height in the lowest observed levels in the manner of non-tornadic windstorms. It is not clear if strengthening windspeeds with height is a property of marginal tornadoes since the 3rd profile associated with a marginal tornado does exhibit decreasing |Vg| with height. Profiles from some slightly more intense tornadoes, with 50 < DV < 60 m s−1, exhibit |Vg| that weakens with increasing height.”

Now of course, this wasn’t exactly a weak tornado based on radar, but something must’ve happened with the micro dynamics of that twister that exceptionally stunted surface winds.

 

[NorthGaWeather]

I already know about that research paper.
Obviously though that doesn’t happen with all tornadoes, otherwise this one should’ve had ground scouring and debarking of trees to say the least considering the winds it had a couple hundred meters up.
The two gentlemen of that paper said a crucial key word, which is “usually.”

Yes, that may be, which is why I said small sample. Yet, it is a piece to the puzzle, and verifies to some degree what many have speculated on previously.

Again, I submit to you the core of this tornado was not well sampled and its rating is not a true reflection of peak intensity and radar estimates. Not every strong tornado produces awe inspiring ground scouring.

Also, Karen Kosiba is a woman.

 

[jiharris0220]

Yes, that may be, which is why I said small sample. Yet, it is a piece to the puzzle, and verifies to some degree what many have speculated on previously.

Again, I submit to you the core of this tornado was not well sampled and its rating is not a true reflection of peak intensity and radar estimates. Not every strong tornado produces awe inspiring ground scouring.

Also, Karen Kosiba is a woman.

Oops, I meant gentleman and gentlewoman.

But seriously, I get your point, but there should’ve been at the very least some ground scouring or a debarked branch here or there. But the only indication that this tornado possibly had significant winds at ground level is the destroyed crop field.

 

[jiharris0220]

Here’s an image of one area of the path, other than the flooding, we wouldn’t even know a storm went through here let alone a tornado.

 

[JBishopwx]

 

[warneagle]

Thankfully north of the city itself so not the same area that was affected back in 2011

 

[TH2002]

Yikes.

 

[pohnpei]

The tornado could've very well been significant, but there's no way of knowing due to the lack of damage indicators.

It can be confirmed that this tornado passed this forest directly with incredible radar appearance. It's quite common that winds aloft didnt transcend.Nothing new or surprise to see damage of this tornado like this.