Significant Tornado Events

[TH2002]

A bit late, but some more stuff that proves Jarrell did indeed sweep away well-constructed homes. I also seem to recall someone posted some sort of survey report of Double Creek w/ labels showing how each home was constructed, but annoyingly I can't find it now:

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Loyal Valley damage pics, a few days late on its anniversary but oh well:




In a couple of pics it looks like (in the background) an entire hillside was scoured. Pretty crazy. Also, the mesquites being debarked is wild, only other time I've seen that is with Bakersfield Valley.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

More pics:




Last 2 are pieces of a pickup truck. A chunk of asphalt from a highway was found in the grove of trees with the pickup hood wrapped around them.

 

[andyhb]

Damage pics from Ethridge, TN I've never seen before:

View attachment 27098


View attachment 27099


Footage of the tornado itself:




More pics here:

The Deerfield-Ethridge Tornado of 1995

Today (May 18) is the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Deerfield-Ethridge Tornado. On May 18, 1995, an F-4 tornado cut a huge, 29-mile path of destruction across Piney, Deerfield, Brace, and Ethridge, …

lawcohistory.com

This tornado passed over the same area in TN that the 1998 "forgotten F5" did 3 years later.

Whoa, didn't know there was video of that tornado. Great find. Also mother of god that Loyal Valley tree damage is absolutely extreme.

 

[A Guy]

What’s the rationale again for purposely lowballing a tornado rating. Does it have to do with insurance or not wanting a town to be associated with an F5 tornado?

I think it's an engineering pedantry dominated mindset. The whole thing reminds me of that saying that "an expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy". In this case it's literally true, they try to account for every factor that could compromise the 'load path' while arriving at a figure that other evidence indicates is probably drastically wrong.

I don't know what the incentive is as it's one in that scientific community - not just the engineers, but some of the meteorologists as well. Though if you push them they'll admit that winds are probably much higher. For the engineers it allows blame to be shifted to builders at least.

One thing I've noticed that even though it's often tacitly admitted that EF DI determined winds are often not accurate, they are usually treated as such for the purposes of engineering and climatology. If it was admitted that higher speeds occur this would indicate the risk is higher than EF-speed based assessments would say. On the other hand, if someone obtained evidence of significantly higher winds for a given degree of damage, this could indicate that houses are more resistant than thought, which would be a good thing.

But overall it's a hard question to answer - you can't ask the people involved because they don't believe they are underrating tornadoes. That's why I think it's a mindset problem that will take some fresh minds or really decisive evidence to shift.

 

[atrainguy]

Today's the anniversary of the Kalamazoo F3 that hit downtown. Not historic in the grand scheme of things, but still locally significant.

 

[Casuarina Head]

Some rather violent damage from Pryor, Oklahoma, on 27 April 1942 (note the debarking of shrubbery and/or trees):



This source also contains many photographs that I have never personally seen before, also from this F4+ event.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Yeah, don't have a whole lot on them but here are some (admittedly poor) photos from the Bean Lake, MO F3:















And the Maysville, MO F2 (more appropriately rated F3 by Grazulis):



And of course the Conway, AR F4:

The pics won't appear for me

 

[Casuarina Head]

I have a whole gallery that is also going to be featured in my article. If you would like them sooner, I could dm them to you. Speaking of my article, I was hoping to release it on the anniversary (today) but got slammed with finals, work, and now a case of mono that landed me in the hospital and away from my computer for more time. But thankfully I should be good in a few days and back to putting some final touches on it, this whole thing took way longer than i expected!

@Western_KS_Wx Going through your images, I found the following that seemingly shows a cracked concrete stem-wall (?) in Greensburg:

If valid, this puts Greensburg in or near the same territory as Brandenburg, Chandler, Jarrell, Parkersburg, Hackleburg, Joplin, Chapman, and so on.

Here is a view of EF5 damage south of town:

 

[HAwkmoon]

Has anyone got extreme vehicle damage from Piedmont. Someone said there was a vehicle thrown 2 miles and that it was wrapped around a utility pole like sheet paper near Cactus? I haven't seen any images of this, is it true?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Whoa, didn't know there was video of that tornado. Great find. Also mother of god that Loyal Valley tree damage is absolutely extreme.

Keep in mind those are mesquite trees, which are EXTREMELY difficult to debark.

 

[locomusic01]

Has anyone got extreme vehicle damage from Piedmont. Someone said there was a vehicle thrown 2 miles and that it was wrapped around a utility pole like sheet paper near Cactus? I haven't seen any images of this, is it true?

My El Reno '11 folder isn't particularly well-organized so these aren't all from Piedmont specifically, but I made a quick album of some of the more notable vehicle damage photos I've got in there. No doubt there are others if I had time to comb through everything better:

 

[locomusic01]

The pics won't appear for me

Newspaper clippings from the Bean Lake, MO F3:

Random clipping from the Maysville, MO F2/F3:

Conway, AR F4:

 

[Western_KS_Wx]

@Western_KS_Wx Going through your images, I found the following that seemingly shows a cracked concrete stem-wall (?) in Greensburg:

If valid, this puts Greensburg in or near the same territory as Brandenburg, Chandler, Jarrell, Parkersburg, Hackleburg, Joplin, Chapman, and so on.

Here is a view of EF5 damage south of town:

That was originally apart of a windowsill, a bit difficult to tell but I’m pretty sure what happened is when the home was getting ripped off the foundation the windowsill was torn away so forcefully it cracked the stem wall and brought a chunk of it with it. Another windowsill in the basement was left somewhat intact but a portion of the stem wall around it was cracked and deformed, so I’m pretty positive that’s what happened with the other one. There also was some evident debris impacts within the basement of that home as well from when steel fence posts and a section of a street lamp post got thrown into the basement and rammed against the wall, so that may have been apart of it as well.

That being said, there were several cases where homes had their concrete stem walls deformed, uplifted, or partially collapse into the basements. Many of the homes in Greensburg were older and not all that great in construction quality so it may not have required as much force, but still very impressive none the less.

 

[locomusic01]

So, for anyone who may be interested, I think I have a final(?) tornado count for the New Richmond outbreak sequence. Obviously there's a fair amount of uncertainty working with such limited and potentially unreliable information, but I've currently mapped out 19 tornadoes altogether. Just for the sake of interest, I've also assigned very rough ratings for those that weren't officially rated (which is most of them). That includes:

June 11: Hubbard, NE F2 | Homer, NE-Salix, IA F4+ (5 deaths) | Whiskey Creek, IA (F2+)

June 12: Carnelian Lake, MN F3 | Lake Elmo, MN F2- | Hastings, MN F1 | Hudson, WI F3+ | New Richmond, WI F5 (118+ deaths) | Deer Park, WI F3 (1 death) | Clear Lake, WI F4+ (4 deaths) | Barron, WI F2 (1 death)

June 13: Herman, NE F4+ (12+ deaths, possibly 14) | Glenwood-Mineola, IA F1 | Treynor-Carson, IA F2+ | Rodman, IA F2 | Swea City, IA F2 | Waukau-Omro, WI F3 (possibly 1 death?) | Sherburn, MN F1+ | Scribner, NE F1

So, at least 137 deaths in total. One F5, three F4s, four F3s, seven F2s. Any of the three F4s probably could've been F5s, especially Salix and Herman. By comparison, the official count is one F5, two F4s and three F2s.

Edit: Forgot to include the map. Clear Lake path hasn't been updated yet and I think I'm still missing a few death markers (they're also labeled kinda wonky and I didn't fix it yet), but otherwise it should be pretty much done:

June 12, 1899 — The New Richmond, WI F5 - Google My Maps

June 12, 1899 — The New Richmond, WI F5

www.google.com

I think my favorite thing is the bizarro path of the Herman F4 that kinda looks like an earthworm wriggling across the countryside.

..u ok, Herman?

 

[TH2002]

My El Reno '11 folder isn't particularly well-organized so these aren't all from Piedmont specifically, but I made a quick album of some of the more notable vehicle damage photos I've got in there. No doubt there are others if I had time to comb through everything better:

A few more to add to the collection:

Another DI I find interesting is this plausibly well-constructed home on Sara Rd NE that was obliterated in an EF5 fashion. It was extremely new and not there in the 2008 satellite imagery. But it ended up unsurveyed so unless someone finds ground level photos, we will never know for sure...

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

So, for anyone who may be interested, I think I have a final(?) tornado count for the New Richmond outbreak sequence. Obviously there's a fair amount of uncertainty working with such limited and potentially unreliable information, but I've currently mapped out 19 tornadoes altogether. Just for the sake of interest, I've also assigned very rough ratings for those that weren't officially rated (which is most of them). That includes:

June 11: Hubbard, NE F2 | Homer, NE-Salix, IA F4+ (5 deaths) | Whiskey Creek, IA (F2+)

June 12: Carnelian Lake, MN F3 | Lake Elmo, MN F2- | Hastings, MN F1 | Hudson, WI F3+ | New Richmond, WI F5 (118+ deaths) | Deer Park, WI F3 (1 death) | Clear Lake, WI F4+ (4 deaths) | Barron, WI F2 (1 death)

June 13: Herman, NE F4+ (12+ deaths, possibly 14) | Glenwood-Mineola, IA F1 | Treynor-Carson, IA F2+ | Rodman, IA F2 | Swea City, IA F2 | Waukau-Omro, WI F3 (possibly 1 death?) | Sherburn, MN F1+ | Scribner, NE F1

So, at least 137 deaths in total. One F5, three F4s, four F3s, seven F2s. Any of the three F4s probably could've been F5s, especially Salix and Herman. By comparison, the official count is one F5, two F4s and three F2s.

Edit: Forgot to include the map. Clear Lake path hasn't been updated yet and I think I'm still missing a few death markers (they're also labeled kinda wonky and I didn't fix it yet), but otherwise it should be pretty much done:

June 12, 1899 — The New Richmond, WI F5 - Google My Maps

June 12, 1899 — The New Richmond, WI F5

www.google.com

I think my favorite thing is the bizarro path of the Herman F4 that kinda looks like an earthworm wriggling across the countryside.

..u ok, Herman?

Wow, talk about bad luck for Herman. At the very last minute while it was occluding it hit the town after turning a sharp right.

 

[locomusic01]

Wow, talk about bad luck for Herman. At the very last minute while it was occluding it hit the town after turning a sharp right.

It's kinda even weirder than that (tl;dr at the bottom for those who are reading-averse):

In Herman, many of the 500 or so residents were still milling about in little groups when the wedge-shaped funnel first peeked out from behind the range of rolling hills outside of town. Around a quarter past six, it again crossed Hill Creek and finally emerged into full view, seemingly expanding to fill the shallow depression surrounding the creek bed.

The spectacle generated much excitement, and the most timid among the crowd — or perhaps most sensible — promptly fled to their cellars and storm caves. Nonetheless, the tornado was still nearly two miles to the west. Given its northeasterly heading, it seemed sure to pass harmlessly into neighboring Burt County.

Indeed, according to the postmaster at Tekamah, a few miles across the county line, the mighty twister could already be seen and heard from there as well. Said postmaster P.L. Rorke: “We saw the clouds dodging around west of Herman . . . They seemed to come together just above the town with a roar that sounded like trains and trains of cars.”

Inside the storm, however, something was changing. Perhaps it was the sheer volume of dense air cooled by precipitation within the core, producing great downbursts powerful enough to knock the tornado off its natural track. Perhaps the circulation had begun to occlude, only to be interrupted by a tragically well-timed gust front surge. Whatever the cause, the effects were to seal Herman’s doom.

All at once, the twister seemingly ground to a halt. Instead of rumbling off to the north as expected, it slowed to a crawl until it seemed to “spin in place like a top.” Some even recalled it moving briefly backwards, as if retracing its steps after a missed turn. More ominously, it appeared to be getting bigger in the distance.

In reality, the vortex was not stationary, nor was it growing physically larger. Rather, it had looped back on itself and accelerated toward the southeast — with Herman squarely in its sights. Mr. Hinsdale, head agent at the train depot, was among the first to grasp the peril in which the little town suddenly found itself. He and another man, Earl Bonneau, recognized the cyclone’s abrupt turn and promptly took off through the streets, raising the alarm and entreating their neighbors to get below ground.

So, the tornado was highly visible once it cleared the hills west of town, and a lot of people watched it sort of stop, dawdle around a little, maybe retrace its steps.. and then just make a beeline for Herman. And it just so happened that Herman was built sort of diagonally NW to SE along the Omaha Railroad, which is exactly the direction the tornado was traveling. So it entered in the northwesternmost corner of town and effectively cut straight through the whole town, exiting at the southeast corner.

It also seems to have been a multivortex tornado, as there are several examples where one cluster of homes was completely obliterated while houses directly across the street were barely touched. It may've been a particularly powerful subvortex that struck the town waterworks, hurling the giant 22-ton (or 17-ton or 30-ton, depending on the source) boiler standpipe 500 feet up a hill into the yard of a damaged residence. Nine train cars about a block away were also picked up and thrown, and their trucks were "twisted up" and deposited on top of a hill outside of town.

 

[HAwkmoon]

That was originally apart of a windowsill, a bit difficult to tell but I’m pretty sure what happened is when the home was getting ripped off the foundation the windowsill was torn away so forcefully it cracked the stem wall and brought a chunk of it with it. Another windowsill in the basement was left somewhat intact but a portion of the stem wall around it was cracked and deformed, so I’m pretty positive that’s what happened with the other one. There also was some evident debris impacts within the basement of that home as well from when steel fence posts and a section of a street lamp post got thrown into the basement and rammed against the wall, so that may have been apart of it as well.

That being said, there were several cases where homes had their concrete stem walls deformed, uplifted, or partially collapse into the basements. Many of the homes in Greensburg were older and not all that great in construction quality so it may not have required as much force, but still very impressive none the less.

Oh yeah any updates on that article of yours?

 

[locomusic01]

Heck yeah I'm down.

Hey! I messaged you a couple days ago but it seems like it didn't go through for some reason. Anyway, someone volunteered to read half of the article, so would you be willing to take the other half? If not, I can just send a few chapters — whatever works for you. I'm not super concerned about persnickety little grammar rules and whatnot (I deal with that enough in my day job lol) so much as making sure everything makes sense and I haven't made any boneheaded errors or left anything important out.

If you're still up for it, I'll probably be sending it out like tomorrow or Friday, work schedule permitting. It's basically done now but there are a couple things I'd really like to go back and add/expand on first.