Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Thanks, I am diligently awaiting your New Richmond article! I was wondering also, have you read this book by James T. Carrier on the Tri-state tornado as it struck Peabody Mine #18 which according to the damage report was constructed out of steel and reinforced concrete structures and was levelled. I think this is the most compelling instance of EF-5 damage produced by the storm. I have a few low res images of the area and was wondering if you had more?

On another note, have you come across any images of the '300 feet of railroad track torn out' near the railroad house in West Frankfort or the railroad trestle blown from it's piers? Lastly I attempted to enhance some of your article images to varying degrees of success. Was wondering if you had attempted to do something similar.

It's been so long now that my memory is fuzzy, but I think it may be one of the books I bought a while after I'd already finished my article. It looks familiar, at least - I'll have to look around for it. IIRC there's also a contemporary engineering trade magazine or some such that detailed the damage at Peabody. Not sure if I have it saved since this was before I realized that keeping all my files and folders and research and whatnot well-organized might be a good idea lol

No photos of the torn-up railroad tracks, although I haven't done that much digging for new material in years. The enhanced images look good! I did try with some of the photos back in the day but most of the results were.. not great. Would probably be worth another shot, especially with some of the newer tools available.

 

[WIL9287]

Also on this date 4 years ago, the monstrous Bassfield EF4 tornado and Easter 2020 tornado outbreak. Speaking of Bassfield, I recently stumbled upon this which is what Tom Grazulis wrote about the Bassfield EF4.
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I really respect Grazulis and he’s one of the most brilliant minds in tornado research history, but to say his statement is a bit of a head scratcher would be a minor understatement. Seems he completely disregarded the several structures that were rated EF4 along the track basing the rating on tree damage…and then calling it minimal. Not only do I HIGHLY disagree with this, he also stated that the max width was 1.1 miles which is a full mile smaller than the official 2.25 mile width..what?

Here’s some screen grabs on where the tornado almost certainly peaked in intensity on a stretch from Willie Fortenberry Rd to Kings Rd:
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This sequence of images shows extreme damage along and near Willie Fortenberry Rd to Kings Rd. The tornado literally scoured a section of forest to the ground before impacting a grove of trees and producing some of the most impressive tree damage I’ve seen from a Dixie Alley tornado. Large trees and shrubs were fully debarked and reduced to featureless stubs, some of which were sheared down to stumps only a few feet above ground level. Pronounced ground scouring was clearly evident in this area as well. The tornado then entered another forested area where swaths of trees were once again essentially scoured down to the ground and completely debarked. After this point the damage gradually weakened before the tornado ballooned to over 2 miles wide, but damage within this section of the path was in my opinion undoubtedly indicative of EF5 strength, and certainly not a minimal EF4.

As for the max width of the tornado, which Grazulis listed at 1.1 miles instead of 2.25 miles, I leave you with this:
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Grazulis uses average width. Wikipedia won't tell you that though, the articles about tornadoes on there aren't very good like they used to be, unfortunately.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

When an F5 tornado nearly set off TWO nukes:





This tornado could've been a million times deadlier. LITERALLY.

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

33 years later:

 

[SpotlightForRareTornadoes]

April 27 was 13 years ago.....





and people rarely talked about this EF5.