Based on official records, Indiana has experienced three F5 tornadoes since 1950, all of which occurred on the infamous date of April 3, 1974. But there are other tornadoes that have been deemed "near-F5" or actually rated F5 by non-official sources. Here are the tornadoes from 1880-present that are rated F5 by another source or were said to be near-F5 by Tom Grazulis (note that the list below does not include those three official F5s).
April 1, 1884 - Henry/Delaware (rated F5 by Grazulis)
May 26, 1917 - Monroe: about 15 homes were destroyed, some with near-F5 damage
March 28, 1920 - Jay/Adams/Mercer OH/Van Wert OH: homes were entirely swept away east of Geneva and south of Ceylon in possible F5 fashion
March 18, 1925 - MO/IL/Posey/Gibson/Pike (Tri-State Tornado, rated F5 by Grazulis)
May 21, 1949 - Crawford IL/Sullivan: restaurant leveled and cars carried 100-300 yards (recognized as F5 by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC)
April 17, 1963 - Kankakee IL/Newton/Jasper/Pulaski: near-F5 damage occurred in IL and seven homes were swept away (near-F5) in Jasper county
April 11, 1965 - Elkhart/LaGrange: a dozen homes were leveled in the Rainbow Lake area and intensity was near-F5
April 11, 1965 - St. Joseph/Elkhart/LaGrange - Sunnyside and Kingston Heights housing developments in Dunlap were devastated (rated F5 by Grazulis)
April 11, 1965 - Montgomery/Boone/Hamilton: cars were thrown over 100 yards (recognized as F5 by NRC)
April 3, 1974 - Bartholomew/Decatur/Franklin: near-F5 damage occurred on a Decatur county farm, 3 miles southwest of New Point
A recent interesting case is the Henryville tornado of March 2, 2012. The tornado is officially rated EF4, but thick sections (6" thick or greater) of concrete were ripped up and thrown some distance at one point along the damage path. There is no damage indicator on the EF scale to account for this type of damage but it would likely take incredible wind speeds to do that. The fast forward speed of this tornado means that very strong winds would have impacted any particular spot very briefly, so it is not a case of the wind gradually weakening the pavement.
Showing posts with label tri-state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tri-state. Show all posts
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Sunday, March 18, 2012
March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado
Today marks the 87th anniversary of the Tri-State tornado which blasted across parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. This was an exceptional tornado in many ways. A list of some of the records held by this tornado is provided below.
-at least 695 fatalities, the most by a single tornado in the United States
-219 to 234 mile path length
-3 1/2 hours on the ground
-613 fatalities in Illinois, the most on record for a single state
-234 fatalities in Murphysboro, Illinois, the most on record for a single town
-69 deaths in schools, including 33 deaths at one Illinois school
The most infamous tornado in U.S. history was born in a field in southern Missouri in the early afternoon on March 18, 1925. The tornado moved rapidly northeastward, killing 11 in Missouri before moving into Illinois. The tornado took its first lives in Illinois at Gorham, where 34 were killed. Over the course of just 40 minutes, 541 people died and more than 1,500 were injured. After wreaking terrible havoc in Illinois, the tornado crossed the Wabash River in northwest Posey county Indiana and caused heavy damage in Griffin, where 25 died. It then proceeded northeastward through rural farmland between Griffin and Princeton, destroying dozens of farms. The tornado struck a direct hit on Princeton, killing at least 45. The tornado finally dissipated southwest of Petersburg.
In Indiana, at least 71 people were killed, making it the deadliest tornado in state history. The death toll at Princeton is among the highest for a single Indiana town, only rivaled by the 1917 New Albany tornado (more on that tornado in an upcoming post).
In all, at least 695 people were killed and over 2,000 were injured. Approximately 15,000 homes were destroyed with total damage estimated at over $16 million. When adjusted to modern day values, this tornado is among the costliest of all-time.
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Although the Tri-State tornado was by far the most significant event of the day, it was not the only tornado to occur in Indiana. A tornado touched down in Harrison county near Mauckport and passed near Laconia and Elizabeth, killing 4. The tornado then proceeded into Kentucky.
Source:
Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).
-at least 695 fatalities, the most by a single tornado in the United States
-219 to 234 mile path length
-3 1/2 hours on the ground
-613 fatalities in Illinois, the most on record for a single state
-234 fatalities in Murphysboro, Illinois, the most on record for a single town
-69 deaths in schools, including 33 deaths at one Illinois school
The most infamous tornado in U.S. history was born in a field in southern Missouri in the early afternoon on March 18, 1925. The tornado moved rapidly northeastward, killing 11 in Missouri before moving into Illinois. The tornado took its first lives in Illinois at Gorham, where 34 were killed. Over the course of just 40 minutes, 541 people died and more than 1,500 were injured. After wreaking terrible havoc in Illinois, the tornado crossed the Wabash River in northwest Posey county Indiana and caused heavy damage in Griffin, where 25 died. It then proceeded northeastward through rural farmland between Griffin and Princeton, destroying dozens of farms. The tornado struck a direct hit on Princeton, killing at least 45. The tornado finally dissipated southwest of Petersburg.
In Indiana, at least 71 people were killed, making it the deadliest tornado in state history. The death toll at Princeton is among the highest for a single Indiana town, only rivaled by the 1917 New Albany tornado (more on that tornado in an upcoming post).
In all, at least 695 people were killed and over 2,000 were injured. Approximately 15,000 homes were destroyed with total damage estimated at over $16 million. When adjusted to modern day values, this tornado is among the costliest of all-time.
.jpg)
Although the Tri-State tornado was by far the most significant event of the day, it was not the only tornado to occur in Indiana. A tornado touched down in Harrison county near Mauckport and passed near Laconia and Elizabeth, killing 4. The tornado then proceeded into Kentucky.
Source:
Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).
Friday, June 3, 2011
Can A 100-Fatality Tornado Happen Here?
It has been nearly 2 weeks since a catastrophic tornado annihilated a significant chunk of Joplin, Missouri. This stunning and tragic event has generated a lot of discussion in meteorological circles about why it was so deadly. Now that I've had some time to gather information and reflect on this tornado, I thought I would share some thoughts.
I believe that several circumstances combined to make this tornado the deadliest in the "modern" era, or post-1953. Here are some of them in no particular order:
1. Rapid intensification - based on video/eyewitness reports/damage survey, this tornado rapidly morphed from a weak/small tornado into a monstrous wedge, and unfortunately this process happened right as the tornado was moving into Joplin.
2. Poor visibility - by this I mean 2 things. It appears the tornado was wrapped in rain from the vantage point of many of those in the path. Also, the sheer size of the funnel may have been deceptive to an observer expecting to see a more traditional looking funnel.
3. Exact track - although some loss of life with a tornado of this magnitude may be almost inevitable, it may have been less of a story if it tracked a few miles differently in either direction. The path just happened to be directly over numerous residential areas.
4. Wide swath of intense winds - Based on the damage survey, it seems as though a rather wide portion of the damage was in the EF3-EF5 range. Typically this is enough to cause total or near total building failure and when that occurs, the odds of survival decrease.
We can't blame this outcome on a lack of warning. The local NWS office issued a tornado warning with acceptable lead time and, in my opinion, did the best they could given the rapidly unfolding situation. Had the warning not come until later, even more people may have died. I truly believe this was mostly a case of bad luck, where a series of circumstances came together in just the right (or in this case wrong) way.
Great strides have been made in reducing the number of mass casualty tornado events, but I knew a day like this was only a matter of time. I did not think it would happen in this manner though. I really thought we had come far enough so that the next deadly tornado of this magnitude would only occur if it plowed through a major city or a crowded outdoor event like the Indy 500. The Joplin event obviously throws that thinking out the window. I think we can learn some lessons from this event; not only that, we should look to the past to get a sense of where these particularly fatal tornadoes have occurred and what the circumstances were. This will help us answer the question: Can it happen here?
The Joplin tornado is the 15th tornado on record to kill at least 100 people in the U.S. and the first since 1953. Here are the paths of all of these tornadoes (drawn to the best of my ability) and the years in which they occurred:
There are a couple things that stand out. Most of these tornadoes occurred in the 1800's or first half of the 1900's, and a majority of them have occurred east of the Plains. In fact, 10 out of 15 have taken place roughly along/east of the Mississippi River. The 1925 Tri-State tornado killed over 70 people in Indiana, making it the state's deadliest tornado to date.
Most of the 100+ fatality tornadoes passed through cities/large towns or had extremely bad luck associated with them (for example, a majority of the deaths in the 1840 Natchez, Mississippi tornado were boaters on the Mississippi River). Historical records are sketchy and possibly inaccurate, but based on the available information, these tornadoes had path widths anywhere between a half mile to almost 2 miles. So...intense, wide tornadoes tracking through highly populated areas seem to be the most likely candidates. Using SPC's Severeplot 3.0, I searched the Indiana records for these types of tornadoes. Here are the F4/F5 tornadoes with an average path width of at least a half mile (the blue boxes are explained below) since 1950:
Almost all of the wide, violent tornadoes occurred on April 11, 1965 and April 3, 1974. It's not a coincidence that those are 2 of our deadliest outbreaks. The blue boxes depict locations of greater population. Using historical cases, I believe that in order for a tornado to kill at least 100 people, it would likely have to pass through one of the boxes. That is NOT to say that any violent tornado that passes through there is going to kill that many people (thankfully!) but a tornado in those areas with circumstances similar to Joplin is one I would be very concerned about.
As you can see, we have been pretty lucky in terms of massive tornadoes avoiding those boxes, at least since 1950. We can be sure that our luck will run out one day, but hopefully we don't have to face anything on the scale of Joplin anytime soon. Given our ever increasing population, though, it is a possibility. The good news is that statistically speaking, these extreme killers are very rare and hopefully they stay that way.
I believe that several circumstances combined to make this tornado the deadliest in the "modern" era, or post-1953. Here are some of them in no particular order:
1. Rapid intensification - based on video/eyewitness reports/damage survey, this tornado rapidly morphed from a weak/small tornado into a monstrous wedge, and unfortunately this process happened right as the tornado was moving into Joplin.
2. Poor visibility - by this I mean 2 things. It appears the tornado was wrapped in rain from the vantage point of many of those in the path. Also, the sheer size of the funnel may have been deceptive to an observer expecting to see a more traditional looking funnel.
3. Exact track - although some loss of life with a tornado of this magnitude may be almost inevitable, it may have been less of a story if it tracked a few miles differently in either direction. The path just happened to be directly over numerous residential areas.
4. Wide swath of intense winds - Based on the damage survey, it seems as though a rather wide portion of the damage was in the EF3-EF5 range. Typically this is enough to cause total or near total building failure and when that occurs, the odds of survival decrease.
We can't blame this outcome on a lack of warning. The local NWS office issued a tornado warning with acceptable lead time and, in my opinion, did the best they could given the rapidly unfolding situation. Had the warning not come until later, even more people may have died. I truly believe this was mostly a case of bad luck, where a series of circumstances came together in just the right (or in this case wrong) way.
Great strides have been made in reducing the number of mass casualty tornado events, but I knew a day like this was only a matter of time. I did not think it would happen in this manner though. I really thought we had come far enough so that the next deadly tornado of this magnitude would only occur if it plowed through a major city or a crowded outdoor event like the Indy 500. The Joplin event obviously throws that thinking out the window. I think we can learn some lessons from this event; not only that, we should look to the past to get a sense of where these particularly fatal tornadoes have occurred and what the circumstances were. This will help us answer the question: Can it happen here?
The Joplin tornado is the 15th tornado on record to kill at least 100 people in the U.S. and the first since 1953. Here are the paths of all of these tornadoes (drawn to the best of my ability) and the years in which they occurred:
There are a couple things that stand out. Most of these tornadoes occurred in the 1800's or first half of the 1900's, and a majority of them have occurred east of the Plains. In fact, 10 out of 15 have taken place roughly along/east of the Mississippi River. The 1925 Tri-State tornado killed over 70 people in Indiana, making it the state's deadliest tornado to date.
Most of the 100+ fatality tornadoes passed through cities/large towns or had extremely bad luck associated with them (for example, a majority of the deaths in the 1840 Natchez, Mississippi tornado were boaters on the Mississippi River). Historical records are sketchy and possibly inaccurate, but based on the available information, these tornadoes had path widths anywhere between a half mile to almost 2 miles. So...intense, wide tornadoes tracking through highly populated areas seem to be the most likely candidates. Using SPC's Severeplot 3.0, I searched the Indiana records for these types of tornadoes. Here are the F4/F5 tornadoes with an average path width of at least a half mile (the blue boxes are explained below) since 1950:
Almost all of the wide, violent tornadoes occurred on April 11, 1965 and April 3, 1974. It's not a coincidence that those are 2 of our deadliest outbreaks. The blue boxes depict locations of greater population. Using historical cases, I believe that in order for a tornado to kill at least 100 people, it would likely have to pass through one of the boxes. That is NOT to say that any violent tornado that passes through there is going to kill that many people (thankfully!) but a tornado in those areas with circumstances similar to Joplin is one I would be very concerned about.
As you can see, we have been pretty lucky in terms of massive tornadoes avoiding those boxes, at least since 1950. We can be sure that our luck will run out one day, but hopefully we don't have to face anything on the scale of Joplin anytime soon. Given our ever increasing population, though, it is a possibility. The good news is that statistically speaking, these extreme killers are very rare and hopefully they stay that way.
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