DAMAGE ANALYSIS: Rochelle-Fairdale, IL EF4 Tornado
Vložit
- čas přidán 2. 05. 2023
- This 4th episode of the Damage Analysis series explores the controversial Rochelle-Fairdale, IL EF4 tornado, which took place on April 9th, 2015. We explore some of the unknown damage indicators as well as the highest-rated indicators in the path from an engineering perspective.
FOLLOW JUNE FIRST:
www.junefirstweather.com/
/ junefirstweather
junefirstwx?lang=en
/ emoriartywx
JOIN our DISCORD SERVER:
/ discord
JUNE FIRST PODCAST:
open.spotify.com/show/1Pj1SAV...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
www.buzzsprout.com/1860666/
SUPPORT JUNE FIRST:
Merch: www.redbubble.com/people/June...
#Tornado #Rochelle #Weather #Fairdale #Illinois - Věda a technologie
My brother's house was destroyed by that tornado in fairdale. His wife was critical injured. She was in a coma for 2 weeks. Today she doesn't remember much about it. They rebuilt a new home and it's big and beautiful in fairdale. I'm very proud of everyone who helped them get back to a normal life. I want to thank all the people who help others in need when a tornado does damage to their homes. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and information about it. 👍
I think this is why Mr. Fujitia had F5's at 261+ and F4's at 207 - 260. The 190-220mph is clearly difficult to quantify hence all the grumbling over no EF5 for years. The EF scale needs work.
They're working on a new one with more damage indicators and the potential to factor in radar data too.
@@vincentoconnor5640 would any tornadoes from 2007-now potentially change with these new DOIs? Or just any after the changes are released?
@@parkerfleischman1852I assume it would be like how you don't rate a tornado before Feb 2007 with ef scale
The original F scale rated F5s at 261+ mph winds because they overestimated the wind speeds needed to cause damage. That means that best case scenario, a 261 mph F5 would have actually been a ~201 mph EF5. In reality, the original F scale was way more wonky and inaccurate than what we're using now, plus construction quality and technique has changed a lot, so making a direct comparison or translation between the two scales is kind of hard.
@@parkerfleischman1852the Greensburg Tornado just barely reached the requirements for EF5, and had the fewest EF5 indicators. I would also say Joplin might have been downgraded if it wasn't for the fact that it knocked the SJRMC off it's foundation.
Incredible Clem Schultz footage of the tornado hitting Fairdale Sad he lost his wife and her close lady friend.
I saw it, it’s really intense the sounds and seeing it approach like it did engulfing the house in front before reaching him at crazy speeds. I’m not surprised he didn’t return, but instead went to live close to family. It’s time like that your reminded your not immortal, life is fragile and can be taken in a blink of an eye so enjoy the people you have and the time you have.
Why did you say lady friend?
Exceptional analysis on this one Ethan! At 24:09, the heavy slab being moved is impressive.
I was just casually listening during that segment and didn't study the picture too much. THEN when I went back on it, I realized Holy Heck that is one of the most dramatic indicators of unbelievable strength I've seen. To push the dirt into a hump plus the drag, wow. Also, if you've looked at concrete foundations after being demolished, that bottom surface is usually much rougher than flat sand or dirt, it's very irregular with 1" humps or protuberances all over. Unbelievable, excellent observation on your part.
That analysis on the walkway damage was fascinating. I love that you take a look at unconventional damage and contextualize it.
Is there a possibility you will look into the 2016 Chapman KS tornado and analyze the damage to the continuously welded railroad tracks? I havent seen anything like it before and have been wondering if its really EF4 damage or something extraordinary.
i was about to ask him the same question you just did.
Probably one of the three or four high-end EF4 tornados that was close to receiving an EF5. If I'm not mistaken, EF5 in the Enhanced Fujita Scale starts at 201+ mph? Tornados with 190-200 mph are high-end EF4.
I think their is a need to update the EF scale, maybe add DOW radar data when its available, of course, while also taking building standard into consideration. Lastly, there is a need for building code to be enforced considering how easy a poorly anchor or built stracture can easily be destroyed by violet tornados!
Building standards are already in the rating system
i think rating EVERY tornado by damage shouldn’t be done. the fujita scale was made to scale tornadoes by damage because we couldn’t get readings from the inside of a tornado in the early 70s. and now that we can get winds from inside a tornado we should probably start rating them by winds if we get any
The rating system is really, really bad..very arbitrary and subjective, I think it needs to be restructured that takes into account SEVERAL different factors, rather than just the assessed(opinions) of a few people finding damage to man-made structures...
@@dyer2cycle
Things like get me thinking. I forget which storm it was, but a well constructed house was wiped clean off it foundation except for a few anchored points on a corner. This was the primary reason why it wasnt rated ef5.
Then we look at this video and see house 1 completely "fine" and house 2 gone. In the end it not about the rating but scary idea that house 1 stands and house 2 is leveled. That only a few feet can determine if you live or die. Tornado sub vortices are mi d blowingly scary
@@lewkeee We can only get winds from Oklahoma tornadoes, where Wurman and Bluestein use the DOW. Not in tornadoes outside their chasing comfort zone of Oklahoma. It's a DAMAGE Scale! And don't you dare mention El Reno!
Very very well-said and incredibly well done video. These photos are some of the more strange, seeing a home 100ft away being relatively untouched in comparison is wild.
Again as always, these videos and your perspective are golden in this space
Appreciate the kind words as always, Carly! I have your Tornado Perceptions video in my Watch Later. Gotta find some time to sit and enjoy that!
You are absolutely correct - no where else can you find this kind of analysis. We all see the tornado - the chase - the aftermath - but actually digging deep - if you will - into the damage. I have seen pictures of a 2x4 horizontally pierced through the middle of a cement curb -- and intact may I add. Absolutely fascinated with how on earth that could even be possible. If you would happen to read this - I hope you could do a quick breakdown on that bizarre act of nature. Once again - TY - great job.
Impact science is definitely extremely fascinating. It’s tough to boil down into a (relatively) simple math equation to examine with any sort of rough accuracy. Usually a computer model or practical testing would be needed to determine it.
However, the reason why this happens I can explain. The object in motion contains kinetic energy, the stationary object does not. When to moving object hits the stationary object, that energy is transferred into the impact. Because the interaction is so fast, the impacted material can respond in a very brittle fashion, fracturing instantaneously.
Please do an analysis of the Jarrell Texas Tornado. The damage that one caused is incredible.
The most intimidating thing about these EF-4 or 5 (doesn’t really matter). THESE monsters tend to take the roof and majority of walls down by the inflow as the tornado is approaching. Just on the edge of the condensation funnel. Or the Westbound winds. The reason it’s intimidating for me, I saw several in 2011 where the house was taken down before the condensation funnel or core actually hit the house. So a lot of victims had no protection when the core got on them. The other thing I learned doing SAR and recovery is why you wanna stay low! We would find bodies and garbage collected on any object 4-5’ tall or higher. It would just collect everything. So imagine your standing up 5-6’ tall you will become that object or until your cut in half.
That's pretty grim! I've had plenty of experience sandblasting water tower pumps large enough to step inside, with layers of paint & pounds of calcium & iron deposits in them, getting them ready for refurbishment. So, what you're describing to me is, a sandblaster nozzle that's 600 yards wide...sonofabitch
Without a personal point of reference on behalf of your audience, I don't think a speaker could find the words to describe what tornadoes are, or, do.
@@lilblackduc7312 An analogy I haven't heard before, from a survivor of the Ruskin, MO F5 in 1957, was he felt like a bug in the grass with a lawnmower passing right overhead. When I first heard the 'blender' analogy a few things sunk in.
Wow!@@junegaishin3181
17:45 - No seal plates but look how the bushes are pretty much perfectly fine in the foreground. Saw a lot of this in Parkersburg too. An entire house removed from its foundation and just...GONE west of P'burg (finished basement stripped of _everything_ - wiring, stairs, carpet, walls, etc - except half a toilet) but he still had perfectly blooming lilac bushes and mail in the mailbox. It was eerie.
I think there's a huge part that's played by sympathetic impacts and cascading damage. Debris from someone else's home smacks into another home, then bits from the impact site are propelled further into the home, knocking more debris loose which goes on and on until the home is no more and the debris cloud is blown into the next home where the process repeats.
The mailbox, was it anchored into the ground to protect against automobile impact?
As for the bushes, they might have a little more 'give' due to how they sway and move around in the wind. If a drillbit vortex hits it, it'll shred them. However if they don't have to contend with that kind of force maybe their flexibility lends them strength.
I remember racing home to Woodstock, IL that night. Family went to basement. knew the radar looked bad. Debris fell in Woodstock from the air. Unreal how rare these events are. Haven't had anything close to this since then.
This tornado should’ve been EF5, no questions asked. NWS are trying to make excuses to not rate tornadoes EF5
It would have been Illinois first ef5 ( think.)
Not including f5's
And Tim Marshall.
@ILoveOldTWC When he posted about the Western Kentucky tornado’s rating and was like, oh well it was bad but it wasn’t Bridge Creek or Jarrell, I swear my eyes rolled a full 360°.
I would agree with your statement that if some of the earlier EF5 happens again today, they would not get an EF5 rating. Looking back at the damage surveys of the earlier EF5s, I noticed pretty major differences between how NWS surveyed damage back then compared to now. When I saw the countless EF5 DIs listed on DAT of the Hackleburg-Phil Campbell tornado of 2011 stretched across like 20 miles of its path, I thought this must have been an incredible tornado unrivalled by any other, as, from what I remembered, most well-known EF5s only get a few EF5 DIs. That's until I actually looked through the DIs and found that they rated damage to trees, mobile homes, and power poles as EF5. The listed upper bound rating of these DIs are 167mph (low-end EF4), 154mph (mid EF3), and 165mph (high-end EF3) respectively, and I have never seen NWS rate anything above the upper bound in recent years. Also, today's NWS is also less likely to rate other damages (eg extreme ground scouring in Philadelphia 2011, heavy safe ripped out of foundation in Rainsville 2011, or extreme vehicle damage in Joplin 2011), though there are still rare cases where they do rate other damages, like the Rolling Fork EF4 earlier this year (collapsed water tower and ground scouring, both rated EF4). So the rating standards have definitely changed.
Agree but what I wouldn’t understand is why the NWS would be public about changes their making unless it’s internally on purpose. Don’t mean this like I want it to happen but it seems like the only way any tornado will get an EF-5 rating is if you have a greensburg like event completely destroy a town. Even then I think the NWS is going to implement some changes to how their going to rate tornadoes in the coming months. Other thing I will add is their has been a pattern in the last few years that the more extreme parts of tornado season in the US has kinda shifted. Starting in nov/dec to Apr/may it’s very weird
Those tornados caused other extreme damage and were without a doubt the would be ef5 especially the Joplin tornado because they did cause ef5 level di’s
I've been into tornadoes for quite some time and I go through the DIs along the tornado paths myself and look but I lack the expertise you have so I really appreciate this perspective. Great video.
my guy is cranking out quality content, can't wait to see the successes you have this spring and summer
This is a phenomenal analysis. I love the effort put into the last equation.
Fasinating anaylsis! I witnessed the start of the tornado near Ashton and watched it all from a distance as it moved northeast. I have video of the subvortices that produced the circular paths in the field. I'm lucky not experiencing any loss but still in shock. Watching your video helps put some of the pieces together. Thank you!
Lets gooo absolutely LOVE your content! Keep it up you’re incredibly intelligent and you spread very insightful information! Premium content as always!
Love your videos! I’m in the hardscaping business. A typical concrete walkway is 4” thick.
Another great video. Thanks again. As my mind scatters from hour to hour I do a lot of of different things on and off, and one of those things is I'll stop by for an hour or so and watch a few of your videos back to back. Havent found a bad one yet. Love your work.
I have one small recommendation for you. I'm not going to speak for anyone else, this is just a weird thing for me and I dont know how others feel about it. When people have their cam in a corner like that, I always encourage them to mirror the cam or reposition it so they are looking toward the video instead of appearing to look off to the side.
I mean, it makes zero difference physically, it just feels so weird...like, what's he looking at over there...
But as I said, I could just be a weirdo like that and its on me to live with it :D
WOOOO NEW JUNE FIRST VIDEO
Mr Schultz’s video is the best tornado footage I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen it many times and it still makes me uneasy. Super scary.
the thing i hate is that this tornado wasent rated ef5. just 4 years prior the hackleburg-phil cambell ef5 would destroy many homes with EF5 di's at 200 mph which is EXACTLY what happened with this tornado yet it was still rated ef4
I really dig the content! Well done!
I carefully looked at that sidewalk picture for a while. There is an abnormal white spot that might be surveyor marking, but it could also be an impact point. If there was an impact point then we have mass as well as wind speed to transfer the energy into sideways motion on the sidewalk. That would definitely adjust the calculations and require a lower wind speed. The bush sitting there looking like it needs a drink but it's otherwise fine also makes me almost look for pinpoint impact instead of broad force winds.
Fascinating analysis and really, I'm in your camp that the sidewalk (not to mention the missing sil plates) is likely ef5 damage indication. I feel like after the tremendous storms of 2011 and Moore in 2013 there might be a hesitancy to declare ef5 because putting this storm in the same category as Joplin and others just doesn't feel equitable.
Love your videos and the effort you put into that messy equation. Thank you.
This is a great series
brilliant work. wow! keep doing this stuff. please.
I live roughly 30 miles north of Fairdale in southern Wisconsin, and I just missed this event.. I still have yet to witness a tornado even though im obsessed with storms.
Awesome work 👍
I'll always remember watching the tornado live on the Weather Channel. I knew at the time it was a historic event and an incredibly dangerous tornado, but I never imagined it would have been as strong as it was.
A great video as always!
I live in DeKalb county, not far from Fairdale and that night was terrifying.
Would love to see an analysis of the Little Rock ef3 from last month. Estimated peak wind of 165. 1 mph from ef4.
Im not a math person and its so cool that something so hard to fathom can be calculated based on evidence. These videos are 10/10
Finally an engineer says what I have been trying to convey about sill plates, IDGAF if the framing wasn't properly toenailed. If the sill plates were properly bolted which they were and they are mainly gone, focusing on the lack of toe nailing is losing the forest through the tree''s. That's why I am leaning towards a low end EF5 for this tornado.
Interesting video. Vortex is the singular form of vortices. 2 subvortices, 1 subvortex.
Ooo I’ve been waiting for this one
do you know why contextual evidence/surrounding damage sometimes prevents damage locations from receiving higher EF ratings? I thought it was pretty known that tornado damage can be pretty sporadic and the peak velocities can be very focused to a small and exact scale, so it confuses me that sometimes a damage location receives a certain rating, and in the DAT notes it’ll say something like “well built anchor bolted home swept from foundation, but a row of trees 100 yards away were not debarked. One example I think of is a tornado that hit grissettown, NC in 2021, it swept a well built home off of its foundation and leveled the house next door, but it was rated 160mph ef3 because nearby cars weren’t moved significant distances. It’s also interesting to me how this sort of thing seems to affect some tornadoes but not others
Was wondering exactly the same
Look at some DI‘s from Vilonia f.e.
Supposedly vilonia and the western Kentucky tornado were denied an ef5 because of the same things.
@@13_cmi yea the grissettown nc tornado wiped a well built home off its foundation, but was denied ef4 because cars nearby were not moved significant distances, but the newnan Georgia ef4 had homes that received ef4 rated damage from being leveled or swept from their foundations, but the cars in the driveways of those homes were not moved at all. How come newnan still received an ef4 even though cars were not moved at all, but grissettown didn’t get ef4 because cars were moved, but not significant distances. It really doesn’t make sense to me
It's because the rating system is an absolute joke...
the rating system and the people that use to rate tornadoes dont take subvortices into account whatsoever. if you look at a lot of the should-of-been EF5's you'll notice that a subvortex nature was either apparent or likely in a good chunk of them. Rochelle-Fairdale, Rolling Fork-Silver City, Mayflower-Vilonia, and Western Kentucky tornado to name a few.
Can you do the Albany GA EF3 in 2019? I’m curious what you’ll think of the rating. I cleaned up areas afterwards and saw mobile home frames twisted like coke cans and block buildings were nearly completely leveled in areas around Albany. Problem was it hit mainly mobile home parks around Albany. But many trees were wiped clean of branches. I’ve got a video (not great) of it from 1/4 mile away from a window. I feel like it had strong sub vortices that only showed up randomly and twisted mobile home frames. Many mobile home frames in thick oak/pine woods were wiped clean. To me, for the wind to get past all that blocking and still rip homes apart is something extra.
next damage analysis video should be the april 27th 2011 new wren tornado, got absolutely robbed of ef5. nws gave it a preliminary rating of ef3 and then just never surveyed it sadly
Do you think the tornado that went through northeast Arkansas and the bootheel might end up on your list? It’s kind of like an el Reno situation where it’s been overshadowed by the more major tornadoes of the outbreak. I don’t know if it’s worth it to you but it’s definitely worth asking.
Ethan, I have a question for you.
I am just curious base on your understanding on what rating of a tornado or wind speed would it be next to impossible to survive if you didn't have a shelter or a creek? Obversely with tornadoes that have an uplift so strong that they dig a trench or uplift pavement form the roads would kill you. I would imagine it would have to be EF4 or EF5. What are you feeling?
I was in Sycamore at the time and could see the tornado in the distance heading into Genoa. That was a scary ass day fr fr
I live in Sycamore on the far west side of town off Peace Rd. I would’ve died if I saw that thing. 😳
As others have said, I think the Clem Shultz video that came out of this is the most terrifying and visceral tornado footage ever. Of course there are videos from intercept vehicles, but seeing the destruction in real time just puts in a new perspective. Not to mention the sound. I finally understood what they mean by "it sounds like a freight train". Harrowing stuff
I encourage everyone to read through the Enhanced Fujita scaling system and in particular the 28 Damage Indicators. You'll find that only 4 damage indicators have expected wind speeds above 200 mph for the worst degree of damage listed. They are Large Shopping Malls, Mid- and High-Rise Buildings, and Institutional Buildings. For One- or Two-Family Residents buildings, the highest degree of damage says, "Destruction of engineered and/or well-constructed residence; slab swept clean" and the expected wind speed for this damage is 200 mph (only EF-4).
The surface irregularities would make the flow regime trubulent by nature if im not mistaken. Love the video :D
Correct!
Definitely well detailed. When considering the effect of winds on a cylinder, "vortex shedding" can play a role if there is enough time for the oscillations to build strength. This i why you see no truly cylindrical skyscrapers.
On the moved slab, concrete like that is poured on ground or a gravel base where the roughness would add to the friction coefficient affecting lateral movement. I also have to wonder what part vertical updraft winds plays on damage like this, for we know that lifting force exists- it is not all horizontal winds.
@21.00 shows the utter fallacy of trusting contextual indicators- there is no way a well-constructed and properly bolted home can be completely swept clean yet a home 100 ft (30m) away has nearly no damage if contextual indications mean anything. So it sure seems to me that it's time to rethink the whole damage assessment system and to remove the people who cannot accept obvious fact so that the rest of us can move forward 😎
I love me some Von Karman Vorticies 😎
At 10:45 I would say that the silo definitely deserves ef2-3 rating based on the cracked concrete around it and based on lack of concrete anchors
6:00 what is this website or application called?
Some interesting "Lore" with the rating of this tornado. Supposedly, there is an unsurveyed home swept away and the determining factor of EF4 vs 5 were some intact bushes or shrubbery next to a destroyed home. Who knows if any of this is true or if it's all internet conjecture.
For the greensburg tornado, i saw the town before and after it happened. Solid brick church completely slabbed, to the point we werent even sure if the slab we were looking at was the church until we realized the stairs to the basement were in the same place. Definitely an ef5, without a doubt. I think the rochelle tornado was too, but if Greensburg happened today i still believe it would get an ef5. And I do think it is important to rate it correctly, an ef5 rating will get more support, both financially and in man hours. People hear ef4 and while they know its bad, they think "well it could have been worse" and are less likely to contribute to the relief
Man I was coming from Rockford & almost drove right through it,search & rescue hasn’t even arrived yet
23:00 i know im late, but this is a double edged sword. with racecars they are great if they are facing the intended direction, however when cars with high downforce get spun around, the reverse happens. they act like a plane wing and actually create lift. this is a phenomenon called the "blowover", its very common in NASCAR and Indycar crashes. i recommend searching it up, its a very interesting phenomenon
Awesome job on the explanations and the calculations. I could never figure it all out. But I do believe you are missed a critical element in the calculations. That is the vertical velocity. This insight was the main reason for changing the windspeeds between F and EF scale.
I can image it being very difficult to make assumptions of the magnitude of vertical velocity at play.
Incredibly thorough. Thank you
Another excellent video. Just one question---how do you get that 3D view of the DAT? Looks like it's combined with Google Earth or something.
I export the data from DAT and open it in Google Earth.
@@junefirst that’s cool as hell. Gonna go back and do that for all my fave tornadoes now lol
@June First Hey, so here's a question you may be able to answer:
Is there enough of a difference in air density between low elevations (say, 1500 ft) and high elevations (4500 ft +) that the wind speeds for damage indicators could be skewed? In other words, is it going to take an appreciably higher wind speed to do EF3 damage in Denver than it is in Wichita or Oklahoma City?
Yes, air density is actually a function of both altitude and temperature. Just off the top of my head, there would be some difference, but not enough to change a rating. Tornadoes themselves are extreme areas of low pressure, but the density of the air I usually leave at SSL since it’s the environmental average.
What he said about performance sports cars is spot on. As long as it’s a tornado without entire cities of debris in it, 180mph winds hitting a Z06 head on are going to keep it on the ground.
With the missing sill plates and joists- how long after the tornado was this pic? If it was long enough after, had the property owners already started cleaning up the place? It's possible they removed the sill plates, but if the tornado removed them, that's some power. 😮
On the analysis of the Porsche, i think some valid points are made concerning the aerodynamics..however, I'm not sure I would want something light and low like a Porsche to do storm chasing. First, when you are chasing, there is very often a lot of rain, and wet road shoulders..also, sometimes you need to drive over some debris..low ground clearance not good there...and if you get off the shoulder, or the road suddenly turns from pavement to a rutty dirt road, low ground clearance also not good...at the end of the day, I believe a 4 wheel drive truck, SUV Suburban type vehicle is best(not jacked up with lift kits, etc..unnecessary top-heavy and air getting under it like that), but also weight is a good thing..takes a stronger wind to lift you. Look where the Weather Channel's Suburban was rolled, whereas Tim Samaras" small car was lofted and tossed(much worse)....
Any possibility of you doing the West Kentucky/Mayfield tornado?
It’s on the list of tornadoes to cover!
I do want to know how you get those survey tracks into Google Earth. How? Fantastic video, Ethan.
I export the survey data from the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit
@@junefirst thank you!
The singular form of subvortices is subvortex, not subvortice.
Anyone else here more confused than when you started the video? 😂
Great video by the way, the maths is a bit beyond me though.
you can really see the sidewalk was moved by the tornado with the few inch gap that's now between the driveway and said sidewalk, which was clearly newly formed and not there before
Unknown impact on road surfaces. That's a disk mark on the road from a tractor pulling a disk out of the field
at first i thought this was a new ef4 from this year then i saw the description lol
I will preface this by stating that I agree with you that the actual impact on human beings is obviously the most important thing in every case - at the end of the day, if all the homes would be totally wrecked by an EF3, then it doesn't really matter at the end of the day if it's an EF4 or an EF5.
On top of that, I'm aware that my opinion means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like if you have clear radar/doppler images showing estimated wind velocities in excess of 200mph, even without blatantly obvious EF5 damage markers, then it should probably still nudge the tornado up to an EF5. That's especially so if the markers are so borderline as to settle on the highest possible EF4 wind speed. The whole point of the scale was to make estimates on windspeeds based on the damage seen - but an EF5 is still an EF5, even if it doesn't move over an area that bears the necessary structures that would demonstrate that, and as you clearly showed, being 100 feet to one side or the other can make the difference between EF1 and EF5 damage markers. The difference between a low-end and a high-end EF4 can be so great, it feels really odd. I just don't know what a better measurement scale would be.
I feel like even if your math is correct, it would just be incidental because there are a ton of variables that aren't being considered. Did the silo have a lean? Were there any pre existing damage to the concrete? Any structural flaws in the foundation? You can't know that. And it would make a huge difference.
You’re the best
They try to avoid classifying EF5 Ratings mostly because of insurance reasons.
I was gonna write about how I agree with an EF5 rating and that the original damage survey that was done was extremely sloppy and rushed, but I think my personal story from Rochelle/Fairdale is better. Despite the rating, this tornado was extremely impactful personally. Chasing it was surreal and going back a few days later to help with cleanup was something I still don't fully know how to explain even 8 years later.
One of the homeowners I was helping was a guitar player and had actually bought a brand new guitar hours before his house was leveled. It was heartbreaking finding and collecting all his broken instruments putting them into a pile so he could have some sort of closure.
There was an older couple in an adjacent house that had no basement at all. They were in the bathtub and somehow survived despite their house being completely swept away with no debris anywhere near them. Can't even imagine surviving this tornado in a basement let alone without one.
Lastly, a family of 4 in that subdivision were ones that were in their basement as the contents of their house fell on top of them. The husband physically held the basement door shut to protect themselves after their dog tragically was swept through the doorway. It still blows my mind that a tornado can level a house while also having it collapse onto itself. It really has made me question where the safest place in my house would be in case something were to happen. Not that I've ever had to worry about tornadoes in my town, but Illinois already having more tornadoes in 5 months than we normally have in 12 months has really made me more alert and I will definitely be making an emergency plan for my family and I. Better to have a plan and never use it than the latter.
It was the first time I had ever seen tornado damage up close and to this day I have zero clue how anyone survived in any of the 4 houses I was assigned at. It is absolutely terrifying to know that you can protect yourself in the best ways possible and still aren't guaranteed to survive. 4/9/15 changed a lot of people's lives and I was very grateful for the opportunity to help others during probably one of the lowest points of their lives.
Illinois is Top 10 for Apr-May-June tornadoes. Apparently you just aren't aware of the historical data.
that thing at full strengrh was nearly an F5 or it actually was and hit the middle of nowhere
I think that this Tornado had 20 DI's with attached winds of 200Mph, I find it unlikely that the Storm wasn't over 200 Mph at of those points
@June First so that proves a high risk isn't needed for a violent tornado outbreak
often violent tornadoes don't occur on high risk days, the risks are there largely based on confidence on the existence of severe weather. A lot of times there are 'conditional' setups, where certain factors are present for severe weather, violent tornadoes included, but models/observations don't see all the ingredients for tornadoes. Sometimes that condition is realized, many times it isn't, but if the factors align in the perfect way anything can happen.
Hey, great idea...a Porsche 911 Storm Chaser...count me in, but only if I can keep the car. LOL
This great.
I would admit you slab analysis would be impressive if just caused by wind friction, however there's a striped shrub right in front of it i would think it would've pulled that shrub out of the ground. Im thinking there was something acting as a lever for the wind to move that concrete slab. But we would have to see a before and after photo to know for sure. One thing that bothers me about the F scale, is 199mph vs 201mph, really? Nobody will be able to distinguish the two so it's a educated guess.
Tim samaras was killed in a Chevy cobalt… fairly aerodynamic I would assume… 295 mph sub vortices kind of negate the argument.
Storm chasers should be driving Subaru wrxs, legacy’s, or any all wheel drive sports sedan. It’ll have the power and aerodynamics to handle a higher wind speed. AWD will keep them on the road when it gets wet or muddy.
That sidewalk that moved is 3.5” thick minimum and is not in separate pieces. The lines are sawcuts to allow the concrete to crack uniformly.
Would it not matter that tornadoes have a suctions effect as to how/why that concrete could slide. Reed timmers footage of the andover tornado is a perfect example. The roofs are being sucked off not blown off.
there's atmosphere inside and all around the house that can be pulled into the tornado, especially once the garage door and windows are gone. There's no atmosphere under and around the concrete slab. That's all friction forces moving that slab
I believe that this tornado should have been rated EF5
I do like what you are showing, that the scale is a damage scale. Not necessarily that it's not very strong when it's not hitting any structures, but that's what it is, and the people who keep complaining that El Reno 2013 was EF-3 is quite annoying to me. Josh Wurman is undermining how the scale was invented with his DOW, though the scale needs to be updated so it's not just damage that is used in the rating process. But the people complaining about El Reno being EF-3 and not EF-5 are ignorant about how the scale works. Another thing I can't stand is the assumption that a large wedge is always a violent EF-4 or EF-5 tornado. Size is not always an indication of strength. People do not understand that, nor do they understand how the scale works. I read "It's stupid to not rate it an EF-5 just because it didn't hit anything." Well, I'm sorry, but that's how it works. No damage, no maximum upper end scale rating.
I was directly in the path of this monster. Luckily I was one of the ef0 damages early in the storm. But my garage was completely destroyed and the barn had lost its roof.
Almost to ef5 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
The system is terrible for rating really strong tornados because one would have to practically hit some largely populated city to have any targets strongly built enough to give it the rating. Its like having a bench press contest for over 500 ibs but only having 490 ibs available. This is the main reason why we have not seen a EF5 in over a decade. Most structuers can't even handle a low end EF4 so in the end it really doesnt matter. High end EF3 and up are more than capable of destroying a town.
Reply
Chase in a high speed, low profile performance car…got it.
Yeah, and I guarantee you that concrete 4 inches thick, too.. that is a lot of energy!!
I was born in 2015
Sure
8:23 czcams.com/video/4QT9n_4XK-E/video.html this guy captured it crossing teh highway right in front of him
The reason tornado ratings MATTER is to able to provide the requited aide to victims, understand the storms better, give proper warning to people ahead of said storms depending on data collected in real time and to have ACCURACY when trying do any of these things. Part of the reason yhe EF scale was made was to be able to tell INSURANCE COMPANIES how much they should pay out... it also determines if people are elligable for federal aid, such as how the town of Bremen, KY got denied federal relief even though that got blasted by the same tornado that struck Mayfield, KY. So I respectfully and vehemently disagree that tornado ratings dont matter as much as how badly people are effected, because that is EXACTLY what the ratings are there for IN THE FIRST PLACE! Just. Saying. 😒
Not the Porsche…
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
that perfectly fine house next to the slabbed one was crazy. it makes me think about the weather based conspiracy theories that people have been adopting lately. these near misses can be hard to comprehend and I think a lot of people irrationally decide that it's because it was some sort of weapon. for example the people that think wildfires are started via """space lasers""", wildfires are just too immense to comprehend so people think it's fake
if rochelle fairdale hit Tuscaloosa it might have been jus as bad as 2011 tuscaloosa. .. idk it jus looked enormous either way sorry tuscaloosa it doesn't matter which one was worse im jus an avg watcher anyway... im jus sayin glad it stayed ina less populated rural area at its strongest point
Choff choff Hallam choff choff choff
This was absolutely a powerful tornado and it had EF5 damage in different parts of the path of its destruction but until they come up with a better system on rating them... this year in 2023 I really believe they underrated the Matador Texas Tornado but it was a small town and population but I also believe the rolling fork tornado was overrated and was shown to maintain mostly a high-end EF2 and some EF3 status with very little times of EF4 strength but there is many different tornadoes over the past years that should be reanalyzed and Definitely the Mayfield tornado needs looked into again like they're supposed to have already been doing because if any storm that was a EF5 since the last EF5 storm that happened in 2013,, then Mayfield without a doubt should have been that 5 rated tornado! I have heard over the years, that assistance from states,, government and insurance companies for storm damage relief depends on the official ratings and if that's the case, then that's not good for anyone who has to go through such types of disasters
Rolling Fork was definitely not overrated
I don't know if it's just me, but while I really enjoy the content, I don't enjoy the unbroken stare at the camera during the beginning of the video and the technical portion. It's quite distracting from the content and makes it hard for me to focus on what Ethan is saying.
I'm assuming it's a teleprompter or something like that, since it seems to happen during the beginning overview and technical portions of the video, while he has a much more natural delivery in other parts, where he looks back and forth at his screen.
I'm not going to stop watching, since the information is so compelling and I really love the videos overall, but I thought I'd mention it in case others feel the same way.
I actually don’t have a teleprompter. I write an outline and memorize chunks of it at a time.
I think that I’m just so focused on recalling the details and what needs to be said that I forget how to act like a human. The parts where I’m more relaxed (for lack of a better term) is because it’s stuff that I’m more comfortable with since it’s just explaining the details I’m trained in. A lot of the overarching story and event details where I am more “intense” is because I’m so focused on delivering the right details I just memorized, if that makes sense.
Still getting used to being on camera a lot more, so I think with time it’ll improve :)
I appreciate the constructive feedback!
You're welcome to your opinion of course, but I don't see the problem here.
He's talking to the audience, it's completely normal to maintain eye contact with someone you are talking to...in person or through a camera.