Go to buyraycon.com/highriskchris to get up to 30% off sitewide! Brought to you by Raycon. What Is The Strongest Tornado In History? PS, I have been wanting to make this video for a loooong time.
This is probably the best video comparing the strenght of tornadoes. Comparing the most extreme damage indicators of each tornado, and then making a chart, that directly shows what each tornado "achieved" was a very good method of comparing them, instead of only talking about most impressive feats, and deciding, which one shows more power. As i was looking for this type of video for quite some time, thank you for making this.
I was going to say check out the xenia tornado but you beat me to it.I live in xenia ohio and thank god there hasn't been a tornado in the a few good years now.
My first guess would be Greenfield. the reason why it's damage was so small is because it was less than a football field wide and moving @ 60 miles per hour. the damage time likely was below 2 seconds.
My biggest fear is surviving the tornado itself but having the house ripped away with no way to exit the basement then drowning in the ensuing torrential downpour 😬
here's one better imagine being in a mobile home during a Vicious Severe Lightning Storm with dangerous to deadly cloud to ground lightning striking very very close to the house every &; each minute and there's a very huge monster destructive tornado not far away and on it's way to your location with you being in it's cross hairs
2013 El Reno only ended up EF3 because there's literally not shit out there to hit. I still think it's the most terrifying one out of the bunch due to the size, wind speed, and unpredictability. If that thing was 25 miles east it would have been downright apocalyptic.
This. There is something extra cynical when a 2.6 mile diameter tornado has vortices inside that have wind speeds over 300 mph and ground track over 100 mph. That is basically hell on earth in there.
Yeah, basically, it did actually move over houses, but the 300+mph readings were of sub-circulations and suction vprtices, whereas the whole circulation was only maintaining EF3 windspeeds
@@carlitosdinkler5213disagree - with horizontal vortices the angular momentum of the wind is directed upwards no? Kinda supercharging the updraft of the main twister, or at least destabilising structures further
@@carlitosdinkler5213correct me if I'm wrong but I see that tearing roofs off far more easily, plus still having the same force laterally to blow the walls in if they aren't very sturdy
Fun Fact: The April 26, 1991 Outbreak also had the strongest tornado measurement by radar at the time which was the Red Rock F4 which is said to have winds of 286 MPH winds but pretty much was forgotten today because of the infamous Andover KS F5 and 8 years and a week later the Bridge Creek F5
@ let those of us who survived them cope how we want to. There’s nothing funny about kidney failure but my mom who suffered it taught me “if you can’t laugh at life it will swallow you whole.”
@@highriskchris having roleplayed as a sentient, sapient, saguaro cactus for nearly 4 years now, im curious as to the strongest tornado or dust devil in the oven state.
Joplin don't get it twisted..I know there isn't alot of video but yeah a bad ass....I do think the Tuscaloosa tornado was a ef5 no matter what they say.
@@grunt9131 Agreed. Many in the weather enterprise also agree that Tuscaloosa was EF5, including Dr. Greg Forbes, former severe storm expert at The Weather Channel, and a former student of Dr. Fujita.
The Rainsville EF5 is one of the scariest destruction stories I've heard. A massive gun safe that was anchored through the concrete was thrown hundreds of yards and the door of the safe was ripped off and never found. Most people don't truly understand how heavy these safes are, and how well they are anchored to the ground.
Not only damage-wise but appearance-wise too. It's one twister where its appearance matched its damage. It's one of the most pissed-off tornadoes I have ever seen. Then again, I expect nothing less from the sister EF5 of the Philadelphia MS EF5, both of which formed from the same supercell.
I lived about 15 miles south of Jarrell TX, when that horrific tornado unleashed its havoc. I was 17 yrs old, and school had just got out for the summer. I remember that day VERY clearly. The whole area within a 30 mile radius was under the scariest tornado threat I’ve ever experienced even now. I’ve been a Texan my whole life. My cousin was a paramedic and was on rescue duty. Even after 26 yrs, he still has PTSD from the horror he saw.
Bro is gonna get hunted down by the entire state of Oklahoma for this video lol. Fantastic job dude, I 100% agree with Smithville being placed at #1, that thing was just unfathomably powerful and existed in what was probably the most cracked out tornadic environment ever observed, I didn't even think a hodograph that cracked and with that much instability was even possible.
Smithville in my opinion is still underrated. I remember hearing a testimony of a man that heard what he thought was gun shot or sonic booms coming from the tornado, one of if not the strongest of all time for sure
I’ve heard that also. But I can’t find much info about it. I know Reed talked briefly about it and gave his thoughts on what it might be but nothing definitive. I also wonder when this might have occurred in other exceedingly violent tornadoes. Rabbit Hole material
Before I retired a part of my former job saw me responding to large scale natural disasters. I don’t remember how many tornado debris removal missions I worked? I do still remember the two F-5 tornadoes: Smithville, MS and Rainsville, AL. I saw damage like I’d never seen before! (Only Hurricane Helene exceeds it.) I worked in that area where NOTHING was left except slabs. It even peeled floor tiles up. Amazingly people survived in one foot thick, domed, monolithically poured concrete shelters from Security Storm Shelters (I have no connection to them). It made me want to build a home like that for myself using an earth sheltered monolithic dome. I live in Vicksburg, MS. It didn’t make the list but was severely damaged by a tornado in 1953 which killed 38, including some of my mother’s childhood friends. It destroyed a movie theater that my mom would go to on Saturdays, but fortunately she missed going that day. Her friends that were killed were sitting in their usual spot! I respect Nature’s fury! 😢
Smithville will always be in my top 5. Brick turned to dust, foot-deep trenches in 0.3 secs, forests literally deleted to the point they became swampland, and sustaining this intensity in 2 massive swaths, one in MS and one in AL
Smithville, MS was the most violent damage in the words of several storm chasers as well. The fact it did all that destruction while moving at 62mph is a testament how fast and violent that event was.
Its forward speed makes it even more violent rather than working against it. You have a 0.75-mile-wide wall of condensation stampeding at 60+ mph. That alone, even without rotational winds, is enough to cause very intense damage. Now add high-end EF5 winds to that, and you have a nuke.
Now THAT is what i waited for YEARS! Thank you very much for this video!!! And i want to say: Birmingham Alabama 1977 tornado, reportedly, ripped the underground storm shelter off the ground.
I'm from Oklahoma and I can't even debate your logic. I have never seen a video rating all F5/EF5s against each other. This was EXTREMELY well done, researched, and you now have an Oklahoman questioning the Bridge Creek 1999 tornado. 10x kudos.
2011 Joplin tornado in my mind (and I may be biased because I live in SW Missouri) but that tornado is one of the scariest ones I’ve seen. There’s a story of a younger dude that was driving that day in a hummer I believe, and he was trying to escape the tornado and as he was driving down the road trying to escape he got literally sucked from his vehicle out of one of the windows and his body was found a mile or more away. The Joplin tornado was evil man. That same year my town had a tornado go through it as well.
Haven’t watched all the way through yet, but here are a couple that I think deserve way more recognition than they get. - 2007 Trousdale EF3: formed right after Greensburg and grew to 2.2 miles wide. - 2004 Hallam F4: 2.5 miles wide. - 1999 Mulhall F4: Formed a few hours after the Moore tornado. DOW measured tornadic winds (96-96) about 4 MILES across. It also delivered F4 damage despite the core circulation being well over a mile from the town it hit.
This whole "core circulation being well over a mile from the town" thing from Mulhall F4 is a myth. In reality it was almost direct hit and the width itself was ,,only" one mile.
@@chrisuuu393 everywhere I’ve looked the evidence states that DOW measured gate to gate winds of 96 mph over the length of 4 miles, and the strongest circulation was about 1600 yards from the town, and the NWS just being like “Nah. We’re gonna report it our way anyways.”
I've always considered the Phil Campbell tornado to have been the strongest tornado from the 2011 Super Outbreak. I knew that the Smithville tornado definitely gave it a run for its money, but after watching this video, I'd say the Smithville tornado was the strongest one from that outbreak and perhaps the strongest tornado in history. Thanks for making this video!
@@highriskchris I knew you'd have Smithville at top. Its Jarrell like damage being done in under a single second from its forward speed is inconceivable
@@khaosking2937people sleep 10+ hours on that one. From the little research I found I don’t know how this wasn’t the strongest. It DECIMATED almost every building in its path, did some of the worst damage ever done to a vehicle(have you seen the school bus photo?), decimated well built home that were extra bolted down, completely tore up massive cement pillars and concrete weighing several hundred pounds, tore a FREAKING 800 lbs safe ANCHORED TO the house and chucked it like it was nothing even to the point where the safe door was RIPPED off and never found, mangled a pick up truck to where the only thing found were just fragments of it, extreme ground scouring and it even almost ripped a STORM SHELTER OUT OF THE GROUND, two story houses completely swept…I mean it’s insane how much it’s slept on.
Completely correct with the choice of Smithville at #1. Absolutely underrated by many and overlooked. 60 mph forward speed...only couple of seconds of interaction with this tornado and homes were swept to the foundation. Meanwhile most of the other tornadoes mentioned only move at about 20 mph and had much more time to interact with the environment. Also, Smithville went to EF5 strength within a couple of minutes of its beginning. Every other tornado took time to develop. Insane.
The Tornado Forensics video on Smithville made it sound as though it was doing EF5 damage within SECONDS of touching down, as opposed to minutes. That's what initially captivated me about this tornado and still sends a chill up my spine when I think about it.
The 1985 Niles Wheatland twister is one that always stands out to me. Not just for how far east but the intensity of the violence it had. It demolished and swept away a steel framed trucking depot and ripped up parking lots.
I was born in 1986 and I live about a mile outside of Niles. I've heard so many crazy stories about that tornado! I don't know if you're local but I had an ex who grew up in Hubbard/Masury at the corner of Hubbard-masury and Chestnut ridge. Her parents told me the tornado went pretty much right over their house but just BARELY missed them by about a 1/8th of a mile passing to the North. They told me about the incredible roar of it and debris hitting the house. They thought they were gunna die. They lived at 1804 Hubbard-Masury Rd and 1776 Hubbard-Masury Rd took a direct hit.
@f1nch1312 Just south across the state line in MD myself. But we had our own violent tornado in La Plata that was initially ranked an F5 but was later downgraded to f4.
While probably not the strongest tornado compared to some others here, it's worth mentioning that the 2007 Elie F5 in Canada picked up an entire two-story house before disintegrating it, video of this happening is what gave the tornado its rating. The tornado was also an extremely skinny drillbit
The 1990 Stratton Tornado was a mile and a half wide and missed my house by about a mile or so. My wife’s brother took that picture you used in this video! Great job by the way.
@ it was the most incredible and terrifying tornado I’ve personally ever seen in real life. Luckily it hit in such a rural area it didn’t actually kill anyone. It did level a few houses to nothing but foundation and debarked trees, and vehicles and combines were literally disintegrated with some never seen again. No parts, no nothing. Crazy man!
My grandparents on my dad's side lived in Ohio for most of their lives until they moved to South Carolina to retire. I found out about a year ago that they actually witnessed the Xenia tornado!! They lived in a town nearby (don't remember which one), but it had a bad chance of getting hit, from what they said. They drove around Xenia during the aftermath and were blown away by the sheer damage! The not-so-cool part of this is that they *did* know people who lost their lives that day. It was a super interesting conversation, and I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't decided to study meteorology!
I’m a tornado nerd and have been for 40 years. Your list is great. In all my studies the Smithfield 2011 tornado to me had the most significant damage of any recorded tornado in history
Finally! I don't think the EF4s and EF5s from the 2011 super outbreak get enough credit. Hackleburg and Smithville EF5s moving at over 60 mph doing similar damage to the stationary Jarrel Twister always grabbed my attention. That atmosphere was just otherworldly.
I stand by Bridge Creek and Piedmont, potentially being slightly stronger, given it's faster forward speed. I've done a lot of research on Jarrell as part of a personal project that's been going on for a year and a half(even though I've never really sat down recently and worked on it, i didn't note down all my sources so I'd have to go back and get them) and yeah, it was strong, but the only thing we can really say is it had winds well above 200 mph for several minutes. Something like that especially (although it applies also to tornado damage modes as a whole) is we can't really quantify the effects of stay time on damage, because there's so many variables. Through my digging, there's one viotor that stands out to me and isn't talked about is Bakersfield Valley, TX tornado. Thanks for covering it. I will say, the large pipe "pulled" out of the ground was debunked, it was part of the cleanup efforts afterward. Moore 2013 likely peaked on top of the Orr family farm, just like Bridge Creek peaked on top of Bridge Creek, there were very few nice and sturdy structures to rate EF5 on, and in the case of the former, nothing was strong enough.
I love the before and after of Vilonia shows the tornado completely draining a huge pond just north of the subdivision it flattened. My aunt and cousin's house was hit with them inside but they only lost the back side of their house...I had no idea the rating was so controversial, thanks for the info
I’ll throw my hat in for Phil Campbell, for sheer longevity and consistency of damage. Every time I see a video on it it says something like “it escalated in strength as it came into _____”, but I think it’s much more likely it was absurdly strong the whole time and got higher ratings simply as it hit things with damage indicators
In terms of contextual damage in conjunction to it's "true" damage indicators, Phil-Campbell has a very solid argument for number 1 of the day. Smithville was REALLY bad, but their damage surveys look almost equally grotesque.
@@dannyllerenatv8635yes the phil campbell one would rival any tornado maintained it's ef5 intensity for most of its 2 hour 30 min lifespan smithsville is believed by many to be stronger I think the phil campbell one was worse it's damage was jus as bad 2 people were sucked up into the tornado when their underground concrete storm shelter roof was ripped off and there was severe debris granulation and human granulation the part that was interesting to me was the cars and people that weren't found again it was like a few people jus vanished not even pieces of them were found by cadaver dogs jus terrible
I’ve used raycon for over 5 years now. I’ve had close to 10 pairs of ear buds from them. Up to this last year. They got rid of the tactile button and replaced it with a stupid touch sensor with no feedback. My sweaty welding cap turns the volume down constantly. When someone walks up I have to take my welding gloves off to pause the damn things. They don’t work if your fingers are dirty. And a majority of the time it takes several attempts to actually get the damn things to pause. I hate them. The touch sensors are horrible.
Great stuff! I know most are partial to Smithville, but I’ve always thought all things considered, HPC has been the tornado of the century thus far. The top end strength, the maintenance of said strength, path length, path width, forward speed, etc.
Also like basically everyone, would absolutely love to know the wind speed of some of the “mythical” tornadoes e.g. Bakersfield Valley, Loyal Valley, Moshannon, Glazier-Higgins-Woodward, Trousdale, Mulhall, Tristate, and so on
You officially have the best tornado videos. This is because you have a before and after shot of the map, allowing us to see the path as the tornado goes over the area. THAT'S WHY I love your videos best. It makes it visible in real time.
Some questions: 1. Do you believe the Philadelphia, MS EF5 digging a whole trench in the ground could've given it the case for the strongest tornado given its fast movement and more intense ground scouring? 2. How fast do you think the winds would've been to destroy and roll an entire oil rig like the 2011 Piedmont EF5 did?
NO. The Philadelphia tornado is a tad bit overrated in this conversation, still deserving of the EF5 rating. The issue with ground scouring is that it's nearly impossible to know about soil composition. What likely happened was that there was a dry patch of soil with trapped pockets of air that blew out because of the low pressure, it's not like the wind dug into the ground, the low pressure pulled the ground up into chunks.
For your second question,I think the highest end tornadoes have peak winds around 350 mph. This is slightly above the known down measurement of 321 from bridge Creek Moore
My mother experienced the rainsville tornado and it was pretty unpredictable, love that people shine light on it instead of always going to Tuscaloosa. Anyways love the videos keep going❤
The amount of dedication, research, effort, editing, and knowledge put into this video alone is why I follow you. One of the best tornado research videos I've watched, up there with June First and Pecos Hank! lol Glad you're okay still after the loss of the Prius in the first-hand tornado intercept. Keep up the great work, you and the other chasers I watch inspire me to want to safely chase someday!
Instant rewatch tier. My dude this is the energizer bunny of tornado videos. The first few minutes would have already been a good video and then it just gets better by the minute!
Love to see guin brought up, to me this is the most terrifying tornado of all time, Dixie alley, fast moving, nocturnal, extremely violent and not a lot of information about it.
@@LVM5584 i wouldn't put brandenburg in the 300+ range, but close to it, prob 280 if i had to guess. Guin in my eyes is stronger than smithville though
I’ve always said that Smithville was the strongest ever documented, especially when considering the forward speed above 60mph and the funeral home damage. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had hit 350 MPH windspeeds at any point on its path. All of the tornadoes on april 27th were once in a generation monsters, though. Only others besides the ones listed here that I could consider is the Natchez tornado of 1840 and the 1764 Woldegk tornado.
I would say guin F5 is stronger, the F5 tore through Guin and almost completely slabbed a massive mobile home production plant which was exceptionally well-built with steel and other reinforced materials, only things left on the foundation was warped and twisted steel wreckage. The foundations weren't just dislodged like in this video, in some cases they were swept away too or split in half. leaving bare or partially filled sockets. One foundation slab crushed another person, eventually killing him on the way to the hospital, deep ground scouring occured and debris was finely granulated. Smithville is close though, slabbing a brick church, cracking foundation slabs, scouring floor tiles and roads. And digging trenches. And keep in mind both tornadoes were moving between 50-60 mph (smithville was very slightly faster). Edit: Guin actually moved at over 70 mph when it did it's worst damage.
This was such a good presentation! and not just the data charts and insight, but the soundtrack, Mwah! Thank you so much, High Risk Chris for making this! I loved every bit of it and loved that you mentioned the Greenfield Iowa tornado despite it being still so early! it is one of my favorite tornadoes (exepting the casualties). And actually, the Smithville tornado I think is defenitely more powerful than it seemed, and this vid made me see just how underrated it was. I love your content!
I was born in Sherman! It was a surprise to hear you mention the tornado that struck there. It was so long ago that I thought only local history buffs even knew about it. Kudos for finding it.
One tornado you could add is the Hudsonville Michigan F5 tornado in 1956. It completely swept homes clean off of their foundation and left no debris. Surrounding the homes all the grass was completely scoured.
Great video man. In the last few months I became kind of obsessed with the Smithville tornado and did a major deep dive on it. It is, of course, impossible to say, but I'm inclined to agree with you about it being the strongest. One of the craziest things I discovered during my deep dive was multiple accounts from survivors who said the tornado sounded like a nonstop succession of sonic booms, or a giant jackhammer drilling away at the ground. There is actually like a 15 second short here on UA-cam that shows the tornado just as it's exiting town. It's quite a distance from the camera but you can here a roar unlike any I've heard from another tornado. Makes me wonder what it's windspeeds truly were.
I was 14 when the May 3rd tornado hit Oklahoma, I lived in California with my dad and step-mom but my mother lived in OKC, I was a wreck for days because I couldn't get ahold of her to see if she was okay, the phone lines were jammed with calls trying to find family and emergency response as well as just down in general. I was living in OKC during the 2011 and 2013 tornados and all I could do was just stand outside and watch the skies get darker and darker as they got closer. They veered away (obviously as I'm writing this to say I survived) but the energy you could feel even several miles from them was beyond anything I could have imagined
Im surprised when you were talking about the Smithville EF5 you didn't mention the Chapel Grove - New Wren "EF3", its predecessor, a tornado which was barley surveyed that was more likely than not also EF5
Apparently, the Houston New-Wren "EF3" tossed a large vehicle even FURTHER than Smithville did. Not only do I think it was an EF5, but a VERY high-end one at that. Smithville was basically a continuation of that tornado, given that the New Wren twister did not fully occlude and it's funnel cloud just hung from the sky for a few minutes before the Smithville bomb dropped.
@@LVM5584 Yeah, no question, because that tornado was near peak intensity the minute it touched down. Its behavior was also rather bizarre and ominous. People talk about how weird Jarrell is, but Smithville might even be weirder and more unusual. People also talk about DOW, but I'm honestly more curious about what the pressure drop must've been like with the Smithville tornado
OK I was going to sperg out over the placement of Moore and Jarrell (possibly also El Reno), but I absolutely love your objective reasoning for your assessments. You've made your case so well and so objectively that I'm now left absolutely baffled over not being familiar w/ the Smithville tornado from all of the tornado videos I watch. I still see the El Reno Monster as the most infamous for obvious reasons, but that's something else entirely and based on who/how many/how people were affected. I'm overall very taken aback by how many tornadoes in your top 10 aren't sparking familiarity w/ me based on what other people cover, but they all deserve more coverage. I hope this gets the storm community here on YT to talk about these forgotten devils.
The 1925 Tri State tornado has my vote for the strongest tornado ever. I can remember being a kid during the 74 Super outbreak and hearing stories about how destructive it was to so many communities. 😢RIP to all of the victims of these weather phenomenon.
People talk about how weird and bizarre Jarrel was (and it undoubtedly was), but the Smithville tornado was just as unusual if not weirder. I'm glad this was highlighted in the video. What gets me is the way it suddenly collapsed (however, it still remained very intense) after exiting Smithville, almost as if the twister ate itself. Then there's the fact that its inner core contained two drillbit/helical sub vortices in a very confined area. There's the 60+ mph forward speed, which, believe it or not, drastically intensifies the twister's overall wind field, especially in an environment so absurdly sheared. I also like the graph, which must have taken forever to make, and it shows just how complex deciding what tornadoes are the worst or not truly is because you have to split hairs and dig so deep. That's a testament to just how bad an F5/EF5 tornado really is
As someone 3 mi SE of Parkersburg, in Stout, and who's friends lost everything, it always is humbling when it's brought up. It was very quickly rain wrapped and just looked like a black wall, without much video of it. I think that's part of why it's so easily forgotten.
Very nicely done! I’m a little surprised to see as many older tornadoes still holding on to a top ranking position. For some reason I was thinking they were mostly getting stronger/worse over time.
I love this topic because the conversation is endless. It’s like what QB was the best in the NFL or what pitcher had the best season in MLB? There’s so many options and factors that go into each choice. For me, it’s Smithville. The forward speed with the incredible damage and eerie pressure drop (curtains) put it over the top. You can’t go wrong with any of these though. I hope I never experience anything similar.
The fact that some of those tornados mentioned had the power to effect underground shelters is mind boggling. And for the ground scour to be so deep is scary!
@highriskchris Greenfield is prime example of why groundspeed matters... according to witnesses it was moving between 50-55mph, if it had been moving 30-35mph the damange would've been much more catastrophoic!
@@michaelangelonousagi5419 The only wind I can think of that can do that is shockwave from a nuclear blast so that tornado had to have winds that high or higher.
@Girls-t2t Yes, EF5-F5 damage looks like nuclear blast damage, EF5 tornadoes have wind speeds from 320 km/h to 530 km/h. Just search up EF5 damage and compare it to Hiroshima, it's very similar.
A large portion of my family lived in trenton, NE. Just south of the path of the stratton f4. there was a farm impacted just north of town. When my uncle went to help clean up and he met with some surveyors and they told him that they dodged a bullet, if it tore through town it would have killed everyone above ground. My grandmother apparently had video of it and i spent hours of my childhood looking for it.
Google. "2+ mile wide damage path in Russia." This monster tornado occurred over 60 years ago in Siberia and the damage path is still visible from satellite to this day.
@tripplefives1402did you know the 4.8 mile wide tornado was actually measured above the ground possibly meaning the mesocyclone was 4.8 miles wide and not the tornado
@tripplefives1402 We have not had tornadoes 3 and 4 miles wide, the widest on record is El Reno 2013, at 2.6 miles wide. You may be thinking about a mesocyclone appearing on doppler radar.
@tripplefives1402 What makes the Siberian tornado notable is that you can still see its damage path after 60 years meaning that the intensity was such it literally altered the geography of that area. It cut a pine forest clean in half and what it left behind is just grassland which means that it removed topsoil and derooted entire trees.
You put really good work into this project. Details are great and gave me more insight into tornadoes. The list is incredible due to the research you put in.
I would have to bet hackleburg without stalling it not only consistently delivered ef5 damage and ripped the roof off a tornado shelter. it was a beast like Joplin and Moore
Im only halfway through this Video and it is fire. EDIT: Also the 2011 Smithville EF5 had part if it's path still visible nowadays. And shifted and cracked multiple slabs, one from the 1920s, and one from 2007+. It also did more ( likely ), via aerial imagery, like on slab almost gone/might be a cinderblock foundation. And turned trees into pulp and left craters where they were. And turned vehicles into pancakes or deletion or crumpled. Also a Manhole was deleted, and the manhole ring too. Also one house had a rebar visible piece of foudnation cracked off the edge and slid it, however it may just be a piece of debris but it looks like a piece. EDIT2 I loved your video, you put alot of effort and it is just very good.
Great video. As someone who didnt live in a Tornado prone area until going to college in Minnesota, I was always intrigued by the monsters that weather can produce. On the other note I i got to hit the gym more lol
We're based in Brandenburg, KY and I can tell you the scars of the tornado remain even 50 years later. I'm glad to see someone mention the tornado as usually it gets drowned out by the Xenia tornado when folks talk about the 1974 Super Outbreak
I was visiting a friend in Springfield, MO when the EF-5 struck Joplin. I was supposed to head home the day before, but I wanted to stay an extra day. We were under tornado warnings all day and the sky was dark green. As soon as I saw the damage from Joplin on the news I decided that it was time for me to leave and start my 13 hour drive back home to Pittsburgh. I was chased by tornado warnings the entire way home. I was even forced off the interstate by Indiana State Police in Indianapolis due to a tornado that was currently crossing the same interstate that I was on. I was forced to take shelter in a Home Depot, and it was PACKED with people. I will never forget that day.
2011 was one hell of a year for nature and not just tornadoes either. There was even an earthquake on the east coast and I personally saw a building shaking in New York lol
@blakecombs1219 yeah it was hot af that year. That does stand out in my memory lmao I don't live in Texas but it was probably one of most miserable heat waves I can remember.
@Girls-t2t yeah I was gonna mention that but I didn't want to write a long essay lol but I was reading about that a few months ago. Otherwise the only tsunami that stands out in my head is the one in 2004.
@@PaulHosey-u3l Oh it ok I would not had mind a long essay coz it good for my brain LOL. Yeah that 2004 tsunami was bad but the 2011 Japan wave stand out to me coz the water keep on rising higher & higher while they were on a high hill. It also badly damage a concrete building but as much damage as that wave did, the tornadoes in that same year 2011 still did more damage coz they blow away concrete buildings which has me think tornadoes are a little more powerful then tsunami waves.
I remember arguing with a European kid with how no houses can survive these tornados and they kept saying “our houses aren’t built with sticks and straws” and I always say your house won’t survive tornadoes that rip dirt off the ground
Thank you so much for the effort you put in this video. I believe any tornado that reaches average windspeeds of 270-300mph and higher are duly fitting for any list of "strongest tornadoes recorded". You were comprehensive and thorough on this video, way above and beyond other documentaries. You provided all aspects to the classifications' discussions, even providing a "devil's advocate"-like touch to them, just in case anyone would get riled up by the lack of disclaimers. I understand their frustration. In-person perspective will always understandably create strong opinions, despite any scientific data. For example, if you see a tornado showing a width of 2.6 miles and wind speeds over 310mph, even if briefly, behaving in an almost Science-defying way, with so many sub-vortices, and resulting in limited damage almost exclusive to vehicles (damage of a calibre not reported before) because it didn't hit populated areas, you might develop strong opinions against the NWS's revision of El Reno 2013 from EF5 to EF3 (RIP Tim and Paul Samaras, Carl Young, Richard Henderson, Billy O'Neal, Dustin Bridges, Maria Pol Martin and son). Even I, living far away in Portugal, have strong opinions against it. Some people might not understand why it matters to properly classify tornadoes. It matters for Science but also for social awareness. Too many times have people lost their lives to the twisters because they didn't care or think it was going to be a big deal. Weather institutes also sometimes underestimated them in the past. We need to do a better job at analysing and categorising tornadoes so these situations don't repeat themselves. I believe more factors beyond reported damage need to be taken into account. Factors such as storm surges, hail or rain presence, how many vortices, debris field impacting buildings/vehicles before a tornado tears them down because yes, there are cases where a building might become weaker from debris impact before a tornado lifts it up right from its foundations. But the calculation and correlation of the impact of the debris that *may* have weakened a building needs to also be reported. It does not matter if the highest intensity was brief and only 1 house suffered the highest unlikely damage that tornado produced, it is still relevant. Especially to the people that lived there. Other factors should include the type of vortex feature (stovepipe, wedge, dead man walking etc), relative directional speed (is it 15mph, is it 60mph? I believe this is relevant, too). The visible earth-scouring, almost as if it drilled into the ground, is relevant, as well. Now, I understand having multiple factors can lead to a clogging of information or even an overload of information. But the Science requires it. We can measure these factors, we have audio and video, witness statements, we have technology we didn't have 100 years ago, such as drones. It can be done. You don't have to publicise all of the information to the public, only the more relevant for news reports and the like, and keep the rest of the information embedded so people have it should they wish to access it. But for Science and for scientific integrity, these other factors need to play a higher role in classification. Understanding past tornadoes is the only way to prepare for the future. I applaud you.
There is the Barneveld F5 tornado from 1984. It destroyed 90% of the town killing 9 and injuring 200. Had winds of over 300mph and was on the ground for 59 minutes. It is the states second costliest tornado in history.
I missed the tornadoes that very likely could be on this list: Chickasha EF4 2011, Goldsby EF4 2011, Ringgold EF4 2011, Fairdale EF4 2015, New Wren EF3 2011, and Hayti MS EF4 2021. a fact: there are rumors that the smithville tornado caused the sonic boom as it passed through the city and also sucked a curtain out of a house from the inside out due to the drop in pressure.
@LVM5584 Well, it's not just the EF5/F5, the EF4/F4 too, and most of these tornadoes don't have a specific wind average, just an estimate, and for example, the Joplin tornado has studies that it reached 252mph+, but officially it was 205mph.
The thing that always gets me about Hackleburg/Phil Campbell is that it was at EF 5 for 28 miles and EF 4+ for over 45 miles. For over an hour it was at the highest levels of damage the indicators could support. Just a total monster in terms of energy
At this point the top ten contenders are all powerful enough to destroy anything not built to withstand those sort of winds. One thing to note about the 2011 El Reno is that the twelve workers at the oil rig all survived in a shelter that was anchored to the ground with steel cables. It was actually anchored like that less than a year before this tornado happened, which is incredibly lucky for those workers.
I have my doubts on its duration and sustained F5 wind speeds though. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mayfield/Bremen was stronger and had a longer continuous path.
El Reno-Piedmont 2011 for me all the way tbh. Car deletion, worst corpse damage known, storm shelters pulled out of the ground and sheared apart, mesquites turned to liquid, a home's foundations 'trenched', extreme scouring, a 300mph-proof saferoom almost shredded, 295mph ground-level radar readings nowhere even close to peak intensity, and the oil rig which was sideswiped and not fully cored btw. The tornado also spent a good amount of it's peak over empty fields and there is rumored damage far more severe than this that was never photographed, or the photos are restricted.
where'd you find the trenched foundation or the sheared apart storm shelters. If this is true then it might even be stronger than the Guin F5, which completely ripped several foundations out of the ground, scoured ground and asphalt, and almost completely swept a very well built steel mobile home production plant, leaving only warped metal. And the oil rig was definitely swiped and not cored, which it was hit just before peak intensity. This thing might be >350 mph if this is right, My estimation on guin is >330, and Smithville 300-325. And what do the rumors of "far more severe damage than this" state.
@@deinocheirusgaming6920 Where'd you find this stuff, I searched everywhere and only thing I found was a foundation was ripped out of the ground, guin F5 style, leaving an empty socket.
Excellent video; this is some Ph.D. tier content here. At INChaserCon a few years ago a speaker mentioned the 3/2/12 Borden, IN tornado. It stripped a section of pavement off a major roadway, 10ftx10ft across and I think something like 2ft thick. The section of pavement essentially exploded straight up from the road like a rocket and was hurled quite some distance away. There's been calculations (unconfirmed) that to do that would take winds speeds of possibly 500 to 600 MPH.
My dad lived in Salado when Jarrell happened. He said the wall cloud went over his friend’s house before reaching Jarrell. That friend of his was also a volunteer firefighter who ended up responding to Jarrell afterwards. It’s still crazy to hear everything that happened. Apparently the cows’ skin were ripped off. Insane.
That is the upper bound for the radar measurement. It likely didn't have those winds. Every measurement has uncertainty, and that is the highest possible, I listed the average.
Thank you for such an informative and non biased video. You have done a fantastic service in reporting these events without getting in the weeds like house strength and rating system being young. Great job my friend. I’m subscribed, commented and shared. You have my attention!!
It is difficult to document tornado strength and power, but I like it you tried to find the strongest tornado and showing the evidence for it being the strongest I like your video and I agree with you. The last tornado you were you brought up and it definitely has evidence.
Go to buyraycon.com/highriskchris to get up to 30% off sitewide! Brought to you by Raycon.
What Is The Strongest Tornado In History?
PS, I have been wanting to make this video for a loooong time.
This is probably the best video comparing the strenght of tornadoes. Comparing the most extreme damage indicators of each tornado, and then making a chart, that directly shows what each tornado "achieved" was a very good method of comparing them, instead of only talking about most impressive feats, and deciding, which one shows more power. As i was looking for this type of video for quite some time, thank you for making this.
I was going to say check out the xenia tornado but you beat me to it.I live in xenia ohio and thank god there hasn't been a tornado in the a few good years now.
My first guess would be Greenfield. the reason why it's damage was so small is because it was less than a football field wide and moving @ 60 miles per hour. the damage time likely was below 2 seconds.
do they block out tornado sound
I was gonna comment this if you didn't mention it
Imagine being in an underground shelter and you feel the tornado actually starting to jostle around. They'd find me dead of shock
My biggest fear is surviving the tornado itself but having the house ripped away with no way to exit the basement then drowning in the ensuing torrential downpour 😬
It’s worse when your in your basement and the whole house is ripped off and things getting tossed in the basement that’s just as bad if not worse 😢
here's one better
imagine being in a mobile home during a Vicious Severe Lightning Storm with dangerous to deadly cloud to ground lightning striking very very close to the house every &; each minute and there's a very huge monster destructive tornado not far away and on it's way to your location with you being in it's cross hairs
@tripplefives1402 but not for tornadoes
@tripplefives1402 trailers have steel shells. Mobile homes have wood and maybe vinyl
“All you tornado nerds, if you really want to take a screenshot, do it right now.”
Ok you didn’t have to call me out like that, Chris.
Same! I felt exposed 😂
SOOO LAME AND PATHETIC 56 FAKE LIKES 1 COMMENT....UR WEAK TROLL....
@@margaretcato4241your so pathetic what are you you 8?
@@margaretcato4241 and you're 10
@@SlyMrOREOGamingYk what’s crazy, Margert also posts videos about terriorsts and he also doesn’t believe in humans as his desc says
Strongest Tornado Creator? Have you seen my quads?
Leg press off? I'll see you in April
Do it on April 26th I wanna see it while your chasing tornadoes
Every day is leg day sir
@@highriskchris this is the drama I demand
@@wxholly The one with the best Glute Spread wins
2013 El Reno only ended up EF3 because there's literally not shit out there to hit. I still think it's the most terrifying one out of the bunch due to the size, wind speed, and unpredictability. If that thing was 25 miles east it would have been downright apocalyptic.
This. There is something extra cynical when a 2.6 mile diameter tornado has vortices inside that have wind speeds over 300 mph and ground track over 100 mph. That is basically hell on earth in there.
Yeah, basically, it did actually move over houses, but the 300+mph readings were of sub-circulations and suction vprtices, whereas the whole circulation was only maintaining EF3 windspeeds
It wouldnt have been that destructive. Its power was in its sub vorticies and it wouldn't have done much damage
@@carlitosdinkler5213disagree - with horizontal vortices the angular momentum of the wind is directed upwards no? Kinda supercharging the updraft of the main twister, or at least destabilising structures further
@@carlitosdinkler5213correct me if I'm wrong but I see that tearing roofs off far more easily, plus still having the same force laterally to blow the walls in if they aren't very sturdy
Fun fact: the Andover F5 made 3 year old me shit my pants so that’s a pretty significant damage indicator.
Fun Fact: The April 26, 1991 Outbreak also had the strongest tornado measurement by radar at the time which was the Red Rock F4 which is said to have winds of 286 MPH winds but pretty much was forgotten today because of the infamous Andover KS F5 and 8 years and a week later the Bridge Creek F5
I literally peed myself a little bit here in Tallahassee a few months ago due to an F2. I’m 46 years old 🤷🏻♂️🤣
Nothing is funny about tornadoes
@ let those of us who survived them cope how we want to. There’s nothing funny about kidney failure but my mom who suffered it taught me “if you can’t laugh at life it will swallow you whole.”
@@mikehuff9793wise words I shall now piss all over a tornado
Once you get to some of the top strongest ones, there’s honestly not much of a distinction. Everything is just gone 😵
Yeah, the list was hard to make.. except for Smithville.
@@highriskchrisSmithville is 100% the strongest tornado ever
@@tornadotrx I agree but I'm surprised that Pampa wasn't a top 10 placement, same for San Justo.
@@tornadotrx I agree, but you should make a Smithville EF5 vid to explain everything 🥳
@@highriskchris having roleplayed as a sentient, sapient, saguaro cactus for nearly 4 years now, im curious as to the strongest tornado or dust devil in the oven state.
Step 1 is figuring out what was the strongest tornado of 2011.
Probably either Smithville or El Reno.
Many might say Joplin, but I'd go with Hackleburg-Phil Campbell. I heard that one pulled people from their underground bunker.
Joplin don't get it twisted..I know there isn't alot of video but yeah a bad ass....I do think the Tuscaloosa tornado was a ef5 no matter what they say.
Joplin was extreme don't get me wrong but it was not the strongest of that year
@@grunt9131 Agreed. Many in the weather enterprise also agree that Tuscaloosa was EF5, including Dr. Greg Forbes, former severe storm expert at The Weather Channel, and a former student of Dr. Fujita.
The Rainsville EF5 is one of the scariest destruction stories I've heard. A massive gun safe that was anchored through the concrete was thrown hundreds of yards and the door of the safe was ripped off and never found. Most people don't truly understand how heavy these safes are, and how well they are anchored to the ground.
the safe was not thrown and was found besides the area it was ripped.
Not only damage-wise but appearance-wise too. It's one twister where its appearance matched its damage. It's one of the most pissed-off tornadoes I have ever seen. Then again, I expect nothing less from the sister EF5 of the Philadelphia MS EF5, both of which formed from the same supercell.
@@dannyllerenatv8635 the most evil Tornado Family in history.
@SAGE0536AGN not what I read, but honestly, either way, doesn't really change anything
I think the El Reno tornado is the scariest tornado because there’s no video of it really it just looks like a bunch of rain.
Meteorologist by degree here. This is the best video ever made for all notable tornadoes. Massive respect. I plan to buy raycon just to support
Just send him money.
I lived about 15 miles south of Jarrell TX, when that horrific tornado unleashed its havoc. I was 17 yrs old, and school had just got out for the summer. I remember that day VERY clearly. The whole area within a 30 mile radius was under the scariest tornado threat I’ve ever experienced even now. I’ve been a Texan my whole life. My cousin was a paramedic and was on rescue duty. Even after 26 yrs, he still has PTSD from the horror he saw.
Scariest tornado ever in my opinion.
Jarrell is the one that gives me nightmares 😢
Bro is gonna get hunted down by the entire state of Oklahoma for this video lol.
Fantastic job dude, I 100% agree with Smithville being placed at #1, that thing was just unfathomably powerful and existed in what was probably the most cracked out tornadic environment ever observed, I didn't even think a hodograph that cracked and with that much instability was even possible.
Someone should make a video on it 😏
@@highriskchris shhhhh
guin in my eyes was significantly stronger than smithville (read my comment), not saying smithville was weak though, it was #2 on my list
As an Oklahoma, I agree with his listing. :)
Agreed GUIN was the strongest of all time
Smithville in my opinion is still underrated. I remember hearing a testimony of a man that heard what he thought was gun shot or sonic booms coming from the tornado, one of if not the strongest of all time for sure
The more underrated parts of this tornado was when it became EF5 intensity in Alabama
I’ve heard that also. But I can’t find much info about it. I know Reed talked briefly about it and gave his thoughts on what it might be but nothing definitive. I also wonder when this might have occurred in other exceedingly violent tornadoes.
Rabbit Hole material
Before I retired a part of my former job saw me responding to large scale natural disasters. I don’t remember how many tornado debris removal missions I worked? I do still remember the two F-5 tornadoes: Smithville, MS and Rainsville, AL. I saw damage like I’d never seen before! (Only Hurricane Helene exceeds it.)
I worked in that area where NOTHING was left except slabs. It even peeled floor tiles up. Amazingly people survived in one foot thick, domed, monolithically poured concrete shelters from Security Storm Shelters (I have no connection to them). It made me want to build a home like that for myself using an earth sheltered monolithic dome.
I live in Vicksburg, MS. It didn’t make the list but was severely damaged by a tornado in 1953 which killed 38, including some of my mother’s childhood friends. It destroyed a movie theater that my mom would go to on Saturdays, but fortunately she missed going that day. Her friends that were killed were sitting in their usual spot! I respect Nature’s fury! 😢
@@Hero4Hire4I’m from smithville and lemme tell you my family back home could tell you this left 18 in trenches while moving over 60mph.
Smithville will always be in my top 5. Brick turned to dust, foot-deep trenches in 0.3 secs, forests literally deleted to the point they became swampland, and sustaining this intensity in 2 massive swaths, one in MS and one in AL
Smithville, MS was the most violent damage in the words of several storm chasers as well. The fact it did all that destruction while moving at 62mph is a testament how fast and violent that event was.
Its forward speed makes it even more violent rather than working against it. You have a 0.75-mile-wide wall of condensation stampeding at 60+ mph. That alone, even without rotational winds, is enough to cause very intense damage. Now add high-end EF5 winds to that, and you have a nuke.
Now THAT is what i waited for YEARS! Thank you very much for this video!!!
And i want to say:
Birmingham Alabama 1977 tornado, reportedly, ripped the underground storm shelter off the ground.
Interesting, I never read that...
@highriskchris Oh, you're about Birmingham 1977 tornado? It's written in Wikipedia, at least I saw that there.
@@ART-958 Wikipedia isn't always a good cite for evidence. So, it is probably false but still interesting to keep in mind.
@@AGuyMakesContentWikipedia is very reliable if you remember to check the sources at the bottom of the page.
@@AGuyMakesContent it was cited: "reportedly", so even wikipedia doesn't state it as 100% true.
I'm from Oklahoma and I can't even debate your logic. I have never seen a video rating all F5/EF5s against each other. This was EXTREMELY well done, researched, and you now have an Oklahoman questioning the Bridge Creek 1999 tornado.
10x kudos.
2011 Joplin tornado in my mind (and I may be biased because I live in SW Missouri) but that tornado is one of the scariest ones I’ve seen. There’s a story of a younger dude that was driving that day in a hummer I believe, and he was trying to escape the tornado and as he was driving down the road trying to escape he got literally sucked from his vehicle out of one of the windows and his body was found a mile or more away. The Joplin tornado was evil man. That same year my town had a tornado go through it as well.
2011 was an insane year for tornadoes
Haven’t watched all the way through yet, but here are a couple that I think deserve way more recognition than they get.
- 2007 Trousdale EF3: formed right after Greensburg and grew to 2.2 miles wide.
- 2004 Hallam F4: 2.5 miles wide.
- 1999 Mulhall F4: Formed a few hours after the Moore tornado. DOW measured tornadic winds (96-96) about 4 MILES across. It also delivered F4 damage despite the core circulation being well over a mile from the town it hit.
I think it’s because all of them have created minimal damage
Hold up 4 miles??
This whole "core circulation being well over a mile from the town" thing from Mulhall F4 is a myth. In reality it was almost direct hit and the width itself was ,,only" one mile.
Trousdale did pretty minimal damage
Hallam CAN be in the talks but damage is not concrete
Mulhall was almost a direct hit and not 4 miles.
@@chrisuuu393 everywhere I’ve looked the evidence states that DOW measured gate to gate winds of 96 mph over the length of 4 miles, and the strongest circulation was about 1600 yards from the town, and the NWS just being like “Nah. We’re gonna report it our way anyways.”
I've always considered the Phil Campbell tornado to have been the strongest tornado from the 2011 Super Outbreak. I knew that the Smithville tornado definitely gave it a run for its money, but after watching this video, I'd say the Smithville tornado was the strongest one from that outbreak and perhaps the strongest tornado in history. Thanks for making this video!
On paper, Phil Campbell is stronger, but when really examining the damage, nothing compares to Smithville.
@@highriskchris I knew you'd have Smithville at top. Its Jarrell like damage being done in under a single second from its forward speed is inconceivable
@@indygeo4267 what about the Rainsville tornado? People sleep on that one.
@@khaosking2937 Oh...OK
@@khaosking2937people sleep 10+ hours on that one. From the little research I found I don’t know how this wasn’t the strongest. It DECIMATED almost every building in its path, did some of the worst damage ever done to a vehicle(have you seen the school bus photo?), decimated well built home that were extra bolted down, completely tore up massive cement pillars and concrete weighing several hundred pounds, tore a FREAKING 800 lbs safe ANCHORED TO the house and chucked it like it was nothing even to the point where the safe door was RIPPED off and never found, mangled a pick up truck to where the only thing found were just fragments of it, extreme ground scouring and it even almost ripped a STORM SHELTER OUT OF THE GROUND, two story houses completely swept…I mean it’s insane how much it’s slept on.
This is the video I’ve waited years to see. I have this conversation with a lot of people. You hit this one out of the park Chris.
Probably the best video ever made about this theme, congratulations (also for being the strongest tornado creator lol)
Completely correct with the choice of Smithville at #1. Absolutely underrated by many and overlooked. 60 mph forward speed...only couple of seconds of interaction with this tornado and homes were swept to the foundation. Meanwhile most of the other tornadoes mentioned only move at about 20 mph and had much more time to interact with the environment. Also, Smithville went to EF5 strength within a couple of minutes of its beginning. Every other tornado took time to develop. Insane.
The Tornado Forensics video on Smithville made it sound as though it was doing EF5 damage within SECONDS of touching down, as opposed to minutes. That's what initially captivated me about this tornado and still sends a chill up my spine when I think about it.
I’m addicted to these videos, I’m telling you guys, these videos are addictive.
The 1985 Niles Wheatland twister is one that always stands out to me. Not just for how far east but the intensity of the violence it had. It demolished and swept away a steel framed trucking depot and ripped up parking lots.
I was born in 1986 and I live about a mile outside of Niles. I've heard so many crazy stories about that tornado! I don't know if you're local but I had an ex who grew up in Hubbard/Masury at the corner of Hubbard-masury and Chestnut ridge. Her parents told me the tornado went pretty much right over their house but just BARELY missed them by about a 1/8th of a mile passing to the North. They told me about the incredible roar of it and debris hitting the house. They thought they were gunna die. They lived at 1804 Hubbard-Masury Rd and 1776 Hubbard-Masury Rd took a direct hit.
@f1nch1312 Just south across the state line in MD myself. But we had our own violent tornado in La Plata that was initially ranked an F5 but was later downgraded to f4.
While probably not the strongest tornado compared to some others here, it's worth mentioning that the 2007 Elie F5 in Canada picked up an entire two-story house before disintegrating it, video of this happening is what gave the tornado its rating. The tornado was also an extremely skinny drillbit
The 1990 Stratton Tornado was a mile and a half wide and missed my house by about a mile or so. My wife’s brother took that picture you used in this video! Great job by the way.
That pic of the tornado looks terrifying. Very unique looking structure to it.
@ it was the most incredible and terrifying tornado I’ve personally ever seen in real life. Luckily it hit in such a rural area it didn’t actually kill anyone. It did level a few houses to nothing but foundation and debarked trees, and vehicles and combines were literally disintegrated with some never seen again. No parts, no nothing. Crazy man!
Love your springer spaniel profile pic!
My grandparents on my dad's side lived in Ohio for most of their lives until they moved to South Carolina to retire. I found out about a year ago that they actually witnessed the Xenia tornado!! They lived in a town nearby (don't remember which one), but it had a bad chance of getting hit, from what they said. They drove around Xenia during the aftermath and were blown away by the sheer damage! The not-so-cool part of this is that they *did* know people who lost their lives that day. It was a super interesting conversation, and I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't decided to study meteorology!
I’m a tornado nerd and have been for 40 years. Your list is great. In all my studies the Smithfield 2011 tornado to me had the most significant damage of any recorded tornado in history
Finally! I don't think the EF4s and EF5s from the 2011 super outbreak get enough credit. Hackleburg and Smithville EF5s moving at over 60 mph doing similar damage to the stationary Jarrel Twister always grabbed my attention. That atmosphere was just otherworldly.
I stand by Bridge Creek and Piedmont, potentially being slightly stronger, given it's faster forward speed. I've done a lot of research on Jarrell as part of a personal project that's been going on for a year and a half(even though I've never really sat down recently and worked on it, i didn't note down all my sources so I'd have to go back and get them) and yeah, it was strong, but the only thing we can really say is it had winds well above 200 mph for several minutes. Something like that especially (although it applies also to tornado damage modes as a whole) is we can't really quantify the effects of stay time on damage, because there's so many variables. Through my digging, there's one viotor that stands out to me and isn't talked about is Bakersfield Valley, TX tornado. Thanks for covering it. I will say, the large pipe "pulled" out of the ground was debunked, it was part of the cleanup efforts afterward. Moore 2013 likely peaked on top of the Orr family farm, just like Bridge Creek peaked on top of Bridge Creek, there were very few nice and sturdy structures to rate EF5 on, and in the case of the former, nothing was strong enough.
I love the before and after of Vilonia shows the tornado completely draining a huge pond just north of the subdivision it flattened. My aunt and cousin's house was hit with them inside but they only lost the back side of their house...I had no idea the rating was so controversial, thanks for the info
I’ll throw my hat in for Phil Campbell, for sheer longevity and consistency of damage. Every time I see a video on it it says something like “it escalated in strength as it came into _____”, but I think it’s much more likely it was absurdly strong the whole time and got higher ratings simply as it hit things with damage indicators
In terms of contextual damage in conjunction to it's "true" damage indicators, Phil-Campbell has a very solid argument for number 1 of the day. Smithville was REALLY bad, but their damage surveys look almost equally grotesque.
@@dannyllerenatv8635yes the phil campbell one would rival any tornado maintained it's ef5 intensity for most of its 2 hour 30 min lifespan smithsville is believed by many to be stronger I think the phil campbell one was worse it's damage was jus as bad 2 people were sucked up into the tornado when their underground concrete storm shelter roof was ripped off and there was severe debris granulation and human granulation the part that was interesting to me was the cars and people that weren't found again it was like a few people jus vanished not even pieces of them were found by cadaver dogs jus terrible
I’ve used raycon for over 5 years now. I’ve had close to 10 pairs of ear buds from them. Up to this last year. They got rid of the tactile button and replaced it with a stupid touch sensor with no feedback. My sweaty welding cap turns the volume down constantly. When someone walks up I have to take my welding gloves off to pause the damn things. They don’t work if your fingers are dirty. And a majority of the time it takes several attempts to actually get the damn things to pause. I hate them. The touch sensors are horrible.
Thank you for this honest review, need more of this on my feed
Great stuff! I know most are partial to Smithville, but I’ve always thought all things considered, HPC has been the tornado of the century thus far. The top end strength, the maintenance of said strength, path length, path width, forward speed, etc.
Also like basically everyone, would absolutely love to know the wind speed of some of the “mythical” tornadoes e.g. Bakersfield Valley, Loyal Valley, Moshannon, Glazier-Higgins-Woodward, Trousdale, Mulhall, Tristate, and so on
You officially have the best tornado videos. This is because you have a before and after shot of the map, allowing us to see the path as the tornado goes over the area.
THAT'S WHY I love your videos best. It makes it visible in real time.
Some questions: 1. Do you believe the Philadelphia, MS EF5 digging a whole trench in the ground could've given it the case for the strongest tornado given its fast movement and more intense ground scouring? 2. How fast do you think the winds would've been to destroy and roll an entire oil rig like the 2011 Piedmont EF5 did?
NO. The Philadelphia tornado is a tad bit overrated in this conversation, still deserving of the EF5 rating. The issue with ground scouring is that it's nearly impossible to know about soil composition. What likely happened was that there was a dry patch of soil with trapped pockets of air that blew out because of the low pressure, it's not like the wind dug into the ground, the low pressure pulled the ground up into chunks.
For your second question,I think the highest end tornadoes have peak winds around 350 mph. This is slightly above the known down measurement of 321 from bridge Creek Moore
You think Smithville’s winds were around 350 ? And just curious what about Rainsville ?
philadelphia in the strongest tornadoes conversations in nearly 2025 💔💔💔💔💔💔
@@LVM5584 Yes most surely but not sure why they don't want us to know?
My mother experienced the rainsville tornado and it was pretty unpredictable, love that people shine light on it instead of always going to Tuscaloosa. Anyways love the videos keep going❤
The amount of dedication, research, effort, editing, and knowledge put into this video alone is why I follow you. One of the best tornado research videos I've watched, up there with June First and Pecos Hank! lol
Glad you're okay still after the loss of the Prius in the first-hand tornado intercept.
Keep up the great work, you and the other chasers I watch inspire me to want to safely chase someday!
Instant rewatch tier. My dude this is the energizer bunny of tornado videos. The first few minutes would have already been a good video and then it just gets better by the minute!
Love to see guin brought up, to me this is the most terrifying tornado of all time, Dixie alley, fast moving, nocturnal, extremely violent and not a lot of information about it.
Couldn't agree more, definitely the most terrifying hands down.
@@sqwatchman53 that’s easily in the 300 mph conversation as well. Brandenburg too.
@@LVM5584 i wouldn't put brandenburg in the 300+ range, but close to it, prob 280 if i had to guess. Guin in my eyes is stronger than smithville though
The May 11th 1999 Loyal Valley, Texas tornado is another very underrated one
I’ve always said that Smithville was the strongest ever documented, especially when considering the forward speed above 60mph and the funeral home damage. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had hit 350 MPH windspeeds at any point on its path. All of the tornadoes on april 27th were once in a generation monsters, though. Only others besides the ones listed here that I could consider is the Natchez tornado of 1840 and the 1764 Woldegk tornado.
I would say guin F5 is stronger, the F5 tore through Guin and almost completely slabbed a massive mobile home production plant which was exceptionally well-built with steel and other reinforced materials, only things left on the foundation was warped and twisted steel wreckage. The foundations weren't just dislodged like in this video, in some cases they were swept away too or split in half. leaving bare or partially filled sockets. One foundation slab crushed another person, eventually killing him on the way to the hospital, deep ground scouring occured and debris was finely granulated. Smithville is close though, slabbing a brick church, cracking foundation slabs, scouring floor tiles and roads. And digging trenches. And keep in mind both tornadoes were moving between 50-60 mph (smithville was very slightly faster). Edit: Guin actually moved at over 70 mph when it did it's worst damage.
@ i gotta see photos of this, that’s insane and sounds F6 worthy
This was such a good presentation! and not just the data charts and insight, but the soundtrack, Mwah! Thank you so much, High Risk Chris for making this! I loved every bit of it and loved that you mentioned the Greenfield Iowa tornado despite it being still so early! it is one of my favorite tornadoes (exepting the casualties). And actually, the Smithville tornado I think is defenitely more powerful than it seemed, and this vid made me see just how underrated it was. I love your content!
I'm so glad you included the Voliana Arkansas EF4 (EF5) Tornado. Definitely should've been an EF5
And Mayfield EF4 (EF5).
@@LVM5584 agreed
Rolling Fork should have been an EF5 too
new wren ef3 (ef5), slabbed homes and threw vehicles 1.7 miles.
I was born in Sherman! It was a surprise to hear you mention the tornado that struck there. It was so long ago that I thought only local history buffs even knew about it. Kudos for finding it.
One tornado you could add is the Hudsonville Michigan F5 tornado in 1956. It completely swept homes clean off of their foundation and left no debris. Surrounding the homes all the grass was completely scoured.
Great video man. In the last few months I became kind of obsessed with the Smithville tornado and did a major deep dive on it. It is, of course, impossible to say, but I'm inclined to agree with you about it being the strongest. One of the craziest things I discovered during my deep dive was multiple accounts from survivors who said the tornado sounded like a nonstop succession of sonic booms, or a giant jackhammer drilling away at the ground. There is actually like a 15 second short here on UA-cam that shows the tornado just as it's exiting town. It's quite a distance from the camera but you can here a roar unlike any I've heard from another tornado. Makes me wonder what it's windspeeds truly were.
I'd add Birmingham, April 8, 1998. The TV stations here said it was close to F6. 2011 was like 1974 on steroids.
I was 14 when the May 3rd tornado hit Oklahoma, I lived in California with my dad and step-mom but my mother lived in OKC, I was a wreck for days because I couldn't get ahold of her to see if she was okay, the phone lines were jammed with calls trying to find family and emergency response as well as just down in general. I was living in OKC during the 2011 and 2013 tornados and all I could do was just stand outside and watch the skies get darker and darker as they got closer. They veered away (obviously as I'm writing this to say I survived) but the energy you could feel even several miles from them was beyond anything I could have imagined
Im surprised when you were talking about the Smithville EF5 you didn't mention the Chapel Grove - New Wren "EF3", its predecessor, a tornado which was barley surveyed that was more likely than not also EF5
New Wren absolutely imo was ef5 but given they barely surveyed smithville, new wren got shafted.
Apparently, the Houston New-Wren "EF3" tossed a large vehicle even FURTHER than Smithville did. Not only do I think it was an EF5, but a VERY high-end one at that. Smithville was basically a continuation of that tornado, given that the New Wren twister did not fully occlude and it's funnel cloud just hung from the sky for a few minutes before the Smithville bomb dropped.
@@dannyllerenatv8635 it did the Hesston Handoff
@@Salvador_but_he_plays_gd I call the New Wren Tornado the 5th F5 of the 2011 Super Outbreak. The evil sister of Smithville
@@LVM5584 Yeah, no question, because that tornado was near peak intensity the minute it touched down. Its behavior was also rather bizarre and ominous. People talk about how weird Jarrell is, but Smithville might even be weirder and more unusual. People also talk about DOW, but I'm honestly more curious about what the pressure drop must've been like with the Smithville tornado
Great video Chris. I really enjoyed the different perspectives and tornadoes not normally found in a “Strongest” etc… Thx!
This is great content I’ve been wanting a video like this for a while, I also agree with Smithville being the strongest and your reasoning behind it
OK I was going to sperg out over the placement of Moore and Jarrell (possibly also El Reno), but I absolutely love your objective reasoning for your assessments. You've made your case so well and so objectively that I'm now left absolutely baffled over not being familiar w/ the Smithville tornado from all of the tornado videos I watch. I still see the El Reno Monster as the most infamous for obvious reasons, but that's something else entirely and based on who/how many/how people were affected. I'm overall very taken aback by how many tornadoes in your top 10 aren't sparking familiarity w/ me based on what other people cover, but they all deserve more coverage.
I hope this gets the storm community here on YT to talk about these forgotten devils.
Smithville is pretty well known within the tornado community, but outside, among the general population it isn't. Glad you learned something 😃
The 1925 Tri State tornado has my vote for the strongest tornado ever. I can remember being a kid during the 74 Super outbreak and hearing stories about how destructive it was to so many communities. 😢RIP to all of the victims of these weather phenomenon.
People talk about how weird and bizarre Jarrel was (and it undoubtedly was), but the Smithville tornado was just as unusual if not weirder. I'm glad this was highlighted in the video. What gets me is the way it suddenly collapsed (however, it still remained very intense) after exiting Smithville, almost as if the twister ate itself. Then there's the fact that its inner core contained two drillbit/helical sub vortices in a very confined area. There's the 60+ mph forward speed, which, believe it or not, drastically intensifies the twister's overall wind field, especially in an environment so absurdly sheared. I also like the graph, which must have taken forever to make, and it shows just how complex deciding what tornadoes are the worst or not truly is because you have to split hairs and dig so deep. That's a testament to just how bad an F5/EF5 tornado really is
Loved this video! You should do this same video but for tornados outside of the USA, then maybe do a third video combining the 2.
As someone 3 mi SE of Parkersburg, in Stout, and who's friends lost everything, it always is humbling when it's brought up. It was very quickly rain wrapped and just looked like a black wall, without much video of it. I think that's part of why it's so easily forgotten.
His voice reminds of Jacob Swegle. Jacob also posts great videos about tornadoes and severe weather.
Very nicely done! I’m a little surprised to see as many older tornadoes still holding on to a top ranking position. For some reason I was thinking they were mostly getting stronger/worse over time.
I love this topic because the conversation is endless. It’s like what QB was the best in the NFL or what pitcher had the best season in MLB? There’s so many options and factors that go into each choice. For me, it’s Smithville. The forward speed with the incredible damage and eerie pressure drop (curtains) put it over the top. You can’t go wrong with any of these though. I hope I never experience anything similar.
The fact that some of those tornados mentioned had the power to effect underground shelters is mind boggling. And for the ground scour to be so deep is scary!
@highriskchris Greenfield is prime example of why groundspeed matters... according to witnesses it was moving between 50-55mph, if it had been moving 30-35mph the damange would've been much more catastrophoic!
That the Smithville tornado's feats are even more impressive since it swept through town at 60-70 mph. Homes got disintegrated in under a second.
@@michaelangelonousagi5419 The only wind I can think of that can do that is shockwave from a nuclear blast so that tornado had to have winds that high or higher.
@Girls-t2t Yes, EF5-F5 damage looks like nuclear blast damage, EF5 tornadoes have wind speeds from 320 km/h to 530 km/h. Just search up EF5 damage and compare it to Hiroshima, it's very similar.
A large portion of my family lived in trenton, NE. Just south of the path of the stratton f4. there was a farm impacted just north of town. When my uncle went to help clean up and he met with some surveyors and they told him that they dodged a bullet, if it tore through town it would have killed everyone above ground. My grandmother apparently had video of it and i spent hours of my childhood looking for it.
Google. "2+ mile wide damage path in Russia." This monster tornado occurred over 60 years ago in Siberia and the damage path is still visible from satellite to this day.
@tripplefives1402did you know the 4.8 mile wide tornado was actually measured above the ground possibly meaning the mesocyclone was 4.8 miles wide and not the tornado
@tripplefives1402 We have not had tornadoes 3 and 4 miles wide, the widest on record is El Reno 2013, at 2.6 miles wide. You may be thinking about a mesocyclone appearing on doppler radar.
@tripplefives1402 the current record for the widest tornado is 2.6 miles wide…
@tripplefives1402 What makes the Siberian tornado notable is that you can still see its damage path after 60 years meaning that the intensity was such it literally altered the geography of that area. It cut a pine forest clean in half and what it left behind is just grassland which means that it removed topsoil and derooted entire trees.
@nightfall9737 Mulhal was over 4 miles wide. Look it up. Town was destroyed and water tower knocked over a full 2 miles from the center.
You put really good work into this project. Details are great and gave me more insight into tornadoes. The list is incredible due to the research you put in.
24:25 You did your research. Did good
I would have to bet hackleburg without stalling it not only consistently delivered ef5 damage and ripped the roof off a tornado shelter. it was a beast like Joplin and Moore
2:00 That is false, a few people did survive above ground. They were tossed and rolled very far though.
Editing, presentation, music, atmosphere, and information are all top-notch. Easily one of the best UA-cam channels out there.
🙏
This was a veritable who’s-who of menacing tornadoes. I’d never heard a comparative analysis before - nice job‼️👍🏻👏🏻
Hell yea right on time my guy!! Needed something to watch while on the treadmill 💯💯
Thank you for a great video. And a brilliant analysis! Spot on.
Fantastic and fascinating video! As a Wisconsinite, I have to say thanks for including the New Richmond tornado!
Im only halfway through this Video and it is fire.
EDIT:
Also the 2011 Smithville EF5 had part if it's path
still visible nowadays. And shifted and cracked
multiple slabs, one from the 1920s, and one
from 2007+.
It also did more ( likely ), via aerial imagery, like on slab almost gone/might be a cinderblock foundation.
And turned trees into pulp and left craters where they were.
And turned vehicles into pancakes or deletion or crumpled.
Also a Manhole was deleted, and the manhole ring too.
Also one house had a rebar visible piece of foudnation cracked off the edge and slid it, however it may just be a piece of debris but it looks like a piece.
EDIT2
I loved your video, you put alot of effort and it is just very good.
Great video. As someone who didnt live in a Tornado prone area until going to college in Minnesota, I was always intrigued by the monsters that weather can produce.
On the other note I i got to hit the gym more lol
Under 1k in 1 hours pls dont make this dude dead he is my favourite
We're based in Brandenburg, KY and I can tell you the scars of the tornado remain even 50 years later. I'm glad to see someone mention the tornado as usually it gets drowned out by the Xenia tornado when folks talk about the 1974 Super Outbreak
Ah another video to watch 50 times in a row
yes yes when will this became a Netflix series?
I was visiting a friend in Springfield, MO when the EF-5 struck Joplin. I was supposed to head home the day before, but I wanted to stay an extra day. We were under tornado warnings all day and the sky was dark green. As soon as I saw the damage from Joplin on the news I decided that it was time for me to leave and start my 13 hour drive back home to Pittsburgh. I was chased by tornado warnings the entire way home. I was even forced off the interstate by Indiana State Police in Indianapolis due to a tornado that was currently crossing the same interstate that I was on. I was forced to take shelter in a Home Depot, and it was PACKED with people. I will never forget that day.
2011 was one hell of a year for nature and not just tornadoes either. There was even an earthquake on the east coast and I personally saw a building shaking in New York lol
Not to mention the record breaking summer that led to the whole state of Texas spontaneously combusting
@blakecombs1219 yeah it was hot af that year. That does stand out in my memory lmao I don't live in Texas but it was probably one of most miserable heat waves I can remember.
@@PaulHosey-u3l Also japan got hit by 40-130 foot tsunami wave in March 2011 that did damage almost as bad as some of these F5 tornadoes.
@Girls-t2t yeah I was gonna mention that but I didn't want to write a long essay lol but I was reading about that a few months ago. Otherwise the only tsunami that stands out in my head is the one in 2004.
@@PaulHosey-u3l Oh it ok I would not had mind a long essay coz it good for my brain LOL.
Yeah that 2004 tsunami was bad but the 2011 Japan wave stand out to me coz the water keep on rising higher & higher while they were on a high hill.
It also badly damage a concrete building but as much damage as that wave did, the tornadoes in that same year 2011 still did more damage coz they blow away concrete buildings which has me think tornadoes are a little more powerful then tsunami waves.
I remember arguing with a European kid with how no houses can survive these tornados and they kept saying “our houses aren’t built with sticks and straws” and I always say your house won’t survive tornadoes that rip dirt off the ground
Thank you so much for the effort you put in this video. I believe any tornado that reaches average windspeeds of 270-300mph and higher are duly fitting for any list of "strongest tornadoes recorded". You were comprehensive and thorough on this video, way above and beyond other documentaries. You provided all aspects to the classifications' discussions, even providing a "devil's advocate"-like touch to them, just in case anyone would get riled up by the lack of disclaimers. I understand their frustration. In-person perspective will always understandably create strong opinions, despite any scientific data. For example, if you see a tornado showing a width of 2.6 miles and wind speeds over 310mph, even if briefly, behaving in an almost Science-defying way, with so many sub-vortices, and resulting in limited damage almost exclusive to vehicles (damage of a calibre not reported before) because it didn't hit populated areas, you might develop strong opinions against the NWS's revision of El Reno 2013 from EF5 to EF3 (RIP Tim and Paul Samaras, Carl Young, Richard Henderson, Billy O'Neal, Dustin Bridges, Maria Pol Martin and son). Even I, living far away in Portugal, have strong opinions against it.
Some people might not understand why it matters to properly classify tornadoes. It matters for Science but also for social awareness. Too many times have people lost their lives to the twisters because they didn't care or think it was going to be a big deal. Weather institutes also sometimes underestimated them in the past. We need to do a better job at analysing and categorising tornadoes so these situations don't repeat themselves. I believe more factors beyond reported damage need to be taken into account.
Factors such as storm surges, hail or rain presence, how many vortices, debris field impacting buildings/vehicles before a tornado tears them down because yes, there are cases where a building might become weaker from debris impact before a tornado lifts it up right from its foundations. But the calculation and correlation of the impact of the debris that *may* have weakened a building needs to also be reported. It does not matter if the highest intensity was brief and only 1 house suffered the highest unlikely damage that tornado produced, it is still relevant. Especially to the people that lived there. Other factors should include the type of vortex feature (stovepipe, wedge, dead man walking etc), relative directional speed (is it 15mph, is it 60mph? I believe this is relevant, too). The visible earth-scouring, almost as if it drilled into the ground, is relevant, as well.
Now, I understand having multiple factors can lead to a clogging of information or even an overload of information. But the Science requires it. We can measure these factors, we have audio and video, witness statements, we have technology we didn't have 100 years ago, such as drones. It can be done. You don't have to publicise all of the information to the public, only the more relevant for news reports and the like, and keep the rest of the information embedded so people have it should they wish to access it. But for Science and for scientific integrity, these other factors need to play a higher role in classification. Understanding past tornadoes is the only way to prepare for the future.
I applaud you.
I'm not an essay grader but I give you an A+
There is the Barneveld F5 tornado from 1984. It destroyed 90% of the town killing 9 and injuring 200. Had winds of over 300mph and was on the ground for 59 minutes. It is the states second costliest tornado in history.
Hit town after midnight too
I missed the tornadoes that very likely could be on this list: Chickasha EF4 2011, Goldsby EF4 2011, Ringgold EF4 2011, Fairdale EF4 2015, New Wren EF3 2011, and Hayti MS EF4 2021.
a fact: there are rumors that the smithville tornado caused the sonic boom as it passed through the city and also sucked a curtain out of a house from the inside out due to the drop in pressure.
It did in fact suck the curtains into the walls.
All those are F5 Tornadoes that were misrated in my opinion
Greensburg too
@LVM5584 Well, it's not just the EF5/F5, the EF4/F4 too, and most of these tornadoes don't have a specific wind average, just an estimate, and for example, the Joplin tornado has studies that it reached 252mph+, but officially it was 205mph.
@@maxterff6873 I’ve read in places Joplin hit 260 at max intensity
The thing that always gets me about Hackleburg/Phil Campbell is that it was at EF 5 for 28 miles and EF 4+ for over 45 miles. For over an hour it was at the highest levels of damage the indicators could support. Just a total monster in terms of energy
Modern day TriState
Someone rate mine out of ten:
1: 2011 El Reno-Piedmont EF5
2: 2011 Smithville EF5
3: 2011 Hackleburg-Phil Campbell EF5
4: 1990 Bakersfield Valley F4
5: 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore F5
6: 1974 Guin-Delmar F5
7: 1925 Tri-State F5
8: 1997 Jarrell F5
9: 1977 Birmingham F5
10: 1974 Brandenburg F5
everything on the list is invalid except for piedmont
ok BCM isnt THAT low 😭 its top 3 at worst
@@SAGE0536AGN no it’s not. The 4 above it I’m confident are worse
@@AQPewshteeits above anything except piedmont and probably smithville bro 😭
decent list ngl, i would put guin at #1, and BCM below smithville
At this point the top ten contenders are all powerful enough to destroy anything not built to withstand those sort of winds. One thing to note about the 2011 El Reno is that the twelve workers at the oil rig all survived in a shelter that was anchored to the ground with steel cables. It was actually anchored like that less than a year before this tornado happened, which is incredibly lucky for those workers.
Tri-State Tornado is still the worst in my book, the fact it was an F5 that went 226 miles at 73 mph is freaking insane.
I have my doubts on its duration and sustained F5 wind speeds though. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mayfield/Bremen was stronger and had a longer continuous path.
Fire vid man please keep up the good work! I love watching these videos to become more educated on this fascinating subject!
El Reno-Piedmont 2011 for me all the way tbh. Car deletion, worst corpse damage known, storm shelters pulled out of the ground and sheared apart, mesquites turned to liquid, a home's foundations 'trenched', extreme scouring, a 300mph-proof saferoom almost shredded, 295mph ground-level radar readings nowhere even close to peak intensity, and the oil rig which was sideswiped and not fully cored btw. The tornado also spent a good amount of it's peak over empty fields and there is rumored damage far more severe than this that was never photographed, or the photos are restricted.
I agree with you...for me its the most impressive damage recorded. The doppler radar also gives a good idea how powerful the tornado was.
wait no where near peak intensity?
@SlyMrOREOGaming 295mph was taken before the explosive wedgeout and oil rig impact.
where'd you find the trenched foundation or the sheared apart storm shelters. If this is true then it might even be stronger than the Guin F5, which completely ripped several foundations out of the ground, scoured ground and asphalt, and almost completely swept a very well built steel mobile home production plant, leaving only warped metal.
And the oil rig was definitely swiped and not cored, which it was hit just before peak intensity. This thing might be >350 mph if this is right, My estimation on guin is >330, and Smithville 300-325.
And what do the rumors of "far more severe damage than this" state.
@@deinocheirusgaming6920 Where'd you find this stuff, I searched everywhere and only thing I found was a foundation was ripped out of the ground, guin F5 style, leaving an empty socket.
I didn't actually think a tornado could get an f6 rating but 3!?!
Excellent video; this is some Ph.D. tier content here. At INChaserCon a few years ago a speaker mentioned the 3/2/12 Borden, IN tornado. It stripped a section of pavement off a major roadway, 10ftx10ft across and I think something like 2ft thick. The section of pavement essentially exploded straight up from the road like a rocket and was hurled quite some distance away. There's been calculations (unconfirmed) that to do that would take winds speeds of possibly 500 to 600 MPH.
My dad lived in Salado when Jarrell happened. He said the wall cloud went over his friend’s house before reaching Jarrell. That friend of his was also a volunteer firefighter who ended up responding to Jarrell afterwards. It’s still crazy to hear everything that happened. Apparently the cows’ skin were ripped off. Insane.
Wasn't the El Reno tornado winds said to have touched 336mph briefly?
the winds are calculated n there is a range to account for any error in the readings/calculations, 336mph is the upper bound of that range
That is the upper bound for the radar measurement. It likely didn't have those winds. Every measurement has uncertainty, and that is the highest possible, I listed the average.
@@highriskchris ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification
@@MotorsportsVideos12 ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying
I heard that was pinged of one of the sub-vortices and not the main funnel itself. El Reno 2013 is highly overrated.
Thank you for such an informative and non biased video. You have done a fantastic service in reporting these events without getting in the weeds like house strength and rating system being young. Great job my friend. I’m subscribed, commented and shared. You have my attention!!
This, along with Tri-State, Xenia, Andover, Jarrell, Greensburg, Tuscaloosa, Rainsville, Joplin, El Reno, Moore (2013) and Kentucky (2021).
tri-state in the same conversation as joplin 💔
moore 2013 in the same convo as xenia 💔
jarrell in the same convo as tuscaloosa 💔
20:18 the very definition of “show your work”. I do love assumptions based in calculable data.
The tornado got a rating of F6 tornado 0:49
It is difficult to document tornado strength and power, but I like it you tried to find the strongest tornado and showing the evidence for it being the strongest I like your video and I agree with you. The last tornado you were you brought up and it definitely has evidence.
"Especially from all you Oklahoma people" is craaaazzy.
They're a weird sub genre borderline cult in the tornado community
@highriskchris borderline is being modest, just wait till you hear about all the 8 year olds who just watched a mini doc on Jarrel.
Lol