Best Tornado Events of 2016 So Far That Were Posted on Youtube and That I Watched

[StephenHenry]

This is my way of daring the fall season to mess up my list. Couldn't hurt right?

Just because I love ranking things, here's my top ten list of tornadoes for 2016. Goes without saying, but my ranking is pretty arbitrary and leans heavily towards those with good daylight video. For the record, I only saw 1 of these.

10) Mayfield, KY (May 10)
Not that memorable of a tornado in general, and it could easily get bumped out of the top 10 (I dare you fall season). But it was not bad for Kentucky, and there were some compelling close-pass videos as it moved through town.

9) Eva, OK (April 15)
My first, but not only, regret of the season, as I couldn't chase this day. I can only imagine that the parent supercell was a joy to chase as it paralleled Hwy 54. Lots of people got shots of a nice smooth trunk and interesting scuddy, dancing vortices out of this family.

8) Tulsa, OK (March 30)
Watching the live chopper video of this relatively weak tornado move through the suburbs was really harrowing. There were points where it gave shades of the Fridley, MN tornado with some helical hints and intense rising motion at the ground.

7) Dolores, Uruguay (April 15)
This thing was pretty beastly, and gave several intense close up videos as well as the "Rochelle Interstate Pass" shot of the year. Unfortunately this was also one of the more destructive of the year as well.

6) Aliceville, AL (February 2)
My second favorite wedge of the year. Kelly's shot near the prison reminds me of a lot of tornado dreams when I was a kid.

5) Maysan, Iraq (April 14)
Does it say something about our season that I have 2 international tornadoes on the list? I don't know. But I will admit, I'm totally a sucker for high-based, strong, single-suction tornadoes. The video near the oil refinery is really amazing.

4) Abilene/Chapman, KS (May 25)
This one has bumped up more and more as additional video has been posted. As usual, it's hard to beat the multiple intercepts video from the Chroniques Chaotiques guys. But so many people got really stunning footage of this one.

3) Wray, CO (May 7)
This is the one top 10 on the list that I was able to see. Again, as a lover of high-based single-suction tornadoes, this was an absolute dream come true. So much amazing footage came out of this one from all angles, including drone (totally jealous).

2) Dodge City family (May 24)
My biggest regret of the season is missing most of this week because of work trips (but hey I flew over the storms a couple times). What more can be said about this family that hasn't already? North-moving cyclers like this supercell are absolutely amazing, and I hope to see one like this (not Greensburg) sometime soon. The lighting and contrast on those tornadoes was about as exquisite as you will ever seen.

1) Wynnewood-Sulphur, OK (May 9)
It might be cheating to lump both of these very distinct tornadoes together for the number 1, but that's how I'm gonna do it. Dick McGowan, Scott Peake, Hank Schyma, had the videos I rewatched more than any others this year. And then the Sulphur wedge and storm structure was the #1 wedge of the year. I don't see how this family is not a new modern classic.

What are everyone else's favorites this year?? What did I miss in my list?

 

[Jeff Duda]

Should probably call it "best tornado events of 2016" if you're gonna lump everything on 9 May together. There were at least two separate tornadoes that, had they occurred on separate days or separated in distance, would probably each get their own entry.

I largely agree with your list otherwise.

 

[StephenHenry]

That's a good point, Jeff. Separately I would personally rank Wynnewood #1 and Sulphur #4. And if I started to think about these more formally as events, I'd bump Mayfield out and put Leoti there in its place, since the overall "event" was amazing from a supercell structure, coloring, and timelapse-ability standpoint but the tornadoes themselves were nothing to write home about.

Honestly, the real thread title should be "Best Tornado Events of 2016 So Far That Were Posted on Youtube and That I Watched"

 

[John Moore]

I would rate the Solomon/Chapman/Abilene tornado above any from the Dodge City event, but the Dodge City event was the most prolific, easily chased tornado generator of my long chase career. In other words, both events were spectacular and amazing. The Solomon tornado was a single, very long lived (90min), easily chased, visually stunning tornado - the best of my career.

 

[Michael King]

I was fortunate to see Wray, Dodge City and Chapman this year. I rated them in order: Dodge, Chapman and then Wray but what a podium. Just the lead up before tornado genesis north of Mineola was thrilling: a textbook supercell structure with a storm that tracks slowly north, easily chased from a number of perspectives. The 2nd stage of the Dodge cyclic supercell with a cone and multiple tornadoes off to its east was incredible - tornadoes almost needed air traffic control permission to land there were so many. Chapman was amazing because of its longevity and how that storm dominated the north central Kansas sky. Wray, we had been on that storm for 3 hours so it was fascinating to see it develop and finally deliver. Some of the video this year has put the bar higher: The whirling browns column in close and look skywards of the Wray footage, the sheer speed of McGowan and Bruin's shots of Katie/Wynnewood - never really seen footage before that has shown so graphically and conveyed so well the speeds of tornadic winds; the totemic elegance and photogenic wonderment of the first two cones at Dodge & the pursuit over many miles with sampling in close interspersed with viewing from afar of the Chapman wedge.

Here are a couple of links to my 2016 highlights. The first has all the storms except Wray. The second is just Wray.

 

[James Wilson]

Great list and good job ... I was luck enough to see Wray and DDC yet missed Chapman. :-(

Eureka KS (July 7)
I would add this one especially as it was the strongest July tornado on record in the state of Kansas. EF-3 one mph away from EF-4 and also produced an EF-2 that was one mph away from EF-3 #robbed.

Below are some images taken from our video by Taylor Wright as well as a great shot by Jason Keller of the EF-2 in town,

 

[Jeff Duda]

I would argue that the spirit of this thread is weighted more heavily towards the quality of visual documentation provided by the tornado compared to that due to the meteorological aspects of the event. For that reason, I would argue against the nocturnal July Kansas tornado making it on the list.

 

[James Wilson]

I would argue that the spirit of this thread is weighted more heavily towards the quality of visual documentation provided by the tornado compared to that due to the meteorological aspects of the event. For that reason, I would argue against the nocturnal July Kansas tornado making it on the list.

Very well and understood ... each year I look to see something that has not happened before or I have not seen ... that is one reason DDC is on top for me as I had never seen three on the ground at once.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

While I didn't get to witness any tornadoes on that list this year, if I got a chance to pick one, it would be a very close toss up between Dodge City (5/24/16) or Wynnewood (5/9/16). Dodge City because it was quite the classic cyclic supercell in excellent terrain with not much rain wrapping around, doesn't get much better than that honestly! Wynnewood would be up there for me because from the videos I've seen, it exhibited extremely violent motions at ground level, and too was extremely photogenic...perhaps the thing keeping it from pushing above Dodge City being the less than ideal terrain. Again I wasn't there for either of these events sadly, so just my armchair perspective. Either way, I wouldn't be unhappy to have witnessed any tornado on the OP's list.

 

[StephenHenry]

Oh man, I think the list just got scrambled with the 8-3 Perth, ND tornado!! Hope to see more footage of this one, but there are a couple shots where that wallcloud makes me think of the 1998 Columbus, NE wallcloud (of Crazy Farmer fame).

Here's to more summer/fall events!