Elie Tornado Canada's First F5

John Hudson

John Hudson

EF4
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
372
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba
I caught wind of a news story this morning about EC changing the Elie tornado rating to an F5, after reveiwing additional video footage and observing an entire house and a van being hurled through the air.

Don't know if you necessarily need photogrammetry to do this kind of analysis, but in any case it is a remarkable story. I'll be attempting to contact Dave Carlson over the next couple of days to get more details.

Story links:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=4B3DE57E-4967-4B09-98D6-EF974B32D6B5

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070918.wtornado0918/BNStory/National/home


John Hudson
www.skywatch7.com
 
John, Dave Carlsen is a active member of another site I visit. Let me know if you need the link incase you want to send him a PM. I think he also is a member of ST but not sure.

I know he has chased in the US including ND several times and he is a nice guy.
 
I realize that a tornado's size and intensity are not always directly correlated, but it's amazing that such a relatively 'small' twister can be rated an F5.

In the first link above, it says: "Wind speeds are estimated to have reached between 420 to 510 km/h when the tornado was at its most intense." That translates to roughly 261-317 mph... they don't cite any sources on this but I'm assuming that they're just listing what the F5 range is. Is that the case?

Is the video of the van and house being swept away available anywhere?
 
Chad Cowan said:
I realize that a tornado's size and intensity are not always directly correlated, but it's amazing that such a relatively 'small' twister can be rated an F5.

In the first link above, it says: "Wind speeds are estimated to have reached between 420 to 510 km/h when the tornado was at its most intense." That translates to roughly 261-317 mph... they don't cite any sources on this but I'm assuming that they're just listing what the F5 range is. Is that the case?

Is the video of the van and house being swept away available anywhere?
Click to expand...

I picture it like the Pampa tornado, although it was only rated a 4, and was relatively small, but intense. Like Chad points out its shocking to see a "small" vortex producing that type of intense damage, but it happens more often than you think. It will be interesting to see this video
 
Last edited by a moderator:
LOL duh!!!! Maybe because the thread is also Elie Tornado Canada's first F5!!!! In the words of Homer Simpson...."D'oh!"
 
I managed to dig up the video clip EC used as analysis to upgrade the tornado from an F4 to F5. It is hosted at the website of CJOB, winnipeg's most listened to news and talk radio station.

The clip is available here: http://cjob.com/shows/Richard_Cloutier_Reports_show.aspx?show=319

The rotation on the ground is really incredible, and the entire house just gets blasted into the air.


John
www.skywatch7.com
 
John Hudson said:
I managed to dig up the video clip EC used as analysis to upgrade the tornado from an F4 to F5. It is hosted at the website of CJOB, winnipeg's most listened to news and talk radio station.

The clip is available here: http://cjob.com/shows/Richard_Cloutier_Reports_show.aspx?show=319

The rotation on the ground is really incredible, and the entire house just gets blasted into the air.


John
www.skywatch7.com
Click to expand...



Damn! talk about a Drill bit! That red building was taken 1/2 around the tornado and just thrown almost intact until it hit the field. At first I thought it was a barn. Its like Pampa 95 all over again in my eyes, those of you that were on that can justify.
 
John Hudson said:
I managed to dig up the video clip EC used as analysis to upgrade the tornado from an F4 to F5. It is hosted at the website of CJOB, winnipeg's most listened to news and talk radio station.

The clip is available here: http://cjob.com/shows/Richard_Cloutier_Reports_show.aspx?show=319

The rotation on the ground is really incredible, and the entire house just gets blasted into the air.
Click to expand...

Thanks, John. That video is absolutely incredible. I had to hunt for the van flying through the air and I believe I found it at the 47 second mark, just to the right of the grain silo. WOW :eek:
 
Chad Cowan said:
I realize that a tornado's size and intensity are not always directly correlated, but it's amazing that such a relatively 'small' twister can be rated an F5.

In the first link above, it says: "Wind speeds are estimated to have reached between 420 to 510 km/h when the tornado was at its most intense." That translates to roughly 261-317 mph... they don't cite any sources on this but I'm assuming that they're just listing what the F5 range is. Is that the case?

Is the video of the van and house being swept away available anywhere?
Click to expand...

Yes, Chad, that was exactly it--just a MPH to km/h translation of wind speeds in the (old) F scale. (We haven't yet adopted the EF scale; it's just a matter of time, and I've been stressing to the media that it's the **damage** that matters here, not necessarily the wind speeds. But you know, of course, numbers like that are just sexy news.)
 
John Hudson said:
The clip is available here: http://cjob.com/shows/Richard_Cloutier_Reports_show.aspx?show=319

The rotation on the ground is really incredible, and the entire house just gets blasted into the air.


John
www.skywatch7.com
Click to expand...


John,

Thanks for digging up this video. Dave, or anyone else from the EF or F scaling worlds, I'd be curious about opinions on how this video is evidence of F-5 tornado damage. I wasn't really able to convince myself that I saw a vehicle being lofted in there, but as far as the house goes - it looks very intact prior to disentegrating during it's fall back to the ground. To me - this strongly suggests that it was not particularly well attached to the ground. While it is somewhat impressive to see a structure that size lofted like that, this doesn't scream F-5 winds imo. Also, the very slow motion will undoubtedly remind some of the Jarell, TX tornado which the consensus has been that the winds were not exceptionally strong, but had long duration 'grinding' - yet damage photos from that event are much more impressive than this one. At least, based on what I've seen from my computer - which I fully realize is a bad place to try and make damage assessments. I was hoping though that there might be some discussion on this.

Here is a link to some damage photos I found online:

http://www.pbase.com/swp/elie_manitoba_tornado_damage
 
The tornado reminds me of the June 8, 1995 Pampa TX tornado...anybody else have that same observation? I guess this one goes into the growing list of small but violent tornadoes. I am wondering what Reed Timmer's tornado in Manitoba was rated if any damage survey was done at all. That one looked pretty serious.
 
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