Elie Tornado Canada's First F5

[Danny Neal]

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. It looks like Pampa 95 all over again in my eyes, those of you that were on that can justify.

LoL, thanks Brian, at least someone else stepped up to the plate and sided with me!

 

[Angie Norris]

My first thought was a combination of Pampa 1995 and McConnell airbase right before Andover got hit. Is there a damage assessment report anywhere? Violent yes, but not sure why they gave it F5. Did they get the wind speed estimate from photogrammetry?

 

[davecarlsen]

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.

Yup, it didn't hit much, except for an older farmhouse. We thus rated it as an F3.

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.

Glen, this is a valid point, and one that was debated here. The designation comes from our examination of the original video (full-res--much clearer!) coupled with our on-the-ground survey. The house in question was extremely well bolted down with big J-bolts. As for the van, in the high-res, it can even be tough to make it out, but it's there; again, though, coupling this with our finding the van in a field a few hundred metres away from its point of origin, a crumpled mess, reinforced our decision. (BTW, the van was also heavier than usual because it was full of drywall.)

For me, the biggest story here is that nobody was hurt; the town was pretty deserted at tornado time because of events going on in Winnipeg, but the people who were there knew what to do.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Yeah that was my first thought was here is Pampa all over again. Drill bit deluxe with large debris centrifuging outward. Not sure if this one was strong enough to loft and sling out pickup trucks or not.

 

[Craig Maire II]

This truly has been an incredible year! The United states has its first ever EF5 rated tornado (strongest tornado since 1999) and Canada has it's first ever F5!

 

[Doug Raflik]

Did you guys see that pick up truck driving on the road next to the grain elevator at 36 and 37 seconds? Holy Crap. He had to have been gettin debris raining down on him. Almost looks like he was a few seconds ahead of the van crashing down near him. Wonder where he was headin? My only guess is he had family in the path of the tornado and he was trying to rescue them.

Doug Raflik

 

[scott r currens]

The house in question was extremely well bolted down with big J-bolts.

What was the failure point that allowed the home to be lifted intact?

 

[Gabe Garfield]

What an impressive tornado! I'm fairly amazed at how many camcorders were within close proximity of this tornado.

Regarding the intensity, while I'm not doubting the mets who surveyed the damage, I'm not convinced it was a top class tornado. The motion is fast, don't get me wrong, but I can think of 3 or 4 tornadoes off the top of my head that had similar (if not faster) motion and still only received the F3 or F4 rating.

Some that come to mind:
-Ellis County, Oklahoma (4 May 07)
-Mulvane, Kansas (12 June 04)
-Crystal Springs, Kansas (29 May 04)
-Manchester, South Dakota (24 June 03)
-Pampa, Texas (8 June 95)

Granted, the fastest winds can be very transient and localized, so I'm not trying to cast doubt on the F-scale rating.

Gabe

 

[John Hudson]

What an impressive tornado! I'm fairly amazed at how many camcorders were within close proximity of this tornado.
Gabe

Along with being the strongest tornado in Canadian history, it may also be the most videotaped/photographed tornado in Canada.

The Trans-Canada Highway runs all the way from Victoria, BC in the west to St. John's Newfoundland in the east and passes Elie by just over a mile or so. There are lots of cars on the highway that time of the day, so the tornado had many admirers that day (except for me)


John Hudson
www.skywatch7.com