Identify the tornado — part II

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas Loades
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Sorry, neither of them. I should point out that none of these tornadoes were major historical or significant tornadoes as such — except the first one, as it caused a fatality — but the photos taken by (I assume) the SIP/TIP have done the rounds both in books and the internet. I'll indirectly give the last one away, though: there's a photo of it in The Weather Wizard’s Cloud Book (or whatever it is, as long as it's not the 5-year diary).
 
Right day, right state, wrong tornado. But it was significant (it caused a fatality).
 
The first one looks like photos of the Harrold Tx tornado; but, according to the NWS site I was looking at this tornado did not result in any deaths. So I'll make Harrold Tx my guess.

Graham Butler
 
The last photo I think was from Plainview TX in May 1978 (the 27th I think??)

I recognize the 3rd photo from the Advanced Spotter Guide but can't think of when it happened.
 
Right day, right state, wrong tornado. But it was significant (it caused a fatality).
Click to expand...

Aaargh. This is starting to bug me! All the statistics I can find on the Red River Outbreak show only two killer tornadoes: the Wichita Falls one, and the Vernon tornado. And while I suppose you could say either of those caused "a fatality," that would be understatement. With the death tolls standing at 42 and 11 respectively, both of them clearly caused more than a single fatality, while none of the other tornadoes in the outbreak were killers, at least according to my information.

So, I wonder if the tornado you're showing was actually a part of that outbreak, or some renegade that occurred on the same day but independent of the Red River storms? I can't imagine that, but, well, just checking. Texas is a big state.
 
Thanks, Graham. I stand corrected. And I see now that the NOAA site has much more to it than I first realized. The first tornado photo, then, is probably the Grandfield tornado, which according to the map is also the Harrold storm.

Do I win the Kewpie Doll? :lol:
 
Yep, picture #1 is the Harrold, TX–Grandfield, OK tornado of April 10, 1979; according to Significant Tornadoes, it did cause a fatality (a rather nasty-sounding one too — a woman sought left her car and sought shelter under a tractor-trailer which the tornado rolled forward . . . onto her).

And picture #4 is the May 27, 1978 tornado near Plainview, TX, or "Rainview," as I've seen it in other texts. I don't know if "Rainview" is a real town, or just a typo that's made its way around, though.

Picture #3 is in the Advanced Spotter's Guide . . . and was also in the second spotter slide set ever produced, A Slide Series Supplement to Tornado [sic]: A Spotters [sic] Guide, from 1979, if that's a hint. There's also, in that slide set, a picture of tornado #2 in its rope stage, in which it looked somewhat unusual.
 
Looks like it was taken from Sarkey's Energy Center. WOW! If so it would probably be heading straight for the campus.
 
HOLY CRAP! This looks like it was taken from the map room in Sarkeys. My guess would be the May 8, 2003 F4 in Moore, S OKC. Golly, what a GREAT photo.
 
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