Known fastest moving cell/tornado?

[Peter B. Creedon]

I'm currently watching coverage of the April 19, 2011 severe weather/tornado event in the STL area. One of the cells that formed out ahead of the main line moved to the NE at 75 mph. In my experiences, whether in the field as a chaser or sitting at my computer I have never seen a storm move that fast.

 

[Boris Konon]

I'm currently watching coverage of the April 19, 2011 severe weather/tornado event in the STL area. One of the cells that formed out ahead of the main line moved to the NE at 75 mph. In my experiences, whether in the field as a chaser or sitting at my computer I have never seen a storm move that fast.

Left-moving supercells have been clocked at over 80 mph a number of times. On 3/28/2005, an intense left-moving supercell averaged a speed of 96 mph as it cut across NC in about 100 min.

The forward speed of large, intense tornadoes have been clocked as high as 75 mph (Guin AL
4/3/1974). More recently, the rope stage of one of the twin Pilger NE tornadoes on 6/16/2014
was estimated to be moving at nearly 90 mph at one point as it rotated around the other
larger ongoing tornado.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Boris’s mention of the Pilger rope rotating around the other larger tornado makes me wonder about the satellite tornado that rotated around the main El Reno tornado, what was the speed of that one?

 

[D Christy]

I'm currently watching coverage of the April 19, 2011 severe weather/tornado event in the STL area. One of the cells that formed out ahead of the main line moved to the NE at 75 mph. In my experiences, whether in the field as a chaser or sitting at my computer I have never seen a storm move that fast.

I remember reading a severe weather report out of Tulsa about six months ago where they were stating a cell was moving to the northeast at 80 mph. It caught my attention as I didn't think a storm could move that quickly.

 

[Peter B. Creedon]

On 3/28/2005, an intense left-moving supercell averaged a speed of 96 mph as it cut across NC in about 100 min.

That's insane. Did this particular supercell produce any tornadoes during its stampede across NC?

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Relevant new material from Hank Schyma:

 

[Greg McLaughlin]

During the May 4, 2003 tornado outbreak a left split off a supercell on the OK/AR border raced NNE around 90mph and merged with an east moving cell near the OK/MO border. After the merge a new mesocyclone developed and produced the Pierce City, MO F4.

The video by Pecos Hank details the fasted forward speed of a tornado (95mph Pilger, NE ropeout 6.14.14) and fasted forward speed of a subvortex (175mph EL Reno, OK 5.31.13).

 

[Caleb Routt]

Many of the tornadoes from March 2nd 2012 (West Liberty and Salyersville Ky) were moving at 50 to nearly 70 mph. Before the West Liberty tornado became tornadic, it was moving at something around 90 mph. The Hackleburg/Phil Campbell tornado from 2011 had similar forward speeds.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Hank presented one of the fastest moving tornadoes...



1). Pictured above, the rope-out of the Pilger tornado "twins" on June 16, 2014. This (left tornado) raced in front of the developing Wakefield EF-4 (right) in excess of 90 MPH. The fact these were two physically separate mesocyclones / cycles made this unique.



2). The El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013 moved at 50 MPH at times but its subvortices (that looked like LARGE tornadoes themselves), moved around it at 160 MPH+ ... But I'll keep this at number 2 since these were just smaller sub-tornadoes rotating around the main circulation given this "exceptional" case!