Lesser-known components of major tornado outbreaks

[Dan Robinson]

Many major outbreaks produce significant tornadoes well outside of the primary risk area covered by both SPC and chasers. As a result, these lesser-known events go largely undocumented and forgotten. I think that there are probably numerous videos and photos of these tornadoes that have yet to see the light of day, or maybe have been lost in obscurity online. Some examples:

* May 4, 2003 in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/030504_rpts.html
Everything I can find online about this day is centered on the Kansas/Missouri component of this event. However, this outbreak had a rather prolific component on the warm/stationary front from Arkansas eastward into Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. It's interesting that you can't find much of anything about this part of the outbreak online. No tornado photos or videos or even event synopses that I've been able to locate.

* May 25, 2011 outbreak
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/110525_rpts.html
This day produced notable tornadoes in central and western Missouri (in the vicinity of the surface low) that even I didn't know about until finding several videos of a large tornado in Sedalia, MO from that event. Everyone's focus from that day was on the SE Missouri/Illinois portion, I don't know of any 'traveling' chasers who were on the surface low play. All of the videos from Sedalia look like they were shot by locals and/or spotters.

* May 29, 2004 in the KC area
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/040529_rpts.html
Every chaser I know was on either of the two Kansas storms or the one in Oklahoma, but there was a significant tornado event this day in Missouri (near KC) area that I remember seeing one video of a long time ago. It's surprising no one was on this one.

* May 27, 2001 in NW KS
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/010527_rpts.html
I saw a still image from another chaser (at a chaser convergence afterward) of a rather strong tornado that the big derecho produced in its early stages, but can't find anything on this today.

I'm sure we could find many more examples like this. Did anyone chase one of these 'lesser known' outbreak components, or have examples of more?

 

[Danny Neal]

From a personal standpoint I find May 3rd, 1999 to be obscure. Wichita and Oklahoma City were nailed, but most of the attention was focused on Moore/OKC and not so much Haysville and the Wichita area. I can't recall ever seeing any chaser video from KS on May 3rd either but I could be mistaken as well.

 

[Scott Sims]

I had a great catch on a cell that was nearly 100 miles outside the 2% tornado probs on 5-25-2008 near Ava IL(this was likely near the 4 M WNW of Desoto IL report). I had marathon-ed to Nebraska for a bust the day before, and came back home to attend a cookout in Herrin IL that I had promised to be at(along with other obligations not letting me stay out for the real targets). I had brought my laptop for radar to help with cookout planning, but didn't think I'd go on a spot chase. I watched this cell when it was near STL and saw that it was turning right and maximizing its SRH, so I set out to find it about an hour into the party. I followed the cell for a couple hours to about 15 miles south of Herrin, then returned to the cookout shortly after dark. It made up for the bust the day before, and the choice to return home rather than chase the Kansas or Minnesota targets this day, to say the least.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2008/day1otlk_20080525_1630.html

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/080525_rpts.html

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tJ69zsf3E

Edit: Upon reviewing the map and my location, the report is probably actually the Willisville,IL tornado report rather than the Desoto, IL report.

 

[Elaine Spencer]

The SPC tornado reports for 4/27/11 show numerous reports in VA, MD, PA and even upstate NY, with some of the VA/MD tornadoes reaching EF-2 or EF-3 intensity. There were a number of fatalities in VA as well. The reports from the mid-Atlantic states alone would, under normal circumstances, have constituted a significant outbreak.

Looking at the convective outlook verification, I notice that even though SPC had at one point extended the hatched 15% TOR area and MDT risk up into OH, IN and KY, just about every tornado report north of the NC/VA border was in a 5% SLGT risk area:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2011/day1otlk_v_20110427_2000.gif

 

[Tim Supinie]

From a personal standpoint I find May 3rd, 1999 to be obscure. Wichita and Oklahoma City were nailed, but most of the attention was focused on Moore/OKC and not so much Haysville and the Wichita area. I can't recall ever seeing any chaser video from KS on May 3rd either but I could be mistaken as well.

Same here. I think I saw a picture once of the tornado in Haysville, and it was right at or after sunset, so the lighting was pretty terrible, which could be part of the reason for the lack of video. I don't know that NWS ICT even mentioned anything about it on the recent anniversary.

As for others, I think there were a quite a few tornadoes and a couple deaths in the upper Mississippi River valley on 22 May 2011, but those were overshadowed by arguably the worst single tornado of the 21st century to date (the one in Joplin, for those not good with dates).

 

[Shawn Schuman]

I know this is a little bit outside of the intended topic of this thread, but I've always thought the other tornadoes that occurred during the 3/18/25 outbreak were interesting. It was a pretty significant outbreak, yet all the attention is obviously on the Tri-State tornado. A couple of hours after the F5 formed near the warm front just east of the sfc low, there were two F4s and four F3s further southeast in advance of the dryline/cold front.

Some photos from the F4 that struck Sumner County, Tennessee:

 

[Mike Smith]

From a personal standpoint I find May 3rd, 1999 to be obscure. Wichita and Oklahoma City were nailed, but most of the attention was focused on Moore/OKC and not so much Haysville and the Wichita area. I can't recall ever seeing any chaser video from KS on May 3rd either but I could be mistaken as well.

Jeff House with (then) WeatherData got the only photos of the Haysville-Wchita tornado, as it formed in Sumner Co., that I am aware of. Those are the ones Tim refers to (taken at sunset) that we used in our newsletter. I don't have copies. Jeff is now a meteorologist with TVA and might share them if contacted.

 

[Bryan Smith]

Three recent events come to mind that IMHO are underappreciated from a either an EF-scale rating or potential perspective.

The May 24, 2011 central OK cluster outbreak consisted of a high-end EF3 (Canton Lake), high-end EF4s (Chickasha-Blanchard-Newcastle, Washington-Goldsby), and a low-end EF5. All of these tornadoes were produced by separate supercells. The Canton Lake tornado was located in a rural area of northwestern OK and became rather intense as it crossed Canton Lake. This would have been a violent tornado given sufficient damage indicators (DIs). The Piedmont-El Reno EF5 was the largest, had the longest track, and was the most intense from a WSR-88D standpoint. The tornado surveying personnel had to scrap up EF5 damage given its largely rural wheat field path. The two tornadoes I would like to focus on for this event were the Chickasha-Blanchard-Newcastle and Washington-Goldsby tornadoes. The Washington-Goldsby tornado removed on the order of 6-8 homes to their foundation (i.e., slabbed) and deposited the debris 10s-100s of yards downwind. In talking with several highly experienced meteorologists in the NWC, these two tornadoes would have been F5s had they occurred in the 1990s. Ponder that statement for a moment. Basically four violent tornadoes occurred in a small spatial area inside of a few hour period. Norman, OK was essentially "saved" by a left-moving anticyclonic supercell that developed in Jack County, TX and raced northward and intercepted and ultimately brought to the demise of the Washington-Goldsby tornado. Otherwise, a potential disaster of 10s to potentially 100+ lives would have been lost had the Goldsby tornado struck west Norman. In terms of the high-end tornadoes, May 24, 2011 would rival the May 3, 1999 outbreak. With that said, the May 3, 1999 event produced many more tornadoes and is generally regarded as more historical.

The May 10, 2010 tornado cluster in central OK is as impressive of an environment —albeit confined in area to the central OK I-35 corridor— that I have examined in studying a 10 year archive of RUC-based SPC hourly mesoanalysis data. I acknowledge intense tornadoes occurred elsewhere outside of central OK, but for brevity I'll focus on the central OK portion of the event. From an ingredient-based perspective, this event underperformed in my opinion because of less than ideal supercell structure and the inability for east-central and eastern OK to appreciably warm more than what occurred. The event only produced a 2 low-end EF4s, 2 EF3s, and some EF2s in central OK. One of those EF2 tornadoes was by a left-moving anticyclonic supercell! This event was estimated to have around a 20 STP (Significant Tornado Parameter) value and is higher than other events except from the May 4, 2003 event where the RUC estimated a 24 value in western MO. For perspective, April 27, 2011 and May 24, 2011 were in the lower teens STP. Again, I emphasize "potential" with regard to this event.

Lastly, the April 14, 2012 tornado outbreak was a notable event but some of its higher-end luster will be forgotten because of the rural landscape where it occurred. Aside from the obvious low ratings of the tornadoes –because of the lack of DIs– that affected northern OK and southern KS during the evening hours, two 35 mi track tornadoes from the same supercell tracked northeast across west-central KS during the mid-evening hours. Both of these tornadoes likely had an artificially low EF-scale ceiling because of the lack of DIs and were rated only high-end EF3 tornadoes. The physical tornado size is what impressed me about these two back-to-back tornadoes. They were both surveyed to be 2 miles wide! Similar to the EF3 hand-off tornado after the EF5 Greensburg tornado (5/4/07), these 2 mile wide behemoths tracked near St. John, KS.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

* May 29, 2004 in the KC area
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/040529_rpts.html
Every chaser I know was on either of the two Kansas storms or the one in Oklahoma, but there was a significant tornado event this day in Missouri (near KC) area that I remember seeing one video of a long time ago. It's surprising no one was on this one.

I was in Concordia along with any others who weren't in Harper/Sumner county, Kansas. If I remember correctly, Eric Flescher caught the NW Missouri tornado, though. It was an impressive storm and I remember seeing it on radar and thinking how nice it would have been to save gas money and chase in the backyard. There is a good write-up about the pre-frontal NW Missouri storm and photos here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/?n=severe-may242004 It destroyed a home near Weatherby and killed a couple of people there as it was rated F4. The focus for chasers was on the triple point, which had maxed out parameters that day. The lone pre-frontal storm managed to break the cap ahead of the pack, and the environment was strongly favorable over NW Missouri.