Most underrated tornadoes?

[Matt Zumbrunn]

I always feel like the Trousdale tornado May 4th 2007 is a little underrated. Greensburg overshadowed it and rightfully so, but it always had me pondering what its rating would've been if there would've been had it actually impacted something. I don't wish a monster like that on anyone though.

 

[Matt Zumbrunn]

Sorry mine read so bad. I was typing it in a treestand so I was kind of distracted.

 

[C M May]

I am curious to see what you guys think are the most underrated tornadoes are. It can be that a tornado should have been rated stronger on the F/EF scale, or a tornado that no one talks about. Me personally, I think the 2011 El Reno tornado was incredibly overshadowed by the rest of the tornadoes that year, then the 2013 El Reno tornado.

I agree with you on 2011 El-Reno. Not so much underrated but under covered. I think folks in the weather community at all levels, from seasoned chasers to experts all the way to enthusiasts appreciate this storm (as well as all the catastrophic damage type events). I think it’s obvious why the MSM covers the storms hitting larger population areas, and I’m sure you do too. But to us folks that are truly fascinated by tornadoes are interested in them for different reasons than the MSM and casual interest folks. I think the casual folks as well as TV news prefer a backdrop with structures still having a wall or two and debris strewn about for their reporting on TV. To them and the average person it’s very dramatic. Whereas, (let’s just call us all “weather folk”) are more interested in the house that is slabbed and wondering what type of anchor bolts were used, or did they use toe nailing or etc…..
I think the non weather folk and TV folk just don’t get it. As a result when you tune in for the MSM (not sure why anyone would watch MSM, but that’s a whole different topic) you’ll see a reporter standing the middle of a street in a Tuscaloosa neighborhood with homes having a wall or two standing. When folks like me and/or a lot of us would like to see them on an empty slab in Smithville MS.
For fun, I’ll throw out one that I think is/was under reported or underrated. (Jarrell and Mayflower are too easy) so how about…..Brandenburg Kentucky or Sayler Park Ohio from the ‘74 Super Outbreak.
More recently, maybe smaller communities (and harder hit areas IMO) from the December 2021 tornadoes. But instead of Mayfield, how about the damage in Dawson Springs or Bremen, KY?

 

[Jeff Wright]

El Reno was a bit like Grand Island in doing a horseshoe, right?

There was some footage from Tornado Video Classics (“We’re full-grown adults” if that rings a bell)—where every few hundred yards—you had a vortex…only with better visibility…Coulton looked huge…but there was another video where the narrator was talking about cloak tops of 70,000 feet if you recall. I think Biddle was on this one….where funnels just seemed to drop at random out of the murk.

A re-watch of Tom’s videos might allow a fresh perspective on El Reno.

 

[Jamie H]

El Reno was a bit like Grand Island in doing a horseshoe, right?

There was some footage from Tornado Video Classics (“We’re full-grown adults” if that rings a bell)—where every few hundred yards—you had a vortex…only with better visibility…Coulton looked huge…but there was another video where the narrator was talking about cloak tops of 70,000 feet if you recall. I think Biddle was on this one….where funnels just seemed to drop at random out of the murk.

A re-watch of Tom’s videos might allow a fresh perspective on El Reno.

I used this an an excuse to watch TVC1 again and there wasn't anything as you described on it. Perhaps it's on 2 or 3?

 

[Jeff Wright]

Might have been 2…

 

[Jamie H]

Will do some more research for you!

 

[Jamie H]

El Reno was a bit like Grand Island in doing a horseshoe, right?

There was some footage from Tornado Video Classics (“We’re full-grown adults” if that rings a bell)—where every few hundred yards—you had a vortex…only with better visibility…Coulton looked huge…but there was another video where the narrator was talking about cloak tops of 70,000 feet if you recall. I think Biddle was on this one….where funnels just seemed to drop at random out of the murk.

A re-watch of Tom’s videos might allow a fresh perspective on El Reno.

There's one about eight minutes into TVC 2, May 10 1991, where the person recording says that very phrase. That one features a stove pipe with two satellites.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Ah—the Lazbuddie event of 5-10-91

What are some famous sayings from tornado videos?

A HUGE thanks to Greg Stumpf for identifying most of these -- he has written all of the citations below except for Bobby Prentice's. "Damn. It's gonna take all them houses!" - Unknown resident, the North Platte tornado of 5/18/90 "Do not drive through this. DO not drive." (menacingly)...

stormtrack.org

Now, as the video cuts out, I think an unseen vortex had formed and rotated around towards them as they were transfixed by the one in the distance…I hear hissing but I don’t think it was from the one in the center of the frame.

I suspect it was forming camera left behind the roof of a nearby structure.

I can’t help but think Rl Reno was just a more murky example…