Strange Tornado phenomenons

[Scott Nelson]

As fasinating as Tornados are, what a Tornado doesn't do is just as interesting to me as what it does do. I've always been impressed by those stories or pictures of a spoon that has been driven into a tree. Or how a house is moved off it's foundation, yet a china cabinet with entire place settings goes untouched.

I've looked for a compilation of such stores/photos but haven't really found anything that seems devoted to these kinds of phenomenons exclusively. Anyone ever done a book or video about this aspect of a storm's unique power?

 

[Paul Austin]

I'm not aware of any specific sites or books devoted largely to that aspect, but I too have found it fascinating what a tornado "chooses" to leave untouched while obliterating the rest of a house. When I was a child, I would read story after similar story in whatever tornado or storm books I could get my hands on. The mystery aspect was simply riveting for the impressionable young inquisitor in me. Undoubtedly, some of the older stories were more tall tale than fact, but many such occurrences have been documented quite well.

 

[filasntiels]

My friend in SE KS had a tornado go right through his front yard. It crossed the pond, leaving powerlines directly in it's path untouched, demolished select trees, jammed a bowling pin neatly into the woodpile, picked up the very large wooden doghouse and threw it, yet left the house totally untouched. It was amazing to see a whole tree literally twisted and broken off of it's trunk while the one only a few feet away remained untouched.
If you want to see the power of a tornado, come to Granby. It is still a mess down here.

 

[Mike Johnston]

If you're looking for a book with plenty of anectdotes on strange tornado phenomenon, there's always Snowden Flora's classic Tornadoes of the United States.

 

[John A. Sellers]

Check out The Tornado Project site. Tom has alot of info,stories,and oddites done by tornadoes.

 

[Jason Harris]

One thing I wonder about when reading a claim like this is the limits on estimating a tornado's strength while chasing in the field: "It crossed the pond, leaving powerlines directly in it's path untouched."
Not seeing powerlines go down, one would tend to think you can't be dealing with anything stronger than a EF1, so what was the official rating on that tornado? Andthe snapping of the tree, was it soft wood or hard wood? Upward bound is 128-134 mph for softwood vs. hard wood. Are we to conclude that the winds of the storm strengthened from force capable of EF-0/1 to then possibly EF-2 damage after crossing the pond? If there were suction vortices involved, wouldn't at least one of them have hit the powerlines?