Tri-State Tornado Presentation Today Dr. Doswell - Preliminary Results

[beaudodson]

The full (I hope) list of participants is: Don Burgess, Charlie Crisp, Chuck Doswell, Matt Gilmore, John Hart, Bob Johns, Bob Maddox, and Steve Piltz. Indeed these men are working almost entirely on their own money and time, including funding their own trips to the area. It's important to note the findings discussed in the original post are from not just Dr. Doswell but the entire group.

The meteorological findings are certainly very interesting, but some of the stories they are getting from the remaining survivors are truly amazing (not just about surviving the storm itself, but the ways in which people responded to such a disaster in the early 20th century, the local politics, etc.). Also, the methods they used to uncover some of these new results are very unique. If you ever watched an episode of the TV series "Cold Case", think of the meteorological version of it. I won't go into any specifics on any of this because they will almost certainly end up in the book!

Thanks for all of the names...I have added that to the top post.

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

The full (I hope) list of participants is: Don Burgess, Charlie Crisp, Chuck Doswell, Matt Gilmore, John Hart, Bob Johns, Bob Maddox, and Steve Piltz. Indeed these men are working almost entirely on their own money and time, including funding their own trips to the area. It's important to note the findings discussed in the original post are from not just Dr. Doswell but the entire group.

That is the full list.

EDIT: See, http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/seminars/abs.php?id=99 .

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

Man it is hard to remember everything that is said...I wish I would have taped it

Are the tapes going to be available? Definately an incredible day! Listening to Dr. Doswell you could just hear his enthuisam concerning the whole study. It is also amazing that all of it was led and paid for by volunteers.

So was there only one peer-reviewed study on this tornado? Dr. Doswell said that they had only been one other formal study? Was that correct?

For many talks and conferences taping is not permitted, however, this was NWS speakers speaking at a NWS event, so it's fine. I still asked Chuck out of courtesy. I'll put up some video.

There was one paper that was solely on the event. There were a couple other MWR papers from around that time that mention it and have information not available in that paper. That's where I came up with three, Chuck is correct in that only one was on solely on the event. There are also various other scientific papers that mention the event obviously, and some info may be gleaned from those too, but I don't remember if there were any unique tidbits.

 

[beaudodson]

Does anyone know which issue of WeatherWise had the big article, with maps, about the event?

 

[beaudodson]

For many talks and conferences taping is not permitted, however, this was NWS speakers speaking at a NWS event, so it's fine. I still asked Chuck out of courtesy. I'll put up some video.

There was one paper that was solely on the event. There were a couple other MWR papers from around that time that mention it and have information not available in that paper. That's where I came up with three, Chuck is correct in that only one was on solely on the event. There are also various other scientific papers that mention the event obviously, and some info may be gleaned from those too, but I don't remember if there were any unique tidbits.

I believe Rick said that the NWS taped it as well. Unsure as to whether they are going to put anything up on the web site. Would be nice to have the audio available.

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

Does anyone know which issue of WeatherWise had the big article, with maps, about the event?

I was looking for it myself, and found it yesterday:

• Changnon, S.A., and R.G. Semonin, 1966: A great tornado disaster. Weatherwise, 19, 56-65

 

[beaudodson]

Thanks yeppers that would be it. I did a weatherwise search and couldn't find it. I actually have issues back to 1949! I am still looking for a few years though...if anyone ever wants to sell their collection let me know the dates

The Jackson MS tornado cover is amazing. There are some awesome articles in the early years of the publication...I think I actually like the early years more than what they publish today. Either way - cool that we have some weather magazines just for those interested in weather!

 

[Willie Dines]

Exciting news for all of us who have had a fascinating interest in this tornado.

Considering Dr. Doswell's findings, I am now more than intrigued then ever. I was converted to the idea that this was a tornado family. For this to be a singular, violent tornado, longer than originally thought, and of (former) F-5 rating, it makes me more intrigued on this tornado then ever.

Considering also this developed from a classic supercell thunderstorm, the conditions on this day certainly had to be absolutely perfect for this kind of sustained perfection.

I am extremely excited and looking forward to the final results of this intensive study. Many thanks to Dr. Doswell and his scientific team for researching this and drawing answers to some far reaching questions.

I second that wholeheartedly, as when I first read about this tornado, I was completely amazed, but also saddened before of the amount of lives lost, but I too had begun to wonder in recent years of the possibility, that the Tir-State tornado, might've been a series of tornadoes in a cyclical supercell, but with with a new stronger tornado forming in place of a weaker previous tornado, but I'm really glad that my original thoughts on this tornado, proved to be quite significant, but these recint finding by Dr Dosweel and the rest of the team, I take my hat off to them for the great work and effort that is still going into this research

I too am very excited to hear what the final reports and findings will be, but already this is quite astonishng

Thank you beaudodson for posting this, it is great news and certainly gives alot more food for thought with this event

Willie

 

[MJ Poore]

"I have probably not seen all the pics out there, but a mile wide F5 would leave a pretty horrible path. Completely scoured by a mile wide, nothing left presumably."

Don't forget that a tornado gets rated based on the worst it does - that does not mean that every point on its entire path had F5 damage.

I know. Ps Anyone seen pics of the F5 parts of the Tri State?

 

[Willie Dines]

Hi MJ , How's it going buddy?

Unfortunately not, but saying that, I haven't searched for pics of the tornado, as I didn't think that there would be any images of the Tri-State tornado, due to the time period in which it happened

I will say though, I'm now curios to see if there are any images of that tornado also, and so, I'm not going to have a chase on google, to see what I can find, but alot of you probably already know what the end search result will be

Willie

 

[MJ Poore]

Hi MJ , How's it going buddy?

Unfortunately not, but saying that, I haven't searched for pics of the tornado, as I didn't think that there would be any images of the Tri-State tornado, due to the time period in which it happened

I will say though, I'm now curios to see if there are any images of that tornado also, and so, I'm not going to have a chase on google, to see what I can find, but alot of you probably already know what the end search result will be

Willie

Hi Willie. I meant the damage.

 

[Willie Dines]

Hi MJ, yeah, I did come across a few pictures of the damage from the tornado, but they were few and far between

EDIT:- Here's some pictures of the damage that I had found google

This is all the images that I could find of the damage so far, and found them via google image search and also on wikipedia.com

Willie

 

[Simon Andersen]

NewI I Website

Sorry for salvaging an old thread, but I was reading up on the Tri-State tornado when I found this new site, apparently made by Doswell and his team:

http://www.tristatetornado.org/

Looks like it has just been created, so no relevant content on there yet, but you might want to check back later. I'm so happy right now.

 

[Shane Adams]

I'm more interested in how one goes about debunking or confirming facts or myths from an event that's over 80 years old. There can't be much detailed data from this event. Was there new information that was previously unavailable, or did the original research team just drop the ball on all of this?

 

[Paul Hadfield]

This event is by far one of the most fascinating pieces of history i've read about since becoming an IL resident. I used to have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of a long track tornado like this being possible but then after the March 12, 2006 event, it made sense. Granted it was not of the severity and likely had a differing set of meteorological variables at play but it seems as though IL is a prime location for long lived cyclic supercell activity. Just to name a few, the April 19, 1996 / May 10, 2003 and the July 13, 2004 Roanoke events easily fall into a similar long track category. This year alone, although tornadic activity was not all that impressive, June 19 (1 ILX) (2 mine) as well as June 22 events were also long track. Likewise, another long track cell canvased a good half of the state on May 30 which almost produced but was best remembered for being a prolific hailer. Finally, the HP from May 15 to develop near Quincy and cruise the length of I-72 to somewhere past Champaign though cold for much of it's duration might lend to the "bean shaped" argument as evidence that long lived HP's are not uncommon here either. For as extreme as the Tri State Tornado was, I think if you look at the frequency by which long track cyclic supercells criss cross our state each year, it's not entirely unique... hence the likelihood that an event of this magnitude could easily happen again and why tornado research should not be limited to just W of the Mississippi. I hope Dr. Doswell's findings help shed light on this important aspect. You are very fortunate Beau, thanks for sharing your material.