What's The Widest Tornado Ever?

[Jason Persoff]

I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to get under the meso on this storm, but the Hallam storm provided one of the most amazing updrafts I've ever seen. The photo below was taken to the SW of the main updraft. The LCLs were incredibly low. The updraft was so firm and intense, the updraft appeared to ricochet off of the tropopause in rippling rear mammatus. I have never seen a storm structure like this. Also, the rotation on the updraft was so intense, it caused eddies to form in the anvil.

While I would have loved to have caught the tornado, I was nevertheless very excited to catch this structure. Of course, 2004 was an amazing year for tornadoes, so it was a bag of plenty.

I'll never forget the next day I was driving down a highway about 30 miles east of Hallum and I saw a teddy bear and childrens clothes caught on barbed wire by the side of the road. I think that was the first time I've ever gotten chills and perspective on the power of some storms we chase...

 

[Marc Austin]

I know that the Hallam, NE tornado is most likely one of the widest recorded tornadoes in history, but I wanted to bring up the notion of the famous Tri-State tornado. Does anyone happen to know how wide the storm was or have any links that might provide some information into this. I remember seeing specials about the Tri-State twister where old locals said it looked like a giant black wall of dust. I don't know if it was all that wide, but I wanted to toss it out there because I was interested if any of you would know what the estimated width of the storm was.

 

[Tony Lyza]

I know that the Hallam, NE tornado is most likely one of the widest recorded tornadoes in history, but I wanted to bring up the notion of the famous Tri-State tornado. Does anyone happen to know how wide the storm was or have any links that might provide some information into this. I remember seeing specials about the Tri-State twister where old locals said it looked like a giant black wall of dust. I don't know if it was all that wide, but I wanted to toss it out there because I was interested if any of you would know what the estimated width of the storm was.
[/b]

I went to Fermilab, where Bob Johns presented on the reevaluation of the Tri-State Tornado. The widest I heard was ~1.25 miles.

 

[J.B. Dixon]

I was able to see the Hallam tornado as it passed between Wilber and Clatonia, just as it began to widen to unprecidented size, and I can say that it definitely was a tornado. That doesn't mean that some damage didn't occur from other sources. I believe that the downtown Wiber damage was determined to have been caused by strong RFD, if I recall correctly (can someone confirm/deny this one?). It took a long time to even see the wedge, as it eventually came out of the rain bands. Then, it simply looked as if the entire meso sunk to the ground. You literally couldn't make heads or tails of it. My comment on video at the time was something like, if you didn't know it was there, you would have no clue. It really was unlike any storm I've ever seen, and likely will ever see. A frightening night.

 

[Susan Strom]

The Tri-State is a contender for the widest...if you're measuring damage path, because it was a rolling combination of tornado+downburst winds. Long-track wise too, the freakish tornado traveled 219 miles and lasted 3.5 hours. Yikes. Width of tornado-only, you might have to go with Hallam. Nevertheless, the Tri-State must have been a force to reckon with.

Tri-State - from Wikipedia -
"The unusual appearance of the near record fast moving tornado, best described by the witnesses along most of its path as an amorphous rolling fog, killed more normally weather wise farm owners than any other in U.S. history and contributed to the farm owners and people in general not timely sensing the danger. The tornado was accompanied by extreme downburst winds generally throughout the entirity of its course; the tornado and downburst couplet increased the damage width from the tornado width of about an average of 3/4-mile to an area of damage at times three miles wide."

I see a lesson there...that appearances can fool even seasoned individuals who are used to observing tornadoes. That one caught them off guard. You never know what's in the mist.

Europe too dished out a big one in 1902 with a tornado in the Haute-Loire in south central France. That one came in at 1.86 miles wide.

 

[MatthewCarman]

The Tri-State Tornado was thought to be moving at 73 MPH! I thought that was insane. My weather books did say it was very wide but they did not include it for thier contenders for the widest tornado. None the less that tornado is very inpressive and could possible have been stronger than the Moore Oklahoma tornado.

Thanks for the info susan I will check online mabey and see what I can find on the tornado.

 

[Gabe Garfield]

I believe that the downtown Wiber damage was determined to have been caused by strong RFD, if I recall correctly (can someone confirm/deny this one?).
[/b]

I think the damage in Wilber was caused by the north edge of the tornado, actually. If you look at the
damage path map, you'll see that the tornado rapidly expanded in size near Wilber. This particular segment of the tornado was captured by Jim Bishop and Simon Brewer. They were caught in a dangerous position when the tornado quickly widened to nearly twice its original size. Fortunately, they were able to ride out the tornado in a building in downtown Wilber.

Personally, I was probably 6 or 7 miles southwest of Wilber looking to the north when I first noticed that the tornado cyclone was rapidly expanding. To give you an idea of how large it was, it was easily twice the size of the tornado cyclone near Western (where the tornado first became a wedge). In other words, unbelievably large (probably 6 or 7 miles across). At the time, I didn't realize that a very large tornado was on the ground in the darkness under the tornado cyclone. Even still, we must have seen 4 or 5 satellite tornadoes touch down on the south side of the tornado cyclone which, we thought (erroneously), were intermittent touchdowns of the main tornado. Truly an amazing event.

Gabe

 

[Brian Stertz]

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While I was not a witness to the Hallam NE monster...this tornado shown above is the biggest one to date that I have seen. This F4 tornado was on April 8, 1999 near Bridgewater IA...the damage path was over 1 mile wide at times, and this was when it had maxed out in size while moving northeast at 50-55mph. It luckily remained over pretty much open farmland before dissipating near I-80.

 

[J.B. Dixon]

At the time, I didn't realize that a very large tornado was on the ground in the darkness under the tornado cyclone. Even still, we must have seen 4 or 5 satellite tornadoes touch down on the south side of the tornado cyclone which, we thought (erroneously), were intermittent touchdowns of the main tornado. Truly an amazing event.

Gabe
[/b]

I was the exact same way, Gabe. I was concentrating on the very back edge, and there were indeed numerous funnels recorded. Still, I kept thiking there's gotta be more to this monster that I wasn't seeing. Sure enough...... And thanks for providing those links.

And thanks for posting Stertz.....I know it's probably not in the running for largest, but that Carbon/Bridgewater Tornado on 4.8.99 was my first real chasing "catch", and I think you & Jeff passed me going ...let's just say quickly.... heading towards, or out of Carbon (memory's fuzzy). The video you guys had of that monster was incredible! I ended up gettting a flat so I lost it shortly thereafter. I forgot how fast it was moving, too.

Great thread, gang.

 

[Brian Stertz]

I would be certainly quick to solidly agree that the Tri-State tornado was probably THE meanest tornado ever, and possibly the widest at some point. It was from all accounts a violent hornet's nest rolling along the ground and wiping out anything in it's 219 mile path at 70+ mph. I am sure this thing would have been unchaseable given the speed, massive debris field/path, and poor/sparce road network at the time. I have always been seriously fascinated by this vicious tornado and how things could just focus so strongly to allow the nearly steady state of a wide, fast, and deadly violent tornado. The debate still goes on as if this was a single tornado or a family of violent tornadoes. The continuous nature of horrific damage probably is more indicative of a cyclic family of tornadoes, especially since this violent tornado was born and lived in the occlusion zone of a very powerful deepening surface low. I can only imagine the gate to gate couplet on that one...had any radar data been available at that time !!

Yeah that Iowa F4 definitely required all the throttle you could possibly have, and we were still falling behind it !! JB - It was a good thing the lcl's were decently high enough that we could see the massive tornado as it zipped across the empty cornfields. You did not have any real margin for error. I can still remember that chase vividly; a tremendous chase & then waking up the next morning hearing about the Blue Ash-Montgomery OH F4 tornado...which oddly enough struck just 1/4 mile from my in laws. Fortunately they escaped the damage.

 

[Eugene Thieszen]

I do remember several satellite tornadoes doing the merry-go-round around the large tornado that eventually hit Hallam. There were also a couple of tornadoes that occurred, IIRC, BEFORE the Hallam tornado developed. Actually, I should say that I know of at least one before then -- see my picture HERE of a tornado near (IIRC) Alexandria. The Hallam tornado eventually became so rain-wrapped and dark that I actually thought it had lifted. I remember thinking that one of the satellites was actually THE tornado, unknowingly missing the historically-massive wedge in the pitch-blackness a little farther north.

[/b]

There were at least major tornadoes in that area, apart from the satellites. The first (Rated F-2) touched down near Belvidere about 7pm and tracked NNE, dissipating W of Tobias. We were a bit behind the storm at first and had a reasonably good view of it from its inception although it was often obscured by massive amounts of dust and sometimes rain. While the tornado that eventually became the beast that hit Hallam was touching down N of Daykin around 7:30, the first became visible out of the rain as a sort of crooked tube a mile or two north of Hwy 4. One of those times I wished we had two camcorders--now we do!

I also noted after examining our video and captures a number of times, that at times the camcorder was able to pick up the dimensions of the Hallam beast in the dust and rain, although it was next to impossible to see eyeballing it.

Gene
WXtreme Chase Team

 

[Jim Bishop]

When thinking of "widest tornadoes", for some reason my mind just pulls big historic days out of the hat no matter whether they actually hold the title or not (Jordan, IA, Last Chance, CO) - and I generally tend to forget about May 22nd, 2004.

I guess that technically the May 22nd, 2004 Hallam tornado WAS the widest tornadic circulation ever recorded. That was NOT a storm that one wanted to mess with - especially considering it was, I believe, mostly at or after dark.

The question is - was Hallam one big wedge or was the damage path an amalgamated path of true tornadic winds and micro/downburst/RFD wind damage?

I'm sure there are some studies/papers online that may well answer my questions about Hallam - but I don't know how detailed a damage survey was done. I'm a bit out of touch these days.

KL
[/b]

I have video (though due to lighting the quality is rather low) of the Wilber/Hallam tornado viewed from the Northeast and then just to the north as the tornado came very close to us. All I can say is I couldn't even fit the whole thing in my viewfinder at one point. According to the NWS survey it was just over 2 miles wide at that point, growing to 2.5 miles wide just aftewards. Incredible. Does anyone have video of the satellite tornado that hit Wilber? We were in the building that was hit.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

3 mile wide tornado in Michigan?

On April 11, 1965 a tornado traveled from near Lake Pleasant Indiana to near Waltz in Michigan which is a total ground distance of 90 miles. The general path width was 6000 feet but may have been 3 MILES wide when it passed between Clinton and Tecumseh.

(Source: Michigan Weather By Richard Keen 1993; Page 32.)

 

[cdcollura]

Good day everyone,

Without a doubt, I agree on May 22, 2004 near and SW of Hallam, Nebraska.

If was a monster HP storm, if the torndoe(s) did not hit you, 115 MPH RFD winds and 4.25 inch hail would! Inflow 5 miles away from the storm, a 30 mile wide cyclic HP beast with 32 shear circles (yes, I counted) on Baron's WX Worx, was near 65-MPH! The max gate to gate shear circle was as high as 192 Knots (WOW!).

Even a check from 1971 "Hallam Bank" for a grain shipment, this is file-folder cabinet stuff, fell into a womans yard as she was sweeping up just 26 minutes after Hallam was leveled in Papillion, Nebraska, 80 miles away near Omaha!

Let's see, about 3 minutes to 40,000 feet (paper is light), then 80 miles downdrange in 10 minutes (200-300 MPH jet stream plus anvil blowoff), than another 13 minutes to gently tumble down from 40,000 feet (at first frozen, then defrosting before landing in the woman's yard)! Mother nature's "airmail" at work!

Oh, got a picture of one of the tornadoes, barely visible but aided as lightning back-lights it in the right place!

My 2 cents worth...

Chris C - KG4PJN