Plains Tornado Outbreak 4/14-15 / pics/vids/verification

[Bunkertor]

I start with a little timelapse

[Bunkertor]

Soundings. Sorry for cutting the hodograph

DDC


FDW

[Bunkertor]

LMN



OUN

[Bunkertor]

First violent Tornado of the day in northern KS

[brunota2003]

Can't wait to read some of these reports.

Cherokee cell:













Some of the storm reports:

[cycloneye]

Preliminary data is EF-4 for ELLSWORTH COUNTY Tornado

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
318 PM CDT SUN APR 15 2012

...PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT...

PRELIMINARY EF4 DAMAGE WAS DETERMINED NEAR KANOPOLIS LAKE IN
ELLSWORTH COUNTY.

THE ASSESSMENT TEAM IN CENTRAL KANSAS HAS BEEN TRACKING TORNADO
DAMAGE ACROSS THREE COUNTIES IN CENTRAL KANSAS. THE MOST
SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE HAS BEEN NOTED NEAR KANOPOLIS LAKE WHERE A
FARMSTEAD WAS DECIMATED...TREES WERE STRIPPED OF THE BARK AND THE
ROADS WERE SCOURED. THIS AREA IS VERY RURAL AND FEW OTHER
STRUCTURES HAVE BEEN HIT BY THE TORNADO. THEREFORE...THE RATING IS
PRELIMINARY AS THE ASSESSMENT CONTINUES.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS INFORMATION IS NOT FINAL AND THE RATING
MAY CHANGE WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION.

THE OTHER DAMAGE ASSESSMENT TEAMS CONTINUE TO WORK ALONG THE
TORNADO TRACKS IN SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS. AS THE INFORMATION BEGINS
TO FUNNEL INTO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE...WE WILL BE
ISSUING MORE STATEMENTS.

[Dave]

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
422 PM CDT SUN APR 15 2012

...FINAL DAMAGE SURVEY RESULTS FOR CRESTON...

...CRESTON TORNADO RATED AS A STRONG EF2...

THE FOLLOWING IS A FINAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE DAMAGE THAT OCCURRED OVER
CRESTON ON APRIL 14, 2012.

* EVENT DATE: APRIL 14, 2012

* ESTIMATED START TIME: 6:55PM

* EVENT TYPE: (EF2) TORNADO

* EVENT LOCATION: NORTHWEST CRESTON

* PEAK WIND: 130 MPH

* AVERAGE PATH WIDTH: APPROXIMATELY 600 YARDS THROUGH CRESTON

* PATH LENGTH: 14 MILES

* INJURIES: 10 (PRELIMINARY)

* FATALITIES: 0 (PRELIMINARY)

* DISCUSSION/DAMAGE: THE TORNADO BEGAN ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MILES
EAST OF CROMWELL AND TRACKED NORTHEASTWARD THROUGH THE FAR
NORTHWEST PORTION OF CRESTON. THE CRESTON MEDICAL CLINIC AND
SOUTHWESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE SUSTAINED EF2 DAMAGE...WITH THE
WORST DAMAGE OCCURRING TO THE GREEN HILLS EDUCATIONAL CENTER.
THE TORNADO CONTINUED TRACKING NORTHEAST AND DAMAGED A FEW
FARMSTEADS NORTHEAST OF CRESTON. THE TORNADO DISSIPATED TEN MILES
NORTHEAST OF CRESTON.

[dizzyfish]

Not from an "official" source but I have a friend that was visiting relatives in Cherokee, OK. She told me she saw "about six" tornados from their house. Had a pic of one that looked to be less than a mile away.

[Bunkertor]

Yes. I saw a 20 Minute Vid from OK, that showed people, who seemed to be amateur chasers, filming nine of them.

[RL3AO]

When you look at how almost every (E)F5 hits a town or city, it really makes you wonder how many tornadoes would get rated EF5 if it was a wind scale and not a damage scale.

[Cyclenall]

When you look at how almost every (E)F5 hits a town or city, it really makes you wonder how many tornadoes would get rated EF5 if it was a wind scale and not a damage scale.

That's what I've been asking/saying for years and years. There must be a lot more violent tornadoes than the records are showing because there are amazing looking tornadoes in fields being rated EF2 and such and I just pause at how implausible that is. Famous example is Seymour Texas April 10, 1979 Tornado. I wonder if there will be a day when the damage scale will be aside a wind scale.

From TornadoVideos.Net, this insane video must be the most powerful Rope for Needle tornado I've ever seen and in fact could be an EF5 Rope in "drillpress" mode:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYT1DZ7udkg[/youtube]

I can honestly say I've never seen a tornado quite like that. The absolute rotational speed on that thing was ludicrous...I just wished it had hit some trees to see what would happen!!

Jeff Piotrowski and Kathryn Piotrowski got a goldmine of tornadoes on camera all on the 14th, reminds me of the movie Twister. There must be enough footage from that for a whole DVD!!!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVBipTGLVwQ[/youtube]

Here is a great link for a bunch of videos and pics from the 14th: http://z6mag.com/featured/wichita-torna ... 67777.html

The winds from that system that caused the outbreak are affecting me here now. The winds are very high and highest since March 3...which was also right after another major tornado outbreak. Clouds moving rapidly.

Death toll from 14th stands now at 6.

[wx247]

Thanks for this summary. I appreciate it!

By the way, here is a summary of the tornaodes within the Wichita NWS office forecasting area:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ict&storyid=81890&source=0

[Ntxw]

Fantastic videos! Tornadoes in the middle of nowhere look good! Maybe because of the landscape they can appear worse than they really are? Not sure, a lot of wide open land with nothing to obstruct a picture perfect view. One thing I have noticed over the years (El Reno, Joplin, Greensburg, Parkersburg etc) that all the (E)F5's are large, blackening skies to where basically the entire wall cloud is on the ground compared to the rest. Not always the true but has been of late.

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Some pretty impressive pics and videos of some of the tornadoes down there from Saskatchewan's Tornadohunter (Greg Johnson) :
http://tornadohunter.ca/tornado-hunter-blog/2012/4/15/best-day-ever-for-a-storm-chaser.html#comments

(scroll up to the top of the link...it opens at the comments but at that link more of his pics and videos can be seen in one spot).

He put a heck of a lot of miles on his new truck for those shots (drove from Regina, SK down to Kansas)

[HurricaneBill]

From TornadoVideos.Net, this insane video must be the most powerful Rope for Needle tornado I've ever seen and in fact could be an EF5 Rope in "drillpress" mode:

I can honestly say I've never seen a tornado quite like that. The absolute rotational speed on that thing was ludicrous...I just wished it had hit some trees to see what would happen!!

The 1968 Tracy, MN tornado was a rope F5.

[Bunkertor]

Wow. At 1:14 you can se an object being fired into the landscape by the Tornado. Must be like a 2 Kilogramm stone considering it is travelling 20-30 something meters...

[Bunkertor]

This is from a lucky amateur
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1vvaSawmnk&feature=related[/youtube]
April 14, 2012 ~7pm,20 miles SW Cherokee

And that´s a car, i mentioned earlier, packed with stormwatchers that filmed ~ 8 or 9 Tornados in the Woodward,OK area.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfiAWUeM3FQ&feature=related[/youtube]

[Bunkertor]

Proud Chaser ( 8:56 )
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VHjDlpLlsU&feature=endscreen&NR=1[/youtube]

[cheezyWXguy]

So has there been any information on the woodward ok tornado's rating? Ive seen videos and other info, but nothing about a damage survey or anything.

[brunota2003]

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
130 PM CDT TUE APR 17 2012

...APRIL 13-15 2012 TORNADO UPDATE...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN CONTINUES TO GATHER AND ANALYZE
INFORMATION FROM THE APRIL 13-15 TORNADOES IN CENTRAL AND WESTERN
OKLAHOMA. HERE IS A SUMMARY OF WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR...

FRIDAY APRIL 13
WE HAVE RATED THE NORMAN TORNADO AS EF1. WE WILL HAVE MORE SPECIFIC
PATH INFORMATION SOON.

ANOTHER BRIEF TORNADO WAS REPORTED IN POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY. NO OTHER
DETAILS AT THIS TIME.

WE ARE GATHERING DATA ON THE SOUTHWEST OKLAHOMA TORNADOES NEAR
COOPERTON AND CARNEGIE. MORE DETAILS COMING SOON.

SATURDAY APRIL 14
WE HAVE RATED THE TORNADO THAT AFFECTED MUSTANG AND SOUTHWEST
OKLAHOMA CITY AS AN EF1. MORE DETAILS COMING SOON.

PRELIMINARY NUMBERS SHOW 11 TORNADOES OCCURRED IN NORTHWEST AND
NORTH CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. IN SOME
CASES MORE THAN ONE TORNADO WAS GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME. THE EXACT
COUNT MAY CHANGE. WORK TO RATE THE TORNADOES IS ONGOING. SEE OUR
LATEST LOCAL STORM REPORT FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON THOSE
TORNADOES.

IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION...PICTURES OR VIDEOS THAT MIGHT HELP US
PIECE THESE EVENTS TOGETHER...PLEASE SEND US AN EMAIL AT
SR-OUN.SPOTTER@NOAA.GOV

$$

SMITH