Hey everyone, there were so many suggestions that instead of making a 30 minute video, I'll just do a part 3 in the future. Most people only watch a few minutes anyway. Hope everyone is having a good week!
Love the follow up video. My roommates and I just watched the first part of this series and loved the video. Was so hyped to see one pop up in my recommended. Great content, keep up the good work. Subscriber +1
I was in the mayfield tornado. It was insane for sure. They say it'll take at least 10 years to rebuild. The tornado also took out the police department and electric company which were adjacent to the courthouse. A cvs right across the street from all of these was unharmed which shows just how bizarre tornadoes act. My house was lifted from the foundation and moved a bit before being let loose. It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced. I was in the bathroom. The walls around me were cracking and collapsing. The floor beneath my feet began falling. The wall to the outside fell before my eyes. I thought I was a goner. But after the wall fell, the tornado moved on. Also, the death toll of mayfield alone was 80.
Here's a more obscure tornado path I found. In March 2012, there was an EF3 tornado that hit western Paulding County, Georgia. Only a small portion of the path is visible, but just to the west of Silver Comet Field, there's a 2 mile stretch where the trees were knocked down before hitting the airport itself. The first imagery that shows this was taken about 6 months after the tornado, but the path is still somewhat visible in wintertime images to this day, now as new growth forest. Also, the tornado that hit Arabi, LA last month is visible too
Bro, your videos are SO high quality. I'm loving seeing your channel blow up like this. One of my best friends is a Meteorologist that does the daytime show for Lubbock Texas (Jack Maney, the dude is a beast) and he helped me find your channel, and I'm so glad he did. Great work as always! Quick idea suggestion since tornadoes seem to be a point of interest for your viewers: Maybe a video about tornadoes that have controversy around their ratings or maybe a video about tornadoes in other countries and how their impact is different based on location and circumstances. A video about the fire tornado that killed like 45k people in Japan in the 1920's would be an AWESOME deep-dive video.
I just found your channel today, loved this different look on tornadoes and tornado damage paths... Looking forward to Part 3! It's crazy how the El Reno tornado path is barely visible at all on Google Earth; I guess that must be because so much of it was over open farmland rather than forest or built-up areas.
I live about 5 miles away from where the Mayfield KY tornado hit. The tornado was so strong that I remember the ground shaking, the ground vibrations were even recorded by a seismograph.
Literally just found this channel last night, loved the first part, didn’t expect the second to come out a few hours later, I love these types of videos on tornadoes, do more on more natural disasters in this style please
@@weatherboxstudios this is a suggestion for part 3 the Springfield Massachusetts tornado since the scar is still there even today and the footage is insane I remember seeing it live as it happened
The story of that Mayfield candle factory is horrifying and infuriating, not only because of what happened but also because I can see it happening in other workplaces, especially given how recent it is. You shouldn’t have to choose between your life and your job. Fantastic video and channel. Keep up the great work!
Fully agree, unfortunately in today's world it seems like people have to die for companies/corporations to change their ways. Thanks for the kind words!
At the same time another tornado took out a warehouse in Illinois and killed people who were threatened to be fired under similar circumstances. Apparently the amazon handbook says they can be fired for leaving work without "permission"... I believe it was Edwardsville, Illinois. It made the news here in NW Ohio and so many people were outraged.
I saw the damage caused by the Parkersburg IA tornado first hand. We were staying in Cedar Falls that Summer and drove out to see what it looked like a week or two after. They were already heavily involved in the cleanup, bulldozers had piled up a lot of the debris, and they were using sheets of particle board for street signs. The most striking thing about the landscape, however, was that there was a wide swath of baren ground, like someone was building a freeway, that cut diagonally across the Southeast side of town and extended for miles.
Great work, Steve! Keep it up. Is there a possible video to be made on tornado shapes and sizes? Why we get tornadoes ranging from skinny noodles to multivortex wedges like El Reno?
This is by far one of the better videos out there. There's actually quite a bit of tornadic damage visible through G Earth in europe. The Czech republic 2021 tornado was one of them. So here's some few cases that can be seen Butzow, Germany - May 5th, 2015. This high-end F3 tornado left a 1.5 km wide damage swath along it's path. Some damage was still visible the next year from G earth. Although it isn't a lot that's visible, there's still some. Mostly just tree damage can be seen with uprooted trees here and there in the town. Still interesting nontheless. Dolo to Mira, Italy - July 8, 2015. This F4 tornado left a 11 km long track through the venice province. Damage in Dolo & Mira was still visible years after. When sat data captured on june 28, 2016 in G earth was released, destroyed buildings was still visible. The destroyed building, villa fina at the dolo/mira border (one of the F4 damage indicators) was still visible along other buildings Roetgen, Germany/Belgium - March 13, 2019. This low-end F3 tornado that struck the german/belgian border has left visible mark on G earth, especially in the forest east of the town where a swath of tree damage is visible as of 2020. The track could be seen through the forest east of roetgen to north-east of lammersdorf. Other tree damage from other storms are also visible. Petange, Luxembourg - August 9, 2019. This high-end F2 tornado caused severe roof damage in the town of petange. Damage visible west from the town on G earth as of late august, 2019. The damage can be found in southern rodange where trees can be seen uprooted.
I grew up in graves county and it still shocks me that that tornado happened. Its so shocking to see places i knew just, gone. What really sucks is some of those places destroyed won't be able to be rebuilt as they just do not have the funds to do so. Most of what was hit downtown was historical buildings too, which will have to be torn down and rebuilt now. No more historic downtown Mayfield. And now we still keep getting storms and strong winds in this area (I'm just a county over now) and I just wish it would stop for Mayfield's sake. We just had another tornado touch down in Graves a week ago and one hit Benton again too.
Thanks for sharing. I'm a big fan of old historic small downtowns found in this part of the country. A lot of people who aren't from here disagree but every one has its own distinct personality. Ohio has a lot of them too. It really sucks that it will never be the same
Keep up the excellent work! There's always a place for tornado and storm content that isn't TV coverage or storm chasing footage (as much as I love watching Spann.) I love this series, and the videos about the super outbreak and last weeks video. I would like this video twice if i could! Im sure the algortithm will pick you up again, mine definitley has, and already recommends videos from you that i've already watched or didn't finish, lol.
May 31st 1985, Moshannon State Forest F-4 Tornado, in Pennsylvania. 75 mile long path, 1.5 miles wide. 88,000+ trees destroyed. May not be able to find google earth images. But it’s a good one to dig into! The Wisconsin one reminded me of it. Enjoying your videos!
Wow. Last December was insane (even MN had our first ever Dec tornadoes). And then the Iowa tornadoes only 3 months later in March. The jet stream seems so much more unstable lately. Maybe you can do more aerial picture overlays on maps of older tornadoes? I don't know how good of quality you'd be able to get, but I remember seeing an aerial damage picture of a tornado my parents were in back on July 4, 1978 in Elgin, ND. If you could make it work, that may be a fun video for older tornadoes in general.
Love your videos (particularly the tornado-related ones). Would be cool if you maybe did some videos about some notorious tornado outbreaks as well. Keep it up tho 👍
It was easily at EF5 strength . That tornado is another example of why the EF scale needs a huge revamp . Basing wind speeds off of damage is ridiculous when the quality of structures are all different and often not the best
No way I'm so glad you're continuing this! I saw the video that blew up and it sent me down a rabbit hole of google earth for about 3 hours trying to find some paths on my own. Keep it up!!
I love your videos, literally some of the best I have seen on RU-vid! I think it'd be cool if you did a break down of the El Reno tornado and how the NWS rated it an EF3 but mobile doppler measured wind speeds up to 302mph
I watch tornado-videos daily (literally) and even though here in Finland we don't have that many big and dangerous tornados if any of those (EF1-EF5) I am really interested of them... Also would LOVE to see that people of all states (and countries) build those safe-places for them... I know people are saying that I might be too passive aggressive, BUT safety first, other things can wait.
I helped with relief efforts in Parkersburg back in high school and it totally changed my perspective not only in relation to weather but life. Sorting through debris and finding people's belongings (pieces of clothing, toys, pictures) really stuck with me. This really was someone's house I was getting ready to toss in a dumpster. Getting to speak with survivors and people who endured the devastation made me appreciate the small things that really matter in life. I'd love to go back someday and see the town how it is now.
I'm about 6 minutes outside of Mayfield and I can definitely say that tornado was horrific. As someone who grew up here my entire life, the town looks nothing like it used to. City buildings, banks, houses, everything is gone. The town used to have a skyline, but now it's just a straight, empty line from corner to corner.
I first found your channel by getting recommended the Top 10 Tornado damage paths video. I think your channel is likely one of the best weather related channels out there!
I know it wasn’t a tornado, but the Google Earth images of the damage done by the August 2020 derecho in Iowa is crazy. You can see where crops were flattened and the scale of the damage is nuts. When you look at a map of where the high winds occurred, the small streak of the highest winds is where my parent’s house is located. They lost part of their roof. I think I heard that the city of Cedar Rapids lost half of it’s tree canopy. Driving around my parent’s neighborhood is eerie because it looks SO different without all the trees. Houses that used to be hidden behind a row of trees are now visible from the street for the first time in 30+ years.
I live just to the east of Parkersburg Iowa and I was 13 when that storm rolled through. It was... One of the most sobering experiences I have had in my life going with my dad to help clean up after the storm.
Regarding Parkersburg: One of the first houses to be struck was Russ' The entire house was gone, including the drywall, furnace, walls, and FLOORING from the basement. All that was left was half a toilet. Had Russ been home, he'd have died. "Luckily" he was in Parkersburg and took shelter in the car wash. Two other men held on to him because they couldn't get the door closed in time and so they held on to Russ by the arm pits so he didn't get sucked out. Honestly, it was AWFUL. I was a couple miles south in Stout and it was terrifying. We all THOUGHT it was going to go into Cedar Falls, but it made a left turn after New Hartford. Edit: I know you're doing tornados...but you really ought to do the Derecho from 8/10/2020. You can see the scar cover an enormous swath of Iowa.
As someone who lives in tornado Valley in the United States, I'm pretty familiar with all of the disasters that happen here. I would love to see more stuff like your last clip from other countries
I live in Kentucky and while I don't live in mayfield, a close friend had family there. To say it was eerie is an understatement. Its crazy how it just ripped through the entire downtown but some buildings are just perfectly fine. It came towards Bowling Green at one point at it came right beside the University. My friend's got a few nice pictures of it and thankfully none of them were hurt but it was just crazy seeing a nightime tornado that you could only see due to the stadium lights of the football field.
I would like to recommend Yazoo City, MS that was hit during the outbreak on April 22-25, 2010. The tornado, and the aftermath, was featured on an episode is Storm Chasers.
Nice finds you found there on Google Earth! I always enjoy your tornado damage path research. I even liked how you also included The Weather Channel's WeatherSTAR 4000 in the background. Keep up the great work!
Glad to see you did Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, Al. They didn't receive near as much coverage as it should've due to the events in Tuscaloosa that day. I was supposed to have been in Hackleburg that day to help a friend of a friend move but due to the weather of course we postponed until the weekend. What's worse he was gonna move to a house between Smithville and Amory,Ms. Both places were destroyed by tornadoes that day.
I was in Hopkins County in Madisonville when this happened. When we went to clean up some debris up in our yard (the tornado hit 10 miles south of where I lived), I found debris from the Candle Factory in our yard. Mayfield is almost an hour and a half away, so the fact that I found something that far away amazes me. The debris cloud was insane and should definitely be talked about. There are still places in Hopkins County recovering, like Dawson Springs and Barnsley, but I am glad to have seen and heard of many recovery efforts. Also, I happened to have family from Bowling Green that had to rebuild their house after the foundation was twisted and the roof was damaged. Also, I definitely suggest doing a video covering the whole Quad State Tornado, and some focus the other tornadoes that day (Edwardsville and Bowling Green). Some of the places to look at covering the Quad State Tornado include Jonesboro, Cayce, obviously Mayfield, around the lakes, Princeton, Dawson Springs, Barnsley, and Bremen.
Iowan here. I remember the Parkersburg tornado because of one simple fact: Many of the fatalities impacted people who were in their basement. Something about that has always haunted me. The safe space was no longer safe. Makes me shiver.
Interesting fact about the South Moravia tornado: it pretty much started out with its peak width of 2.1 miles and gradually narrowed down along its life cycle.
I lived in the same county as Smithville, MS at that time. I actually drove right through Smithville that morning going to and from school. I left school early that day due to the storms but if I stayed the whole day I would have been driving through Smithville at the same time as when the tornado came through
I was in Smithville, MS when that tornado hit at a friends house. A very scary event to live through. And yes, that water tower is still standing and being used.
i live just south of Mayfield that night when the tornado hit i was immediately scared i stayed until around 2-3 am listening to the terrible shrieks of tornado sirens due to there being multiple tornados that night
Excellent video dude! I used to live in Cheraw, South Carolina. There is a town called Bennettsville about 15 miles away and as you entered the town there was the abandoned base of a Roses store that was apparently flattened just after opening for the first time in the early 80s. I would love to learn more about this tornado and others in the area from the 80s onwards
The mayfield one was gnarly, thankfully nothing happened at my house as it was a few miles to the west. A former co worker of mine lost their life in that tornado.
The Smithville Water Tower is still standing since this video, dent and all. Of course now Amory to the south has also had a pretty major tornado come through so it will be interesting to see how maps look after it since the most recent imagery is 2022.
I drove into LBL, where the Mayfield storm later went, recently and the trees there looked so unusual. One of them wasn’t just split but it looked CORED out.
I've been to Parkersburg Iowa before and what's crazy is when you're actually driving through you can see exactly the line through were old traditional Midwest style houses end and the more modern new built houses start and it's quite crazy to see
Cool series, and cool to see your channel get attention. Interestingly, after I'd watched a bunch of videos on the El Reno tornado it was your latest video that was recommended and it instantly caught my attention just with the thumbnail (don't know how cause it's so grey lol) and loved the video so much I instantly subscribed and put another vid of yours in my watch later. When I watched it a few days later I noticed your subscriber count doubled and did a double take. I even checked your socialblade. Anyway, I haven't seen that happen in a while, so way to defy the odds of the terrible YT algorithm!
Excellent work! Those images from Phil Campbell honestly are more bone chilling than the Hackleburg ones. Being that I was in Hackleburg that day, its odd that I'm glad I was there and not in Phil Campbell. Theres actually footage from the Phil Campbells police station of the tornado passing through. I believe all you really see is a roof flying off before the officer stopped recording. It is absolutely frightening.
wow the other google earth tornado damage video is what made me find this channel and like less than a week later he uploads another one he knows what the people want
May 31, 2013 is a day that I will never forget. I signed my lease on my loft and bought my 1st brand new vehicle when I was living in Saint Louis. After signing the paperwork for my vehicle I mentioned to a former friend that we had some storms coming that looked severe on the weather map. There were not warnings of bad weather that day. I headed to my loft in downtown Saint Louis, dropped off some stuff at my new place, then headed back to the friends place. He texted and said that there was tornado on the ground in a near by area. As I drove north on I-270 is was black to my left and sunny to my right. then the tornado sirens started going off. I got a bit nervous then because I knew it was heading in my direction. The former friend called me telling me to turn around and go back south his place, where I was headed took a direct hit from the tornado. The tornado had crossed the highway about a mile in front of me, but it was rain wrapped and you could not see it. By time I was able to make it to his place, trees were down, you could see a clear path where it crossed the Missouri River, May 31, 2013 is a day that I will never forget. I signed my lease on my loft and bought my 1st brand new vehicle when I was living in Saint Louis. After signing the paperwork for my vehicle I mentioned to a former friend that we had some storms coming that looked severe on the weather map. There were not warnings of bad weather that day. I headed to my loft in downtown Saint Louis, dropped off some stuff at my new place, then headed back to the friends place. He texted and said that there was tornado on the ground in a near by area. As I drove north on I-270 is was black to my left and sunny to my right. then the tornado sirens started going off. The former friend called me telling me to turn around and go back south his place, where I was headed took a direct hit from the tornado. The tornado had crossed the highway about a mile in front of me, but it was rain wrapped and you could not see it. I was able to make it back to his place, debris was everywhere. Luckily the tornado waited until it passed by his place before it hit EF3 status. Talk about an eventful day!
The El Reno tornado has nothing on the Smithville and Phil Campbell tornadoes other than size . These 2 tornadoes are probably the strongest to ever hit in modern times and only Jarrel can compare to these 2 but they where moving 65 mph plus
One tornado I want to suggest is the 2020 Nashville tornado. It was an EF3 tornado that hit Nashville, killed 5 people, and destroyed several neighborhoods and John C. Tune Executive airport. The same storm went on to produce an EF4 that struck west of Cookeville.
Worth pointing out Mayiel, KY's been involved in numerous warnings since December as well, it seems every bad storm takes that path through that county and somehow, Mayfield always gets included. I mean, I can think of three or four times Graves county got a warning on back to back events or even days. Shit's wild...
I live in mayfield and I was here when it happened, I was at work at McDonald’s at the time and it was one of the scariest moments I’ve ever been in. Me and my family are okay though.
I have found a tornado scar from the March 12th, 2012 Columbiaville, MI EF-2 tornado which was accompanied by another tornado in Coleman, MI as the northern-most tornadoes to hit that early in the year. The scar is SE of Columbiaville near Stanley Rd and a second one east of Carpenter Rd, where the worst damage occurred and the tree size is the big indicator as on Google Earth, the scar was visible in 2018 and Landsat photos in summer 2011 suggest a lot more trees were present in the area. Coleman tornado unfortunately failed to produce a visible scar. The importance of these tornadoes is climate change as the slight northward's shift of the record from West Olive, MI's F-2 on March 6th, 1956 was also how short-lived Columbiaville and Coleman held the record. The record fell when an EF-1 tornado hit south of Princeton, MN on March 6th, 2017 drastically further north than Coleman, West Olive, or Columbiaville and on the same day 61 years later of the West Olive, MI tornado which held the record for 56 years, 6 days. Edit: I didn't notice this but apparently the tornado's path also overlapped with the 1953 Flint-Beecher F-5 tornado for over a mile due to the width of the violent F-5 which leads to a somewhat broken up scar of EF-1 further north with spaced out trees with mature 60+ year old trees and smaller trees and cleared and/or small trees further south where it was high-end EF-2.
I live about 25 miles north of Mayfield KY and watching the tornado come up from Arkansas and go that long and I know it wasn’t just the one tornado but the fact the storm traveled that far was terrifying. I was on the phone with someone I knew who lived in Benton which his house just barely missed it by about a mile
I checked out the damage in Vilonia and it looks like a newly built school there was destroyed and rebuilt right after it. It's not the most insane path but that sucks that a brand new school was wiped out. But it was rebuilt exactly the same so it's doing good now. Google maps is pretty fun to go around looking at junk on.
That's so interesting about the El Reno tornado. The reason I requested it was bc I knew about the scar. There's a story about how El Reno was in the direct path of the tornado, but some shamans did a ritual to deter it and that's why it took such a weird turn and path, but that's just a story of course.
Hence the EF-3 rating. People think that the DOW measurement alone in that one should what the rating is based on, but it's a damage scale. In the future, however, that, along with the damage, should be utilized in rating process. Because we know that if you put the El Reno tornado over a densely populated area, building will be flattened.
