Strongest Tornado Ever Recorded Shreds Wind Turbines at Greenfield, Iowa | May 21st, 2024 

Nope. It didn't do anything catastrophic enough to make it stand out.

@@carlitosdinkler5213Brother what???? it was literally an ef4

​@@carlitosdinkler5213It litterally hit a town

@@mysunshineisturningintoabl2307 Still quite tame damage compared to the actual monster tornadoes, namely the 2011 outbreak ones.

@@carlitosdinkler5213 ??? You don't know anything about tornadoes. This was devastating and how dare you devalue the impacts, the major damage and loss of life. As described even by Ryan Hall Y'all 'this is some of the worst damage I have ever seen behind there'

its not the entire tornado it was a 3s gust that I have analysed; it was incredible, but short lived. That ultimately does show that despite subvortex action they can persist for longer durations at once; what is also hypothesised is that windspeeds are greater towards the ground, and my suspect both of these tornadoes could have windspeeds of even the current values (Koshiba & Wurman 2013, 2023)

I can’t argue strength when the rating for what’s stronger is based on industrial housing rather an actual living qualities that we live If foundations are swept and people are missing that’s “ potentially “ an F5

And even then, it's a -3 difference in windspeed between Greenfield and the May 3rd F5. The thing about May 3rd and the 2011 El-Reno Piedmont EF5s is that their worst damage indicators respect the windspeeds to a certain extent. Truth be told, any of the EF5 rated tornadoes *(yes folks, this includes Greensburg, Parkersburg, Newcastle-Moore, and Joplin. Sorry folks, the 4/27/2011 EF5s are not dramatically stronger than the other EF5 rated tornadoes, they're just not. It's not backed by damage analysis nor is it backed by the NWS who have seen them all up close. Sensationalism doesn't immediately equal facts. Even if they are stronger, it's by an inconceivable margin. The EF5 rating is essentially the Jarrell/May 3rd rating)* and several other non-EF5/F5 rated tornadoes could've had windspeeds above 300 mph as well. A few honorable mentions are three of the most forgotten F5s, which are the Niles-Wheatland OH/PA 1985, the 96 Oakfield F5, and the Lawrence county F5 of 98. Those were 4/27/2011 type tornadoes and everything they destroyed was incredibly well built, securely anchored to their foundations, and large.

That's pretty nerdy. Enjoy 2nd place

Just goes to show that the EF scale needs to be updated. Because damage always trumps windspeed. Even if a tornado has windspeeds over 200 mph it doesn't mean it will be an EF5. This was a gnarly angry octopus tornado. Definitely the king of the '24 storm season.

You made me curious - you mean the Hackleburg-Phil Campbell tornado?

@@hanspeterfake3130 No - however the H-PC tornado is right up there with it. I'm talking about Guin, AL of 1974.

@@teenageapocalypseusa5368 As soon as you said foundations being pulled out of the ground, I thought of Guin. The kind of damage that monster did it is truly a wonder it’s not talked about more.

@@WanderingRoe One of the tornado channels I follow said they are going to be making a video about it soon. I'm really excited to see that - when you go down the rabbit-hole of what that tornado did you realize it was likely the most powerful storm of all time (It did in reality what the myths said about Smithville)

Rainsville is literally worse than them all. There was no true way to be safe😂. ripped a storm shelter out of the ground

You’re definitely not wrong

No kidding. Apparently they've got lots of oil internally with some of their components so fire = not friend.

good question! 2024 is certainly up there near or at the top. There is some recency bias, but that recency also means I'm more experienced and have better cameras to document it all with. 2008 was a wild year, 2010 kept me pretty busy as well. Hard to think of a year with so many significant tornadoes all bunched together like 2024 though.

@@AndrewPritchard 2011 was more devastating than every year you mentioned combined lol

@@thelemonlimeninja2144 the question was "my top chase seasons". 2011 had more devastation, but I had a mediocre storm chasing season personally. And also, no it wasn't. It was the most active, for sure, but "more than every year mentioned combined" is just you saying things.

@@AndrewPritchard try again bud. Joplin alone had 150 deaths, plus el Reno f-5, plus four more f-5 and a slew of f-4 on the outbreak. That’s 6 ef-5 in a month time span, there hasn’t been a single ef-5 since 2013. So tell me, what metric are you using to say that because it seems painfully obvious you are wrong

@@thelemonlimeninja2144 "since 2013" and yet every year I listed was BEFORE 2013. SHE ASKED ABOUT MY CHASING. YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT ALL-AROUND SEVERE WEATHER. The 'METRIC' is in the first question - "what years were MY BEST for storm chasing" How are you going to define my best years for storm chasing? LORD. Enough is enough. Get the hell outta here calling me "bud" misunderstanding everyone around you with this jibberish.

Holy shit. I'm actually going to examine this.

Hahahah, truth. even when I watch videos of old F5 tornadoes now I can't help but chuckle and say, "sorry, best we can do is EF-4"

EF-5s have significant scarring in the ground, even ripping up asphalt. This was not an EF-5 where it counts

Try again

This one touched down last month or so and passed it in peak wind speed. This tornado produced the fastest wind speeds documented on earth.

Ever, huh? You must be billions of years old and seem every tornado to ever happen to make that kind of statement!

@thelemonlimeninja2144 he almost certainly meant "ever recorded"

Nada

It went off into the rain and I thought it had behaved itself. Then I heard about it moving into Greenfield :(

sure: publish.illinois.edu/dowfacility-upgrade/files/2024/06/best-greenfield-windspeed-note-2024-0623bp2.pdf

I suggest going to Norman and speaking with someone in person

They are misleading

Hahahah I knew the verbiage in my title would get folks raging, they do be like that! 😅

​@@AndrewPritchard from a professional like yourself which tornado do you think should have the number one spot. I live in Greenfield, I'm confused why did they change the windspeed of the moore tornado just because a tornado broke the record, I think that it's suspicious that they chose now to change it instead of 2021 don't you think?

There are no reliable "ground scouring" damage indicators. That depends a lot on specific soil and vegetation properties that are impossible to reliably assign a wind speed to. Yes, a violent tornado *can* uproot soil and cause ground scouring, but lack of ground scouring is not evidence of a weak tornado.

The measurement was about 100 feet off the ground. Most DOW measurements are taken in the lower middle of the funnel.

DOW readings have nothing to do with the EF scale.

Thank you for calling this out. It was not an EF5

@@featherweighthate Never said different. those are true windspeed readings, but the EF scale is a *damage* scale, not a windspeed scale. It comes with *estimated* windspeeds, because before the DOW there was no way to measure the windspeeds in a tornado. A lot of people conflate EF ratings with actual windspeed, including a lot of people who should know better. Whether the EF scale itself is outdated and needs a serious update is a whole other debate, and from what I gather an intense one right now.

This one has the highest wind speed, but it was for a very short amount of time. Moore 99 had slightly lower winds for much longer, making it stronger

Ok!

Dang it