The April 3-4, 1974, Tornado Super Outbreak: A Case Study

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In-depth discussion of the one of the most prolific tornado outbreaks of all time: the April 3-4, 1974, Super Outbreak. The event spawned 148 tornadoes, 30 of which were F4+, killing 335 and injuring over 6000. In this video, we'll take a deep dive into the meteorology behind the 1974 Super Outbreak to determine why it was such a prolific event.
Thumbnail images from Frank Altenau via NWS Wilmington OH (top left), NWS Wilmington OH (bottom left), and Dr. Ted Fujita via NWS Indianapolis (right).
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:55 Conditions leading up to the outbreak
5:25 Meteorological analysis of the outbreak
10:59 Observed sounding analysis
14:52 Satellite analysis begins
15:05 Convective band 1
17:33 Convective band 2
20:25 Convective bands 3 and 4
21:59 WRF model output using reanalysis data
24:28 Radar imagery
24:55 Wrap-up
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Resources:
Corfidi et al. (2010): "Revisiting the 3-4 April 1974 Super Outbreak of Tornadoes" - www.spc.noaa.gov/publications...
Locatelli et al. (2002): "A New Look at the Super Outbreak of Tornadoes on 3-4 April 1974" - journals.ametsoc.org/view/jou...
Miller and Sanders (1980): "Mesoscale Conditions for the Severe Convection of 3 April 1974 in the East-Central United States" - texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/Sa...
Hoxit and Chappell (1975): "Tornado Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974; Synoptic Analysis" - repository.library.noaa.gov/v...
Agee et al. (1975): "Some Synoptic Aspects and Dynamic Features of Vortices Associated with the Tornado Outbreak of 3 April 1974" - journals.ametsoc.org/view/jou...
Fujita (1974): "Jumbo Tornado Outbreak, April 3 1974" - www.weather.gov/media/ohx/PDF...
NWS Wilmington (OH) event page: www.weather.gov/iln/19740403
NWS Indianapolis event page: www.weather.gov/ind/april3_19...
Brian Bernard's website with WRF model data for the April 3-4, 1974 outbreak: www.goldenhorseshoewx.ca/case...
Tornado Archive: tornadoarchive.com/home/
SPC Violent Tornado Webpage: www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/outbre...

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19 май 2024

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Комментарии : 190

@Purinmeido Месяц назад

My dad was in Louisville when this outbreak happened. He was touring with his band and their favorite buffet got destroyed.

@ramofusang390 Месяц назад

That is probably the saddest story I’ve ever heard

@Kay_213_ Месяц назад

Noooooooo!

@railfanningpoints2.045 Месяц назад

What was the name of the band and the buffet?

@Purinmeido Месяц назад

@@railfanningpoints2.045 I forgot the name of the buffet but my dad’s band was called Leslie’s Motel

@intraterrestrial5035 Месяц назад

Damn

@wayloncapps9480 Месяц назад

The simple fact that there was an F2 tornado in Western North Carolina on this event says a lot. If you ll look at tornado archive it’s one of only 3-4 to have ever occurred. Maybe in the extreme western part before the mountains really begin but we just don’t get tornados. Thats a good thing tho

@26michaeluk Месяц назад

4 F3s hit the county my mom lived in. She nearly drove right into one of the tornadoes till she saw it from lightening. She stopped short and was rolled 5-6 times in her Camaro. Broken collarbone was the only injury she had thankfully.

@hunterwolff-schollmeyer3902 Месяц назад

I’m glad to hear she was okay. Which county/state was it?

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Dang, glad she made it out ok

@26michaeluk Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles thanks. Me too or I would've never been born 10 years later.

@26michaeluk 13 дней назад

@@hunterwolff-schollmeyer3902 Kentucky. Thanks for asking.

@krzy1867 Месяц назад

A true masterpiece of an analysis that you made here Trey, likely a one in hundreds of years type of event, hopefully we never see anything else like this in our lifetimes

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much! Unfortunately we probably will see another event of this caliber in our lifetimes; it's only a matter of time. Good news is that we are better prepared now versus back then, so hopefully the human impact is less.

@TRGTornado Месяц назад

Wow, did not expect this! Great Case study/video! Looking forward to more videos!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@jalenstimes7452 Месяц назад

A simply one in a lifetime outbreak. Although the 2011 Super Outbreak was extremely impressive in terms of the number of tornadoes and the number of violent ones, the 1974 Super Outbreak was literally unprecedented!

@jaredpatterson1701 Месяц назад

Only because they made it harder to get a higher rating! Be really hard to argue the Tuscaloosa eF4 wasn't an ef5 at some point.. and almost all of them were moving 50-70 mph

@peachxtaehyung Месяц назад

Good news is that it seems they're working on a new fujita scale which will be here within the next few years@@jaredpatterson1701

@Hakuna_Frittata Месяц назад

@@jaredpatterson1701 I agree. Any time I hear 74 referenced, I have to wonder what these would be rated if they happened today.

@64BBernard Месяц назад

The area encompassed by the 1974 Super Outbreak was double versus April 27, 2011. That said, a lot of the tornadoes during the Super Outbreak in 1974 were over extremely rural areas than what occurred in 2011, meaning that if they had been over more populated areas, a far higher death toll would have occurred. Would be interesting to compare the population of those areas impacted by the 1974 tornadoes to today.

@peachxtaehyung Месяц назад

@@64BBernard true. There's also the comparison of the number of tornadoes as well as how many were violent too. I hope one day someone will do a comparison video (though honestly it don't matter. Both are horrible tragedy

@TouchEmAllCards Месяц назад

My earliest memory. I was 3. Living in Southwest Ohio. XENIA was so significant I actually didn't know it was 1974. I remembered it so well I thought it had to be at least 1980.

@ericspratt3164 Месяц назад

I was 7 when this happened. I can remember my cousin showing me damage photos in the newspaper, specifically school buses thrown into a gymnasium. Enjoy all your videos. Always learn from them. Thanks for the effort you put into them.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thanks so much!

@bencook6585 Месяц назад

I live in Monticello, IN (pronounced Monti - sell - o) and my dad was a kid in the area when the Tornado came through in 74. Hearing him talk about it gives chills sometimes, especially since the tornado's path would have just missed the house which I now own.

@tornadotrx Месяц назад

Been waiting for this one! Such an interesting event.

@SpeedNintendo Месяц назад

Just got back from my trip to Sayler Park and Xenia, and now I get to watch this! You're amazing, Trey

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Awesome, I bet that was a pretty incredible experience!

@mpk6664 Месяц назад

I just got back from Xenia and Brandenburg. Didn't have time to go to Sayler Park. Ironically, got hit by a huge wind storm and grapple while in Xenia.

@timtravels116 Месяц назад

I appreciate the hours of work that go into each one of these videos. Thx

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@Achronym Месяц назад

Yes! Been waiting for this video! I'm pretty new to meteorology but I always find myself learning something new when watching your videos; or at least wanting to learn more (I still don't understand half the stuff you say in these videos 😂). Thanks, Trey!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Haha thank you!!

@levihayes5775 Месяц назад

This is gonna be a good one! I grew up in Parker City, IN and the EF4 that went through there was a story I heard very early in my childhood.

@tracyfrederick5606 Месяц назад

Weather Brains is doing a e episode special on the outbreak. ( it's on RU-vid ) recollection s are interesting. I'm amazed there weren't more deaths considering how little they knew about Weather back then. It's hard to wrap my head around it.

@itsbean6374 Месяц назад

This is fantastic and really was waiting for this one!!!!

@asap314 Месяц назад

I’m loving all these videos coming out about this outbreak on the 50th anniversary, I was hoping you would make one too!

@ajaxassassin807 Месяц назад

My new favorite youtuber! I live in California and have always been fascinated by the horrifyingly beautiful occurence of Tornadoes. Even taught myself how to recognize hook echoes and other parameters associated with the storms. One thing i noticed you didn’t mention was that year’s SIGNIFICANT record breaking La Nina conditions that helped fuel that years event which were only comparable to the most recent 2011 super outbreak! I learned a lot from this case study. Especially how high levels of CAPE and low level wind shear fueled these monster Tornadoes.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much!

@Snail_Thunder_ Месяц назад

Just came from school and I saw you have uploaded a new case study. Today is a good day! Love the case study!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much!

@silentbob3208 Месяц назад

Really good breakdown. This is one of those outbreaks where an F5 hit my home state of Ohio. There's another notable anniversary coming up in May 2025 and, I don't know how you feel about requests, I think it should be broken down. It was the US/Canada outbreak of May 31, 1985. It's personal for me because it included a destructive F5 that hit my hometown.

@BrylcreemBill Месяц назад

I lived in Ithaca, NY on May 31, 1985. Tornado watches blanketed the area from western and central Pennsylvania through western and central New York. But absolutely nothing happened in New York. A thick layer of upper and mid level clouds overspread New York as the tops of the Pennsylvania storms were blown northeastward. This ended the heating of the environment by the sun and, I believe, restabilized the atmosphere over N.Y. These clouds were not present over PA or Ontario, so the instability reached its full potential. What do you think, Trey?

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! That event is on the list!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

That makes a lot of sense!

@thebroderickhoward Месяц назад

My papa was living near Xenia during this outbreak, he says he remembers driving through town after the tornado and everything was just flattened. He said the only thing still standing along the horizon was the bank vault, and the metal gas pumps. Absolutely devastating. Great video once again, one of the most intriguing outbreaks of all time!! Can’t wait for more vids!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! Dang, that's crazy!

@GophCrsn622 Месяц назад

Great video! Been looking forward to this one.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@blueSky1322 Месяц назад

WWWWWWWWW CANT WAIT TO FINISH THIS ONE WWWWWWWWWWW (Sorry im exited xD)

@brianguidry5246 Месяц назад

Outstanding analysis as always! Thank you Trey, your hard work is very much appreciated!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much!

@windwatcher11 Месяц назад

Excellent video, Trey! I was shocked by the gravity wave. I was completely unaware that one figured in! Well done!🎉

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much!

@brianbishop4753 Месяц назад

I was born the morning of the Xenia tornado. Dad said it was a very beautiful morning around Columbus and the afternoon was the exact opposite.

@SylvieJ47 Месяц назад

I was wondering if there would be something like this for the anniversary. Fantastic work Trey!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@damienbusick5540 Месяц назад

Well put together and amazing analysis! As always great job Trey the community appreciates you 👍🏻 Also you was spot on yesterday with the potential outbreak not producing, because as you say “the fly in the ointment”. I don’t never believe any hype until I’ve had your breakdown.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much! Yeah, I had a feeling the Tuesday event was going to underperform once I saw all that unexpected morning convection.

@tomchidwick Месяц назад

Amazing event. Excellent presentation. Thanks Trey.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@runt9 Месяц назад

Fantastic video, trey! Honestly it's downright eerie that just yesterday, the day before this 50th anniversary, we had a much much smaller tornado outbreak over an almost identical region to the 74 super outbreak. History just loves to repeat itself. It really is a reminder how many ingredients have to come together all at once in one spot to create such a terrifying event. Last year we had this brutal reminder as a new outbreak cracked the top 5, something you hope never happens. I honestly don't even have that much to add, ingredient after ingredient put together all at once and this is what you get. I do think it's really cool to look back deeper into history at some of these older events. I know the data is scarcer and harder to dig through, but it really gives a lot more understanding of some of the foundational events that helped shape modern meteorology. I'm definitely all here for more of the older events, there's so much to learn from!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!! Yeah, these big outbreaks always seem to check every box...not one ingredient is missing. Will probably do a video in the future comparing this event to April 27, 2011 and March 31, 2023 to see what commonalities exist between these events.

@7DeuceOff Месяц назад

Xenia is one of the angriest looking tornadoes of all time. I also didnt realize Guin was part of this outbreak too. Jeez these 2 days were furious

@bdawgchannel8461 Месяц назад

Happy birthday to the outbreak! I can’t believe it’s been 50 years since that! It’s also really close to the 100th birthday to the tri-state tornado! I was spreading this all around my school! This is so crazy!

@tacticalmattfoley Месяц назад

Fantastic video!!! Really appreciate the sounding discussion.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much!

@sharessehughes2978 Месяц назад

Thank you so much for doing this one! Love your case studies!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!!

@sharessehughes2978 Месяц назад

I hate to ask when you have been so generous with your wealth of knowledge already, but it would mean EVERYTHING to me if you could do a Palm Sunday Outbreak case study.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

@@sharessehughes2978 That is on my list!

@sharessehughes2978 Месяц назад

Yay!!!!! 🤓 *Squeals wildly with delight*

@wilbert_WX Месяц назад

my nana was in richmond during the f4 and she saw it demolish a mobile home place and it was a big tornado, she then saw the sky extremely pink right after the tornado happend, (i think it was just sunset)

@LeviW133 Месяц назад

Great Case study Trey always love your videos keep up the good work 😊

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thanks so much!

@JoeMun Месяц назад

Your channel is amazing. I’m not a meteorologist but I’ve been interested in tornadoes since I was little (my mom was almost killed by the Niles, OH - Wheatland, PA F5 from the 1985 outbreak). You manage to explain the really complex terminology in ways that aren’t too foreign to my simpleton brain. I appreciate it

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much for the kind words!

@JoeMun Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles you’re very welcome!

@kayeas716 Месяц назад

good stuff as always Trey! would kill to have some high-res data from some of these storms.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! I agree!

@bxnjxmi_ Месяц назад

Hey Trey, I was wondering if you could do a case study of the Memorial Day 2015 tornado event, one of the tornadoes struck my hometown and I can never find enough info about it, we went from having a marginal risk to having an enhanced risk then having an EF2 tear through the west side of town, I think everyone would find the event and the forecast leading up to the event interesting. Love the videos! keep up the awesome work 💙

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much! I will add it to the list!

@studentlogan Месяц назад

Great video as always. It's kinda cool that you can see how much this event influenced our understanding of tornadoes based on the pretty much perfect conditions that were in place. Unfortunately it took outbreaks like this to really advance the science forward.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! That is definitely the silver lining with these deadly outbreaks...we were able to take several steps forward in our understanding of tornadoes and tornado forecasting to get to where we are today.

@noah4463 Месяц назад

Trey, do you think you could explain a bit the difference between the effects of height-falls versus difluence aloft? I personally tend to conceptualize them very similarly, since they are both associated with synoptic-scale storm initiation, but in this video you’re making it very clear that they aren’t the same thing. Great vid as usual.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! While they certainly are different processes, height falls and diffluence aloft work in a very similar way, as they both fuel the synoptic-scale upward motion needed to prime the environment for storm initiation. Diffluence is the spreading apart of the flow in the upper levels of the atmosphere, which induces rising motion to fill the resultant "void." Height falls occur as a trough (and the associated positive vorticity advection) approaches...the atmosphere cools, the thickness of the column decreases, and, therefore, heights fall, which induces rising motion. Very different processes, but the outcome is much the same.

@jacobm2625 Месяц назад

Thanks for all the great info! 😁 The satellite imagery from this day looked a little bit like yesterdays event to my very untrained eyes. Speaking, of, I'd love to hear a breakdown on why yesterday seemingly underperformed, and I'm also curious as to why WV and other portions of Appalachia seemed to support storms better than areas only slightly farther west.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! The Tuesday event and April 3, 1974, had some loose similarities in the overall pattern (positively tilted main trough with negatively tilted lead shortwave, several days of unimpeded moisture return, etc.). The problem Tuesday was the morning convection, which delayed destabilization and kept lapse rates at bay. While we did eventually destabilize at the surface, the instability as a whole, especially across northern portions of the risk, remained somewhat weak with very limited lapse rates throughout the profile. With those wind profiles, we were still able to get some strongly tornadic activity, but it wasn't as widespread as expected. Areas farther east into WV/south into E TN were a bit farther removed from this early convection and had slightly better instability profiles. Same thing down in AL/GA for the evening event.

@jacobm2625 Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles thank you for the info, my good sir! 🫡 One thing I did notice about Tuesday was that there was cloud cover all day here in SE KY, except for maybe 30 minutes around 5pm eastern, and I figured that was limiting surface heating and making it harder for things to ‘boil over’

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

@@jacobm2625 That was definitely a drawback to the setup, as well. Kinematics were certainly there with that setup, but instability struggled in a number of places. That's why in a huge majority of these major outbreaks like 4-3-74, you'll see a big 'ol EML plume advecting into the region to really ripen the instability and hold morning convection off. Saw it on April 27, 2011 as well (despite the morning MCS; after that moved through, it was completely quiet until early afternoon).

@Connie.T. Месяц назад

Just asked my mom about this outbreak, she would've been 6 when it happened. She said she was on Indy's eastside and watched "a quickly spinning low cloud, but not a funnel" pass to the north while she was still in sunshine. She witnessed a wall cloud! Looking at the records, it seems like it would've been the storm in the earlier April 1 outbreak that dropped a tornado in Henry Co, IN, especially because she didn't remember the exact date, just that it was spring break of her kindergarten year. It was cool to corroborate that memory for her. Thanks for the lesson!

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

That's awesome!

@jigwignibs Месяц назад

Fantastic video.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@zachsteiner Месяц назад

Still blows my mind how similar the trough ejection was to the 2011 Super Outbreak, just a slightly different tilt and exit region really. Both are such textbook outbreaks. Wonder if we’ll see another perfect alignment of synoptic pattern with parameter space again in our lifetime. Surely we will. Oh also, it was so cool seeing observed soundings from 1974 on modern SHARpy software! I do wonder how upper air soundings worked back then. How did they collect the data? Oh and wow, sorry this is so long but the parallels to the 2011 outbreak is nuts. Wasn’t there a gravity wave involved in the 2011 outbreak from the morning connection that “super charged” the environment later that day for the supercellular event? This video might be my new favorite of yours and that’s tough to do since there’s so much of your work I love. Good job!

@peachxtaehyung Месяц назад

Well outbreaks happen every 30-50 ish years so it depends on your age lol. Like I won't have another I experience like this till I'm a senior most likely as I just turned 30

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you so much! I'm sure we will see another generational outbreak like this, but probably not for awhile. I'll eventually do a video on how the 1974 event compares to days like April 27, 2011, and March 31, 2023, which actually might even be a better analog. April 27, 2011, did have that morning MCS; I'm not sure if it was a gravity wave, but there was a differential heating boundary that set up in N AL, I believe in the general vicinity of the Hackleburg track. As far as how they took soundings back then, I'm sure it's similar to today, just with a bit more primitive software.

@AndreWehrle Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles 3/31/23 would certainly be an interesting comparison because, as prolific as it was, there were definitely one or two factors keeping a lid on it in terms of high-end violent tornado production. A lot of chasers who targeted the Illinois portion of the high risk (and I almost became one of them!) were baffled why the discrete supercells there struggled to produce. Then there was the rapid transition to QLCS mode in Iowa following the two EF3+ cycles from the one cell. Even so it continued to produce strong tornadoes across eastern Iowa and into Illinois, but the overall intensity was definitely kept in check. I also believe, that with the differences in the way the EF-scale is applied, the difference in intensity between the 1974 and 2011 events was not quite as stark as the raw numbers of E/F4+ would have you believe, although I do think the 1974 event still had a greater proportion of violent tornadoes.

@dragnflei Месяц назад

I was hoping you’d do this. Someone in my Twitter feed this morning had a thread going about how an outbreak like this might play out today given the increased population in the impacted areas. My dad was involved with developing phased array radar technology and I wonder a lot what he’d think about the advancements we’ve made in fifty years.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

There would definitely be a lot more people impacted given urban expansion since then. That's awesome your dad was involved in developing phased array! We've definitely come a long way since 1974 in the radar department, and there's even more groundbreaking stuff coming in the future.

@aaronrider4051 Месяц назад

Hoping for an analysis of Palm Sunday 1965 for the 60th anniversary next year. To me, a clear cut "super outbreak" in its own right.

@elitennis7973 Месяц назад

This guy is him! He's the best meteorologist I know.

@jatdesign4495 Месяц назад

Curious if you’ll do a vid on the June 7-8, 1974 outbreak. It always fascinated me

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

I'll add it to the list!

@nickbeef4824 Месяц назад

I understand 😂😂. However grateful you folks are dissecting this science and giving us a fighting chance to survive these storms. I was a 2 miles away from a pair of tornadoes a few hours apart that occurred in Jasper Ga in 94.

@sammy8796 21 день назад

I know you probably get a lot of these requests, but i was wondering if you would be able to do a case study of the May 22, 2008 Windsor Colorado tornado. Mostly for two reasons: 1) I dont really see a lot of videos about the circumstances and setup of that tornado, and why it was going the wrong direction. and 2) I live in the area and was in a tornado lockdown in elementary school when the tornado happened, so its pretty seared into my mind, and probably started my interest in tornados and severe weather.

@sammy8796 21 день назад

additional note that I love the channel and find all of this stuff super intersting. thanks for doing all of the work to put these out!

@ConvectiveChronicles 21 день назад

Thank you so much! Windsor is definitely on my list!

@sammy8796 21 день назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles sweet! I’ll be looking forward to it!

@darenmanville2274 Месяц назад

I'd love to see a SPC outlook for that day with today's criteria

@WaffleBlako Месяц назад

Hey Convective Chronicles, just wondering but will you ever do a case study on April 7th 2006 tornado outbreak? It is the only time the SPC has ever given a 60% risk of tornadoes for a particular day. The storm was a bust, but I find it curious when comparing it to something like the 2011 super outbreak. Thanks! 😁

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Yes, it's on my list!

@stevenbergey1958 28 дней назад

I suggest doing an analysis of the La Plata, MD F4. I feel like there is a lot to discuss there, including the preliminary F5 rating.

@ConvectiveChronicles 28 дней назад

It’s on the list!

@Al3inZEA Месяц назад

omg im dreaming ive been waiting for your case study on this forever

@jaredpatterson1701 Месяц назад

I just read an article that helped me to understand shortwave troughs. So apparently, they are basically upper level fronts and behave in a similar way to surface fronts. The shortwave it said extends 10k feet and can contribute to severe weather. But how do the shortwaves elicit such a strong surface response in these types of events if they're so high in the atmosphere 🤔?

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Everything is connected...what happens aloft dictates what happens in the low levels. For a full explanation, we'd have to dive into lots of fancy calculus and such, so we'll leave that for another time.

@hunterwolff-schollmeyer3902 Месяц назад

Amazing video. One question though…wasn’t the second Tanner tornado an F5? That’s how I have heard it described elsewhere.

@ultraspinacle Месяц назад

I think F4. Badass tornado no matter what.

@hunterwolff-schollmeyer3902 Месяц назад

To me it will always be an F5...that's what it says in the official storm database. @@ultraspinacle

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! In the database, it is an F5; Corfidi et al (2010) listed it as an F4, so that's what I went with. Apparently, its rating has been heavily disputed.

@peachxtaehyung Месяц назад

Its a shame that with this being such a big event to not know exactly what went on in the environment that day. Thank you for this video though it was of course an amazing one

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! Yeah, these historic events are tough because we just don't have the full archives we need. But, at least we have methods to give us a decent picture of what the atmosphere was like back on these days.

@64BBernard Месяц назад

There were only a couple of models available to meteorologists in 1974. The first was the Limited-Area Fine Mesh Model (LFM) which had a horizontal resolution of 190.5 km and seven vertical layers. The other was the Primitive Equation Model (PE) that had a horizontal resolution of 381 km. The WRF simulation that Trey showed was run at 3.3 km, with with a parent domain of 10 km. It was initialized from the ECMWF ERA-5 reanalysis via the RDA (Research Data Archive) at UCAR. It was them that provided the data that was needed to do a simulation of the April 3-4, 1974 Super Outbreak.

@andrewmarino5441 Месяц назад

Yes!! I was wondering if you would ever do this one

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Was waiting for the 50th anniversary!

@Icebluesun Месяц назад

Hi Trey, sorry if you've talked about this before and I overlooked it and feel free to refer me to an alternative source but I am interested in learning about readings on radar particularly from an engineering standpoint with the timing/delay they have between scans. Some seem to have relatively quick feedback, then some take 8-10 minutes--I tend to see these times change even during live observation. I am curious how it can be improved and my lack of knowledge on this may show here but I think the interest sparks from a previous experience I had with a tornado. That particular tornado did not have a warning, the radar and warning were about 7 minutes behind. Is there currently a decent amount of research/development on radar improvement? Can it ever be truly live radar? How nice it would be to observe radar without delay. Thank you.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Usually when severe weather is about to start, NWS offices will change the volume coverage pattern, or VCP, of the radar to one in which the radar rotates more frequently. During quiescent weather, the radar will be in Clear Air Mode, which encompasses VCPs that generally scan much more slowly because there's not a big need for more rapid updates. When precipitation is about to start, they will change it into Precipitation Mode, which features VCPs that can be changed accordingly based on the need for faster updates. With current rotating dish technology, the fastest we can scan using WSR-88Ds is about 2-3 mins. The next generation of weather radar will be phased array radar, which takes out the need to perform a full 360° rotational scan at multiple different levels of the atmosphere, which is why the temporal resolution of current WSR-88Ds are limited. Phased array radar involves a collection of antennae that can be manually pointed at an area of interest and can scan all the necessary levels of the atmosphere at once, leading to much improved speed of completion of a full volume scan (on the order of seconds rather than minutes). This will be incredibly useful for scanning phenomena such as tornadoes that can change on the order of seconds, as well. While we will never have truly live radar, this will be a stark improvement.

@Icebluesun Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles great information, thanks.

@mforrest85 Месяц назад

Nice video.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you!

@jasonking3182 Месяц назад

I wonder what an outbreak like this would look like on the 7-10 day outlook now.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

I bet it was pretty synoptically evident, so it would probably cause some chatter at that range.

@64BBernard Месяц назад

Though I live in Southern Ontario, I do remember bits and pieces of that day. Wednesday April 3, 1974 was a PD Day for us, so we had the day off school. I do recall hearing on the radio about the severe weather that was occurring south and southwest of us. The only Canadian city that was impacted by a tornado was Windsor, Ontario after an F3 tornado struck the local curling rink. Basically what happened is that the tornado after striking the Chrysler plant, lifted part of the roof and pushed the masonry block wall inward. It just happened that over a dozen people were in front of that wall when it collapsed. Ironically the tornado struck at 8:09pm, but Canadian Weather Services issued a tornado warning at 8:15pm. I read a report that was done after this tragedy occurred and it bothers me greatly. Apparently the Windsor weather office and Toronto weather office had a heated disagreement over who should issue warnings. So reports of tornadoes over on the US side of the Detroit river that evening were ignored until reports starting coming in of a tornado on the Canadian side near LaSalle, Ontario.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thanks for sharing this, Brian. That's too bad the Windsor/Toronto offices chose to wait until tornadoes were ongoing in Canada to issue warnings.

@FSUFAN-gr2vp Месяц назад

I know this would be a tall order given the timeframe! But I would love if possible for you to perform a convective analysis of the Infamous "Tri-State" of March 18, 1925.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Saving that for next year’s 100th anniversary!

@michaelveis6498 Месяц назад

There were 148 tornadoes during the April 3-4, 1974. The Guin Alabama tornado had winds up to 320 MPH. THE Xenia, Ohio Tornado was an F5. It had winds up to 320 MPH. At a high school, the tornado picked up two school buses and tossed them into the school auditorium like a couple of toys. Xenia, after the tornado, looked like the aftermath of a nuclear war!

@sahebplays3589 Месяц назад

Great video! Would hope to see you do the may 9 2016 katie - wynnwood and sulphur OK tornado event one day! @ConvectiveChronicles

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you; it's on my list!

@michaelonesty Месяц назад

Hey Trey: How do height falls raise a parcel of air? If the heights get lower over an area, does that just gradually move the air up? I am trying to gain an intuitive and physical sense of the process

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

In basic terms, as a trough approaches, the air aloft cools. This allows heights to decrease, or fall. Low pressure tends to develop within regions of strong height falls (we'll save all the fancy calculus as to why that's the case for another time). That means stronger low-level convergence, which leads to rising motion.

@xin5aneshot410 Месяц назад

Why does it seem like during these big time outbreaks there’s always a morning round of significant severe weather?

@jaredpatterson1701 Месяц назад

Maybe it's because of the intensity of the deepening low pressure? 🤔 I always think of it like the difference between throwing a small and large rock 🪨 in a pond. The bigger the rock, the bigger the splash (in the atmosphere in this case) so maybe that extra ripple kicked off more storms than usual. But I ain't no expert 🤷🏾

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Often times, trough geometry dictates that there's a bit of a shortwave that moves through initially, or it's convection that continues through the night given a rapidly improving environment with time that allows it to persist.

@64BBernard Месяц назад

A morning round of significant weather occurred on the morning of May 31, 1985, too.

@Larry_Harvilla Месяц назад

For a minute there I thought I had you on a mis-application of Daylight Saving Time, which from 1967-1973 and again 1976-1985 did not begin until the last Sunday in April, a few weeks after the 3rd or 4th of April. However, it turned out you had it right: our little tornado outbreak occurred during a trial period of year-round DST which began on January 6, 1974. The said trial period was so unpopular that it would be scrapped on the usual DST end date in October 1974, and brought back in a reduced form on February 23, 1975. Upon the October 1975 "fall back" to Standard Time, all oil embargo DST shenanigans were curtailed, and the usual last Sunday in April and last Sunday in October dates reigned from 1976 through 1985. Reagan added a few weeks of DST to April in 1986, setting its start date on the first Sunday in April. In 2005, George W. Bush signed another extension, effective in 2007, which set the current second Sunday in March and first Sunday in November dates. One other timekeeping note: no part of the state of Ohio has ever been on Central Time for as long as the federal government has been in the business of mandating time zones. When the railroads ran the show, they did put the entirety of the Buckeye State in Central Time, but the Standard Time Act of 1918 moved the whole state to Eastern Time. So your references to time with respect to the Xenia and Sayler Park tornadoes should be to Eastern Daylight Time, four hours behind Zulu time.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Very interesting! I'm aware Ohio is on Eastern Time; I just used Central Time throughout because much of the outbreak did occur in central time, so I just decided to standardize it that way, instead of flipping back and forth between Central and Eastern time.

@Larry_Harvilla Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles That's a good point I hadn't really considered: there is something to be said for consistency.

@michaelveis6498 Месяц назад

The April 2011 tornado outbreak resulted in 364 tornadoes in 4 days, wiping out a lot of small towns. Especially Joplin, Missouri, which looked like the aftermath of a nuclear war!

@ce9fan570 Месяц назад

This outbreak occured when my parents were toddlers in central Ohio.

@raymondguilbeault4585 26 дней назад

I don't have a Patron but this is the next best thing I was thinking about a full length comparison episode/video comparing the 2 2011 and 1974 Super Outbreaks because most people who are interested in weather automatically do that

@ConvectiveChronicles 26 дней назад

Thank you so much for the Super Thanks! That was going to be a part of this video but I ran out of time. Saving that for another video in the future

@raymondguilbeault4585 26 дней назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles I will watch that video once it's released

@ConvectiveChronicles 26 дней назад

@@raymondguilbeault4585 Planning on it for the anniversary next year

@ce9fan570 Месяц назад

Also, it is me, or dose the visible satilite imagery show a supercell like shape around the Low pressure system, if the convective bands are ignored? Time stamp in your video Trey would be: 18:40

@jaredpatterson1701 Месяц назад

It's interesting you noticed this, the entire storm does look like that, but I also think supercells look like mini areas of low pressure, and so do tornadoes, even having their own fronts (gust) lol

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Yes, that area of clouds wrapping around the low and overall "comma shape" is a classic occurrence with these strong midlatitude cyclones.

@64BBernard Месяц назад

That's pretty common in strong mid-latitude cyclones. In some storms I've seen, an intense wind band will descend in front of the coma cloud from the stratosphere and into the dry slot. It was seen in the Edmund Fitzgerals storm, in ATS satellite imagery I've seen. Over the North Atlantic, say off of Newfoundland eastward to the British Isles, and even in the Irminger Sea between Greenland and and Iceland, you can have these strong mid-latitude cyclones and in that dry area just east of the coma cloud you can often find a sting jet.

@ullrich Месяц назад

"23 F4s and 7 F5s compared to just 15 EF4+ in total in the 2011 super outbreak." Do you think the update from the F-scale to the EF-scale could have had an influence on this? In other words, do you think if they applied the EF-Scale to this outbreak, it would have had something more akin to 2011? Or conversely, if they applied the previous F-scale to 2011, it would look more like 1974? Also curious how older construction methods might have influenced those ratings back in 1974. Let's say both the 1974 and 2011 outbreaks happened in 2011 - would the 1974 still have had more F/EF4+ tornadoes? Or is it just a fact that 1974, accounting and adjusting for all variables, had more violent tornadoes? I just think these questions are kind of interesting when we're judging the strength of a tornado by the damage it deals. The exact same tornado in the exact same area might destroy a higher % of homes more completely in 1974 versus 2011 because they aren't built as sturdy, but might also destroy fewer homes because there simply aren't as many as there are in 2011. We can at least adjust for inflation when we talk about property damage, but I wonder how those other elements are accounted for when comparing these outbreaks with a gulf of almost half a century between them. Great video as always!

@dewittswancey5422 Месяц назад

Very good point. When judging these 2 events you have to consider these factors.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Thank you! I'm not very well-versed in the tornado damage/rating arena, but I do think all of that makes a difference. I bet if we used old techniques (F-scale) for damage surveying today, we'd probably have more violent tornadoes in the 2011 event. Although many of the tornadoes from 1974 have been considered some of the most violent of all time, including the Guin, AL, F5.

@brad5349 Месяц назад

Do you think many of the lower level tornados F0/F1 were missed in the survey due to the lack of technology at the time ?

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

There may have been a few that were missed, but I do think they got the vast majority of them.

@bigaaron Месяц назад

The other big one!😮

@andrew1786 Месяц назад

@convectivechronicles could you review the radar scans from yesterdays tornado From Adam’s County Ohio, to Boyd County Kentucky into WV…… someone posted huge circulating mesocyclone coming into south Charleston wv an I was up the river in Kanawha city an I swear I have video of a fluctuating funnel how ever be it small coming across the Kanawha River an I believe it struck my car…. I think it contained on until it died out near Heco WV.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

There was definitely a tornado with that storm, so you very well may have experienced it.

@andrew1786 Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles I believe it was a Tristate tornado long tracker canceled by rain. If you look at the close proximity of the track from near Lexington KY through West Union OH, Huntington WV into St Albans WV, South Charleston WV, Charleston WV crossing the kanawha river and Cambells creek road through Mammoth WV eventually petering out near Hico WV!!! We have EF2 confirmed tornados 2-3 times along the same striaght line. I mean EF2 in WV has been confirmed north of Hico at 130 mph that’s the highest assed windspeed from damage so far.

@andrew1786 Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles I think it was the same tornado or twins started near Lexington Kentucky, then West Union in Adam’s county, Boyd county Ky, Huntington wv, Procterville OH, St Albans WV, Dunbar/cross lanes, South Charleston, Charleston, Kanawha city, Mammoth, ending near Hico WV now confirmed rated at EF2 130 mph.

@andrew1786 Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles TriState Tornado 2024

@slayer18726 Месяц назад

Surprise 🎉 lol Thanks for the Case Study

@nicholasvogelgesang9125 Месяц назад

My mom told me the story about the tornado of 1974 my aunt was just cooking dinner when the tornado hit gathering everyone in the house into the basement and when it was over the house was destroyed but the stove was still there and the pot that had chilli in it with the spoon still in it and a semi truck landed in my aunt's pool

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Dang!

@brandonmayle5421 Месяц назад

My man finally busted out the 74’ outbreak case study

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

Was waiting for the 50th anniversary!

@weird0.420 Месяц назад

W video!

@tornadofire82 Месяц назад

Should do this on the May 31 1985 outbreak.

@ConvectiveChronicles Месяц назад

It's on the list!

@tornadofire82 Месяц назад

@@ConvectiveChronicles ok good, everybody basically ignores it or only mentions it in short segments but it was a major event that gets overlooked. I mean a 2 mile wide F4 travelled 69 miles but everyone focuses on the Niles Wheatland F5. One thing to note is on the satellite loop you see a discreet cell race out ahead of the main line near the OH/PA border moving northeast that meets another cell around forest and clearfield counties and they merge around where the Moshannon tornado began. Can't wait to see the video.