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🌪️The Latest from Tornado Talk…..

I had the opportunity to visit the National Weather Service Office in Indianapolis, IN last week. Thank you Sam Lashley and Mike Ryan and the rest of the crew for a warm welcome and for the tour! My sweet Aunt joined me and we got a chance to look at some 1974 Super Outbreak material including photos and eyewitness accounts!

On Saturday, I drove to Ball State to attend the Central Indiana Severe Weather Symposium. It started off with Sam doing an overview of the tornadoes from the Super Outbreak in Indiana. Great presentations as well about the tornadoes from the spring of 2023 (including the EF3 that struck Sullivan, IN) and this year as well.

Nick Wilkes, one of our writers, wrote an overview the May 31, 1985 Outbreak. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the event, he is going back and looking at the events a bit more and we should have a release of a new summary about one of those twisters this coming week! Keep an eye out! Meanwhile, here is the overview!

🌪️ This Week In Tornado History

October 21, 2021 - Hopewell Township, PA: On October 21, 2021, a surprise outbreak of 19 tornadoes ripped across eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Per NWS Pittsburgh: “A broken line of supercells, which formed along a front, quickly moved through the Ohio River Valley the evening of October 21st and spun off several tornadoes. The number of tornadoes, time of year, and intensity (one long track EF2 tornado) will mark this event as very rare and significant for this region.” This tornado in Hopewell Township was the EF2.

October 22, 1888 - Louisiana: A possible F2 tornado traveled 12 miles through St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana. “It cut a two-mile-long swath across the Whitney Plantation, north of Wallace, destroying a dozen buildings”. Two tenants were killed.

October 23, 2017 - Spartanburg, SC: An EF2 tornado hit an industrial area in the northwestern part of Spartanburg, SC. Several businesses and warehouses were damaged or torn apart. At the beginning of the path, a few homes were hit. One person was injured..

October 24, 1925 - Tennessee: An F2 tornado destroyed three barns and two dozen small homes at “Mt. Carmel,” NE of Covington, TN. “Giant forest trees” were uprooted.

October 25, 1925 - Alabama: An F4 tornado crossed 65 miles through parts of Crenshaw, Pike, Bullock, and Barbour Counties in Alabama on this day. 60 people were injured and there were 18 fatalities. Dozens of homes destroyed in rural communities near the Crenshow/Pike County line. At least 7 people died in that area. This included 4 children and their aunt in one home and a 105-year-old woman in another.

October 26, 1941 - Hamburg, AR: Per Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes, the path length was 10 miles. 75 people were injured and there were 15 fatalities. Over 50 homes were destroyed, with several of the leveled houses “the best in town.”

October 27, 2003 - New Jersey: An F0 tornado touched down briefly in a wooded area near the Holly Bowl bowling alley in Hainesport Township in New Jersey and then tracked east for 0.50 miles. A 77-year-old woman was struck by a flying tree branch and killed as she was entering her car in the parking lot at the bowling alley. This was the first killer tornado in New Jersey since August 25, 1941.

🌪️Check This Out!

Tornadoes can occur anywhere! This is from Italy on Saturday, October 19!

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- Jen Narramore, Owner Tornado Talk