A Strong Florida Tornado in 1997!

Where is the Tornado Talk team heading to now??

October 30, 2023

Good Monday Morning! Hope everyone is doing well and is ready for more tornado history!

First, a couple of updates:

  • The Tornado Talk team is getting excited about the Mid-Atlantic Severe Weather Conference this upcoming weekend! We will be hosting a booth and Jen will be a speaker alongside Rick Smith from the NWS Norman, OK about the 10th anniversary of the Moore and El Reno tornadoes. This is a great conference!

  • Here is our latest This Week In Tornado History video! We explore a late-night twister that struck New Smyrna Beach, FL. It caused $14 million in damages and injured 32 people!

A quick peek at this week’s newsletter:

  • We look at two pre-1950 twisters….

  • UFOs and Tornadoes….what’s the connection?

  • Our article of the week explores a major hurricane!

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🌪️ This Week In Tornado History

October 30, 1979 - Newport-Woodford, OK: An F3 tornado made an 8.4-mile path through Carter County, OK. Two mobile homes were completely destroyed near Newport. Three people were killed in this area. Near Woodford, another mobile home and a few barns were damaged or destroyed.

Image from newspapers.com

October 31, 1932 - Cairo, GA: An estimated F2 tornado with a path length of 15 miles, moved south of Cairo, GA. 29 small homes were destroyed. A man died from injuries several weeks after the tornado. Thomas Grazulis notes there may have been two others who died.

November 1, 1922 - Webb City, MO: Per Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes, this F3 tornado had a path length of two miles. 25 homes at the south edge of Webb City were destroyed, one woman killed here. The funnel lifted over Webb City’s business district and then hit again on the NE edge of town. An eight-room house was nearly leveled in this area.

November 2, 2018 - Mt. Airy, MD: This EF2 tornado damaged the roof of a TJ Maxx and caused extensive tree damage; some of the trees were debarked. At Snell’s Nursery, several greenhouses were leveled, and water was completely blown from a pond.

November 3, 1968 - Mobile-Brewton, AL: What may have been a family of tornadoes tracked for about 70 miles from near Mobile to near Brewton, AL. 15 homes were destroyed, and 230 others were damaged near Mobile. 18 people were injured.

November 4, 2013 - Flathead Lake, MT: An EF0 waterspout tracked for 0.75 miles across Flathead Lake, MT. At times it took on a multiple vortex structure, and the funnel dissipated before reaching the shoreline.

Image from NWS Missoula.

November 5, 2017 - Celina, OH: This was one of 24 tornadoes confirmed on this day. Eight people were injured. Per an article from 10tv.com, six people were injured at a restaurant, one at another business and another was hurt when a utility pole hit their car.

Image from NWS Wilmington.

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Twister Tales

Writer Nick Wilkes put together a Funnel Feature a few years ago entitled, The “Twisted” Side of Twisters! He took a different peek at some of the odd occurrences associated with tornadoes! Here is an excerpt:

Many of our Tornado Talk readers are familiar with Gary England. He is a legend in the meteorological community. Gary was the chief meteorologist at KWTV (Channel 9) News in Oklahoma City for over 40 years. He began his career on October 16, 1972, and worked at Channel 9 until he retired in August 2013. On May 3, 1999, a massive F5 tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City Metro Area, causing severe damage in Bridge Creek and Moore. Gary was providing wall-to-wall coverage of the tornado. Sadly, despite the very good warnings, 36 people were killed and nearly 600 were injured.

During Gary’s live coverage of the tornado, a UFO was captured via the News 9 helicopter. A cylindrical tube zoomed past the camera. A second cylinder was also captured on camera shooting into the tornado. He estimated the object came out of the cloud about 10 miles from the helicopter.

It is not known what was captured on video. In 2007, Gary England appeared on the History Channel TV Show MonsterQuest on an episode called “Flying Rods.” He said “What was it doing in a thunderstorm that turned out to produce the worst tornado in history? You know that didn’t make a lot of sense.”

Explore more UFOs, cryptids and the paranormal in this Funnel Feature!

Article of the Week

The Hurricane Otis Forecast Bust And An Important Lesson

Great article from Dr. Marshall Shepherd on the rapid intensification of Hurricane Otis from tropical storm to Category 5. How did it happen?

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