A Weather Podcast Telethon Is Coming Soon!

And What Is One Of Our Most Unique Summaries?

It is that time again! Grab a cup of coffee and Get Hooked on Tornado History!

A quick peek at this week’s newsletter:

  • Our New Video Looks at an F4 Tornado at Huntsville, AL.

  • An EF4 Strikes Washington, IL…

  • It’s Never Too Early to Start Your Christmas Shopping!

Here is our latest This Week In Tornado History video! November 15, 1989 was a heartbreaking day for the city of Huntsville, AL. An F4 tornado hit the southern part of the city crossing through a busy business section and heavily populated residential area at the time of afternoon rush hour. 21 people were killed, 18 died in the tornado and three others later from injuries.

Damage path graphic from November 15, 1989 Southern Region Survey.

It’s never too early to start your Christmas shopping!

Tornado Talk is excited to partner with Midland Radio! They have a great selection of weather radios including the ER310 with a solar panel and hand crank. Charges devices through USB!

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🌪️ This Week In Tornado History

November 13, 2018 - Atlantic Beach, NC: An EF1 tornado rolled several sheds and damaged the siding on a few homes as it came onshore at Atlantic Beach.

November 14, 2007 - Kimball, TN: Five tornadoes occurred on this day, this was the strongest. Kimball Baptist Church was holding Wednesday night services when the tornado hit. It heavily damaged the roof as well as several vehicles in the parking lot. Three children at the church had minor injuries.

Image from newspapers.com.

November 15, 1930: - Rapides Parish, LA: An F2 tornado moved from near Gardner to near Ball in Louisiana. Per Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes, “Five tenant homes were swept away and there were deaths in four of them.”

November 16, 2015 - Southwest Kansas: One of 39 tornadoes to occur on this day. This SW Kansas tornado had a path length of 51.26 miles. The National Weather Service (NWS) estimated the max width to be 2000 yards (1.1 miles)! This tornado managed to avoid any major communities.

Photo of the tornado via Tony Laubach from the NWS Dodge City summary.

November 17, 2013 - Washington, IL: This devastating F4 tornado was part of a larger outbreak of 74 twisters. The path was over 46 miles. Three were killed and at least 125 were injured. At Washington, 633 homes, seven businesses, seven apartment buildings and 2500 vehicles were destroyed.

Special satellite imagery was taken the day after the tornado. This image clearly shows the track of the tornado across Washington, IL from lower left to top right. From NWS Central Illinois.

November 18, 2015 - Fairborn, GA: An EF1 tornado traveled over 2.5 miles in Fairborn, GA. Numerous trees were knocked over, and homes had siding torn off. One person was injured when a tree fell onto their car.

November 19, 1930 - Bethany, OK: A powerful F4 tornado moved to the north-northeast from 3 miles west of the Oklahoma City limits, hitting eastern Bethany. About ¼ of the town was damaged/destroyed. Northeast of the Wiley Post Airport, the Camel Creek school was hit and five students and a teacher were killed. There was a total of 23 fatalities from this tornado. Source: Thomas Grazulis.

Twister Tales

A photo taken by C. Mulder from the aviation safety website showing the impact site.

We wrote a summary a few weeks ago and it was one of the most unique stories we have covered so far at Tornado Talk. Here is the introduction:

“Most of the summaries we have created at Tornado Talk follow a given tornado track from start to finish, documenting the people and places affected along the way. This story, however, is not centered around the evolution of a twister. Rather, it is the story of a Dutch airliner in 1981 that, by incredible misfortune, encountered a dissipating tornado and suffered an unsurvivable outcome. Four crew, 13 passengers, and one person on the ground lost their lives. As of September 2023, this is the only proven, direct instance in aviation history that such a thing has happened.”

Article of the Week

For those who don’t know, Jen Narramore, owner of Tornado Talk, is one of the panelists on the podcast WeatherBrains! She will be joining part of the brainy crew on a telethon benefiting the American Red Cross on November 18th. It will be a 12-hour stream with hosts from various weather podcasts including Carolina Weather Group, Chaser Chat, Storm Front Freaks, and of course Weather Brains! Learn more by scanning the QR code below or visit this link!

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