u/Curious-Constant-657

Image 1 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 2 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 3 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 4 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 5 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 6 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 7 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 8 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 9 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 10 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 11 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 12 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 13 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 14 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 15 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 16 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 17 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 18 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 19 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
Image 20 — Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.
▲ 94 r/tornado

Damage Media from the 2013 Newcastle-Moore, OK EF5 – 13ᵗʰ Anniversary.

Nobody ever deserves to experience something as painful, as soulless, as gut-wrenching, as devastating as this...

May we remember those who passed, and comfort those who survived.

▲ 649 r/tornado

The anchoring on the home obliterated by the St. Libory-Palmer tornado was so excellent that the concrete foundation failed before the anchoring itself.

This is a high-end failure mechanism, and you don't see this very often, if ever.

If no immediate problems with the construction of the home are found (I don't believe there will be, as every image shows perfectly-spaced anchor bolts, all equipped with nuts, washers, and properly-fastened sill plates), it can be reasonably said that this fissure in the home's poured concrete foundation was caused by the stress of the tornado's winds on the anchoring system, in which the load of the tornado's winds transferred to the foundation and caused it to crack.

Essentially, what I am claiming is that the anchoring on this home may have been so perfect and so strong that the foundation itself failed before the anchoring did.

u/Curious-Constant-657 — 2 days ago
▲ 32 r/tornado

1990 Bakersfield-Iraan, TX F4: 30.9210016, -102.0154391, Facing NE

1999 Mulhall, OK F4: 36.1576609, -97.3275267, Facing Due West

u/Curious-Constant-657 — 20 days ago
▲ 79 r/tornado

Enderlin's tanker displacement, hardwood tree debarking + lofting near Maple River (including lofting, displacing 0.5 miles, and partially debarking a bur oak), and cycloidal markings (205-234 MPH 3-second-sustained estimate per salticalwx) are unfathomably impressive, but I'm not sure that it gives the entire view of Enderlin's intensity once you look at the environment for the tornado.

As you can see in this College of DuPage sounding, observed 11:00 P.M. 4 minutes prior to the touchdown of the tornado, the environment for the Enderlin EF5 was nothing short of generational. I don't believe it would even be outlandish to say that this is the most ridiculous upper-air sounding ever observed.

Of course, I'm still learning how to precisely interpret upper-air soundings (especially hodographs and skew-T log-P diagrams), but here are some things that easily stand out:

  • MLCAPE of 5133 J/kg. MLCAPE, or mixed-layer convective available potential energy, generally refers to the amount of energy available to a storm, in the case that one develops. For the mixed layer, the means the lowest layer of the atmosphere, which can be influenced by ground/earth-level dynamics and environments. Normally, an MLCAPE of 1500-2000 J/kg is needed for severe weather, so 5133 is evidently very high.
  • A mixed-layer LI of -13. The LI, or lifted index, refers to the temperature difference (in °C) between a rising air parcel and its surrounding environment. This essentially measures the ease of convection (the natural rising of warm air), as a greater temperature difference means that an air parcel will be significantly warmer than the surrounding environment, and will therefore rise more easily (which is needed for severe weather and the formation of supercells). -13 indicates that an air parcel would be 13°C warmer than its surrounding environment. A value of -6 is already considered "extreme", so think of -13 in that light...
  • A significant difference (11,240 m, to be exact) between the LFC and EL, as well as a moderately low LCL. The LCL, or lifting condensation level, refers to the height above ground level (measured in meters) at which rising water vapor (an unsaturated air parcel) condenses, forming the base of a supercell. An LCL of 1181 m is fairly low, meaning that the supercell that produced the Enderlin tornado was low-based. Usually, a low-base supercell has an increased connection between the ground and the supercell, allowing for more intense updrafts and tornadoes (correct me if I'm wrong). The LFC is the level of free convection, which is the height above ground level at which a rising air parcel becomes warmer than its surrounding environment, allowing it to freely rise into the air. This air parcel then stops rising at the EL, or equilibrium level, where it becomes saturated. The EL is usually where you see an anvil cloud in a supercell form. The height of a supercell can be calculated by taking the difference of the EL (the top of the supercell) and the LCL (the bottom of the supercell). 13,742 - 1181 = 12,561 m. That's quite the tall supercell!
  • A 700-500 mb LR (lapse rate) of 9.1°C/km. The lapse rate determines the temperature gradient, or temperature change, within a particular height above ground level. The standard 700-500 mb lapse rate is ~6.5-7.0°C/km, so 9.1°C/km is extremely high (higher lapse rates generally promote more intense storms + storm development).
  • A 0-3 km SRH of 921 m²/s². Even in comparison to the absurd CAPE values and LI values present within this environment, this SRH value has to be the most absurd parameter of all. SRH, or storm-relative helicity, is a measurement of the amount of low-level wind shear available to a storm within a particular height. In this case, we are assessing 0-3 km SRH, which is the storm-relative helicity within the lowest 3 km of the atmosphere. A 0-3 km SRH value of 150 m²/s² is already suggestive of discrete and organized supercells, and 250-300 m²/s² is the standard for severe weather and intense tornadoes. 921 m²/s², then, is amongst the highest SRH values ever recorded. I have only seen higher 0-3 km SRH values from Hackleburg-Phil Campbell, Cullman, and a tornado in Norman in 2023 (which was too inhibited by a large cap in order to become intense). This value is absurd in every sense of the word. The amount of rotation that this SRH value would produce is incredible.
  • Finally, a CINH of -228 J/kg. One could think of CINH (convective inhibition) as the direct opposite of CAPE, in that is inhibits convection, as the name implies. However, a moderate CINH can actually assist in the formation of supercells, as it allows for a more discrete mode (the more inhibition there is, the less supercells will initiate in the environment. Therefore, if a supercell does manage to form in the environment, it will have access to all of the latent energy in the atmosphere. An example of this is the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado.). A cap (as CINH is sometimes called) of this severity usually stifles any hope of the formation (or sustaining) of supercells, but, if you analyze all of the other factors in play, you'll be able to see why, despite the enormous cap, the Enderlin tornado still managed to touch the ground.

I cannot stress how absurd this environment is. When I say it is generational, I mean it.

u/Curious-Constant-657 — 23 days ago