Took awhile to make this video and just fyi is slightly less polished than my usual videos. Im sure I pronounced several towns incorrectly haha. Also still working on the lighting and new studio. Trying to go for like a cozy weather bunker 80s basement vibe.. Anyway thanks for watching and be sure to check out some merch if you're interested!
My mom is a claims adjuster for an insurance company and was activated for "storm duty" to OK after 5/20/13. I remember seeing pictures of the devastation she had sent to me in the three weeks she was there and it was just absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. Something I will never forget and inspired me to become a meteorologist. I graduated this year with my bachelors in Atmospheric Science!
This guy is hella underrated like he doesnt just show a video and thats it he actually puts his commentary and his thoughts on it, truly a hidden gem in a sea of mediocrity.
My dad remembers the 1966 Topeka tornado, his dad went to town that day after to help with anything. He has lived in Kansas for 63 years and he has never seen a tornado with his own eyes
It might make you realize how little the chance of dying to one is. I’m the same why and I don’t know why. I’m personally not afraid of the death part anymore because of these videos, it’s more of loosing my entire life in a matter of minutes that I can’t get over
Thanks for highlighting Wisconsin and their propensity for unusually strong tornadoes given its locale! One interesting one that you mentioned was the 1981 West Bend tornado. It was a strong F4 that struck overnight when the storm was weakening, however the most noted feature was it is the strongest anticyclonic tornado on record! It started right in my childhood back yard too
Yes, I had the same thought when he was surprised that there was no footage. It was unwarned and also rain wrapped so not really visible like the Joplin tornado.
All there was at that time of the tornado was a severe thunderstorm warning that mentioned strong winds and large hail. However, it also did mention that a tornado could form with little to no advance warning with that storm but this warning was issued after it hit Plainfield.
There were several indications of a tornado at the NWS office but they were hesitant to "cry wolf" about it until they were sure which only happened after the tornado entered town and someone called in that a tornado had hit. It was national NWS policy to not warn of a tornado unless it was confirmed, so it became known as the "Plainfield Syndrome" and brought about a national NWS policy change where they warn of all possible tornadoes even if they aren't confirmed. This has resulted in the opposite effect where so many warnings are given where no tornadoes are that people tend to ignore the NWS warnings now.
I'd personally say that the Daulatpur-Saturia, Bangladesh tornado was the worst tornado of 1989, as it is the deadliest tornado ever recorded. 1200 people lost their lives, while 13000 were injured. I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention it. Loved the video. Keep up the amazing work.
Born and raised in Grand Island (1993) and I grew up hearing so many stories about June 3rd, 1980! The F4 that tracked down South Locust Street completely leveled my great grandpa's auto body shop!
I remember that day. I lived in Plattsmouth at the time but recall watching the tv and how it seemed like it was just hovering over GI, trying to grind the city into dirt.
glad to see the EF4 tornado in Rowlett get some recognition. I've lived in Rowlett for most of my life(I used to live in Oak Cliff until I moved to Rowlett at age 4), and I was just at home when the tornado was crossing the lake and about to hit Rowlett. My grandma took me and my sister and took us to our moms to spend time with her after christmas. When we were in the car, I saw the tornado still in south Garland. My moms was in Duncanville, so after my grandma dropped us off, she had to drive all the way back. 2 days later when we went back to our Grandma's, she told us everything. Luckily, the tornado barely missed my house. But the edge of the tornado hit some stores a quarter a mile away from our house. Since it got close, there was still some damage. We had a damaged roof, leaks everywhere, and our fence was destroyed and had fallen. I still live in the same house to this day. Remembering the suffering the city had went through that day is hard. Every December 26th I am reminded of that day. But thank you so much for putting it in here!
I lived in east Dallas at the time, not too far from Garland. I remember how sad it was to see all the destroyed houses and apartments right after Christmas
I live right across the lake, and it got close enough for the pressure to drop (didn't check to see if we could hear it, since we were hiding in the closet). My mom's friend lived in the neighborhood that was directly hit, and their house was destroyed. The whole neighborhood looked like a bomb had gone off. It was a nightmare. When the sirens went off, we'd just sat down to eat, and we were literally about to bite into the food. I still remember the confusion, because why the heck were the sirens going off in december??
I live in far east Dallas, and it's still so strange seeing the lack of trees in some areas. I was pretty little, so I just remember feeling bad that people's Christmas presents were being destroyed while sitting in a toilet closet. Between Rowlett and Northern Dallas years later, I feel like people often forget how many destructive tornadoes DFW gets compared to other large cities.
Thank you, Swegle, for including the graphic on the percentage of basements. Basements here in Dixie alley, are rare because of the water table as well as cost prohibitive. Most are only partial, faux basements at that.
I lost two close family friends and nearly a family member on the Whippoorwill. One of them was a good swimmer, however he got tangled in an awning and couldn't get out. They were on a church sponsored outing on that occasion. Simply to see the photos brings me to tears even after all this time.
My dad was 19 in the 1999 Moore Tornado. He was mowing a lawn with his older brother at a house in Moore when the lady of the house they were at told them to come inside for a minute. A few minutes later they were in the shelter with this lady and her 10 year old son. After the tornado, all their mowing stuff was gone and a store that sold gardening stuff donated to them. I wasn't alive for the 2003 Moore tornado but one of my past teachers told me that he was in school when the tornado hit and it took out the gym. They were at a pep rally when it hit and they all gathered in the science and arts hallways, and it hit the school just after (Fun fact, it was one of high schools in Moore, which by this point, any school that was built in Moore by 2013 had been hit multiple times). I was at a daycare at a church in Moore when the tornado hit, and I was 3. Somehow, I can vividly remember how it all went down. It was really freaky. I remember that my parents ended up picking me up about half an hour before the tornado hit. It ended up taking out most of the church and lots of a junior high school, some of a high school, and multiple elementary schools. My older friend was going to the junior high that was hit and she ended up having slight injuries from it. They had put all the kids in the hallway by the gym, but the tornado took out all of the gym, the west side of the school, and a few other areas. It totally demolished any of the neighborhoods nearby and destroyed 14 miles of Moore alone, and I think the total cost was over $2 million in 2013. The El Reno tornado from 2013 was also an important one for my family (not saying the others weren't, obviously), because one of my mom's closest friends was a stormchaser that died in that tornado while covering it (he was not a member of the Twist X team, but was a stormchaser for a local station, and had a daughter, I think). She still is suffering from that, because the two were so close, however, I don't remember him very much. And we have had a couple tornado threats in central Oklahoma this year also, but most of the damage has been towards the outskirts of the state, which is surprising, since Central Oklahoma always gets hit, but I think this year has been pretty chill for Oklahoma so far, if you don't think about the EF-3's. Sorry for the paragraph, haha, and thanks Swegle for making so many videos about tornadoes. Some of the ones you cover are so interesting, and made me fall down a rabbit hole myself! :)
An obscure one for 1964, but significant for the time of year. On January 24th Harpersville, Alabama got hit by an unwarned, violent tornado. It hit a row of houses along Highway 280, doing heavy damage and killing ten. One house was picked up whole and thrown into another house, and a heavy ice chest was blown some distance from a third demolished house.. I don't know why, but I've always remembered that tornado, and the mental image of that house flying. Fantastic video, again!
The Flint Beecher tornado is probably the most prolific in my state of Michigan. Even the one north of Hudsonville was a very long tracked F5. But Flint Beecher was just plain scary imo. So many people tell their account of the storm & many say it had an ominous almost green glow along with a a giant black wall as it moved in. Glad I’m far enough north that violent tornadoes don’t usually drop near me, the strongest has been the Gaylord EF3 in 2022 & that tornado had 3 fatalities all from trailer homes.. absolutely love your videos.
My family moved to Topeka KS in the spring of 1967, and there was still plenty of evidence of the June 8, 1966 tornado. One of our favorite hamburger places was newly built right along the tornado's track through town, and a bunch of denuded trees were visible across the street. We lived in a mobile home park that was located on a high hill, but we were across the street from the closest tornado shelter, and while we lived there (1967-1969) a couple of weaker tornadoes touched down in the valley but we were safe.
Your research into all of these events is simply amazing. I greatly appreciate the effort that you put into all of your videos. They never disappoint. I hope your channel becomes HUGE. FYI, Xenia is pronounced zeen-ya.
Hi there - there was a really bad tornado in Maryland in 2002 in La Plata, an F4, that started out as an F5! It's one of the most Eastward tornadoes, second to one in Pennsylvania. Luv your channel btw.
Neither of those things are true. There have been hundreds of tornadoes further east than Maryland and Pennsylvania. This video even mentions several that occurred in Massachusetts for example. And the La Plata tornado was an F4, if it had "started as an F5", then it would be classified as an F5 tornado. That's how the Fujita scale works, it's based on the peak intensity/damage produced and not an average
Love your channel man!!!!! Now "Subbed" Excellent speaking voice, great research and video editing! Keep doing what you are doing! Patrick from Champaign County Illinois
My great-grandmother and great-uncle died on the Wisconsin side of the April 3, 1956 outbreak in Berlin, WI. It's always interesting to hear about the other tornadoes that day, and it's so sad to think about how many families were affected like mine was.
I appreciate the effort you put into this video. No reason to be sorry for it not being as “polished” as you’d like, the overall quality is still fantastic. Thanks dude.
For 1965, the May 6 tornado outbreak around the Twin Cities area (MN) is notable. There were four F4 tornadoes, 13 killed and 683 injured. Advanced warning and one of the earliest uses of outdoor sirens to warn people saved many lives.
Some unsolicited trivia: Udall was so severely impacted that city hall business was conducted for a time in a hotel in Wichita. The city council conducted meetings to determine if the town could even be rebuilt at all. I can't recall which hotel it was.
My mom remembered the Oak Lawn tornado. Illinois still talks about Oak Lawn, Belvidere, and Plainfield to this day. There was also no warning of the Plainfield F5
WGN did sound a Tornado Warning and the NWS Office in Rosemont did issue and approve a Warning. But keep in mind, this was 1990. In ‘90, Tornado Emergency didn’t exist yet and Although Doppler Radar was very well rounded and effective, “Tornado Warning by Rotation” wasn’t in practice yet. Warnings only came if Funnel Clouds were spotted or if a spotter saw a Touchdown. With Plainfield, nobody could spot or see it. Radar indicated and there was a Hook Echo shown On WGN
The EF3 that tore through Elkhorn was just about a mile west of my house. The house was thankfully spared we had no damage but my I do know some people who weren’t as lucky.
31:45 My dad is in the photo taken by the Huntsville Times walking down Airport Rd after the tornado. He left his apartment a mere 15 minutes before a 2x4 went clean through his living room window. Afterwards he walked less than a block to assist in whatever way he could.
My mom remembers the Cardington, OH tornado. They were driving home and passed through there within minutes of it being hit. She said she remembers how black the sky was and that her mom was speeding to get home. Another family members SIL was living in town and was home when it was hit. She had an apartment on the top floor of a building on the main strip of town and rode the tornado out in her bathtub.
Hearing the Niles-Wheatland tornado mentioned makes me so happy. I'm from that area (it happened on the exact day of my mom's HS grad party) and it has such a strong impact to this day on how we report on and respond to tornadoes. My grandpa was lucky they scheduled my mom's party for that day because he worked in Wheatland at the factory and had he been at work, it would've been horrible for my family.
Very nice! Could you do a video on tornado ghost towns sometime in the future. As someone who likes to research tornado damage over time, I think you'd be interested in them and maybe even visiting them yourself
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to go through each year and discuss these tornadoes. You definitely have a skill with the tornado info I know this tornado wasn’t super deadly, but the November 2013 Washington, IL. tornado. I believe it was an EF4 and it did take 3 lives. I had a friend who lived on Gillman Road and his house was lifted off while he hunkered down under stairs in the basement with his two dogs. It leveled a few subdivisions completely and the path it made is crazy to see from the air. I lived in Washington for 26yrs and didn’t ever expect to see a destructive tornado in November of all months! Keep doing what you’re doing man! 👌🏻
I live in Bartlesville! That is all I have heard since the tornado is that we are so lucky. A few blocks from my house, the Hampton Inn got hit and had whole wood planks speared into the side.
Happy first Father's Day as a dad, Jake! Great piece as always. Love love LOVE the addition of the monitors with the Weather Channel and Radar playing in the background, brilliant maneuver, dude! Excellent overview, and you mentioned some I've never looked into, so i'm off to do some more personal research, LOL!
My late grandma was witness to the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado! The house she lived in was spared but the houses nearby were leveled. I believe it killed 26 or 27...most at one intersection. When I was younger she recounted the buildings that used to be different than what they are now in Oak Lawn.
14:40 I’m from Oak Lawn. My band The Rangers wrote and released a song called “Winds of 67” about that tornado in specific. It was definitely a crazy event. Although before my time, in Oak Lawn it’s a huge piece of history. Whenever we play the song on stage, we always dedicate it to the 58 who lost their lives. If you want to hear the song, It’s pretty much everywhere you stream music.
Can we get a designated video about that tornado? The house that my husband & I own is 1-2 blocks west of the tornado path, near 29th & Gage; since it wasn't destroyed by the tornado, it’s one of the oldest in the neighborhood (it was built in 1959).
I really enjoyed this! Nice to see some of Wisconsin's monsters on the list. If you went back to the 1890s the New Richmond disaster would be on the list, but the more recent ones were nasty, too.
Thanks for the upload it came at a perfect time, I’m on bed rest after hydroplaning and going off a hill. I’m fine, car is fine but I’m terrified of driving in the rain. I’m in the south, I’m 24 been driving in the heavy rain since 16 and I thought everybody who pulled over with flashers was just a baby. I’d pass them doing 80. I did that today, I’m right lane and the rain goes from 7/10 to 10/10 I’m losing visibility but I see the car sliding to the left lane. I think it’s either the wind or I just swerved over on accident. I go to correct it, lose all control and I’m doing 70 sideways down a highway, off a cliff and into someone’s front yard. Missed their truck by like 5 feet and their house by a good 20. My grandparents were watching over me today because everyone kept saying “how did you not flip” the whole time I’m spinning out I think I’m going to die, be in the hospital and the car is gonna flip. I really thought I was dead. I have a new respect for rain, even if you drive a 2020 suv it’ll bite you if you play around. Edit: thanks for the love everyone. I love speeding as much as anyone else. Do not play in the rain. Wet roads are dangerous. Wear your seatbelt, by all means have your fun in safe conditions but if the road is wet don’t be stupid drive slow. Someone I grew up with was crossing an intersection with his sister on their way to highschool one day. Both freshmen, it was storming like today and they got hit by a truck while crossing and died on impact. I was in middle school and I remember the teachers mourning, pretty much everyone just comforted eachother till it was time to leave.
@@tomastos9I’ve done it before in my first car and 04 Corolla because it had no traction control. Spinning out In a front wheel drive is like being blindfolded on a rollercoaster that can kill you.
@@ceeinfiniti1389thats what blows my mind, I was In a 2020 trailblazer and I was honestly cruising at 80 in heavy rain. It’s stupid but I’ve done it so much it felt normal. Next thing I know I’m in someone’s front yard. Cars are one of my main hobbies and I’ve been driving 8 years. This was the worst wreck I’ve had by my fault. The car isn’t totaled just some undercarriage damage but I should have flipped atleast 8 times. I went off a cliff so smooth their steering wheel airbag didn’t go off just the side ones and it was like a pillow. The nurse who checked me in to the hospital told me to say a prayer tonight. The nurse who examined me said he treated 10 people himself just today that had been in crashes. The cop I talk to and the tow truck driver were both baffled I didn’t flip it. I’m just glad to be alive
My biggest thought on this years 2024 season only having 3 ef4s really comes down to luck. We’ve had so many incredible and powerful tornados this year just thankfully most didn’t impact highly urban areas. Another great video mate!
Yup Wheatland F5 was something else to see the aftermath as a kid having just missed it getting back to Lake Milton with maybe 10 mins to spare before it hit Newton Falls.
This was before I was born, but my hometown experienced one of the F4s in 1990. It started near Bright, Indiana and ran for about 25 miles doing some terrible damage along the way.
The tornado that touched down in New Brunswick, Canada (in either last year or the year before) lives in my head rent free. It touched down just to destroy a farmer's barn and then dissipated. Savage, lol.
Just found your channel. I predicted the May 31, 1985 tornado of Niles Ohio. Kind of lol. Just missed our home as I watched from the back yard. Kids in basement & husband worked just 3 miles away. My dad was a private pilot & a weather freak. Taught me a lot as we flew & planned trips around weather. He also had the 1st helicopter service at Lake Tahoe in the late 60s. Just knew the atmosphere was so thick that day. Hard to breathe. Begged my husband not to work afternoon shift that day. Tornado would be hitting. What I found out later was there were over 44 tornadoes that day. Originated out of Canada. Took out homes on my street. Incredible but sad day. Thanks for mentioning our little town. Now I brave Florida hurricanes & was in the 6.6 Sylmar quake in 1971. Family say I am a natural disaster waiting to happen.
my step brother and mom were victims in the cookeville 2020 tornado, the most horrifying two weeks of my life. My stepdad was torn apart and it ripped my family apart. Not a day goes by where i don’t have survivors guilt for that boy and his momma Rest peacefully Harlan Marsh and Stephanie Fields 🙏
Excellent video. I stayed up past my bedtime to watch it. Lorian Hemingway (Ernest's granddaughter) wrote a book about the Candlestick Park tornado. She didn't live there at the time. The family moved a year before it happened. It's called, "A world turned over : a killer tornado and the lives it changed forever". It's a great read.
5:51 the way i stopped and actually had to pause the video and just say “..huh???” a solid three or for times- i’m from southern holland and at least in my lifetime, tornadoes have been pretty rare so this is like bonkers to me holy smokes
I think we can all agree that Greenfield Iowa's May 21st tornado was the most insane tornado this year. It broke the wind speed record that the Bridge Creek Moore Oklahoma tornado set back in 1999.
Absolutely love the video! An hour of tornados through the decades?? Ill loose some sleep tonight to wstch in one sitting lol. But I feel like @22:30 the 1975 Omaha F4 should be an honorable mention, as at the time it was the costliest tornado ever recorded to that point.
Awesome video! I'm really surprised you didn't mention the La Plata, Maryland F4 in 2002... I feel that this tornado was easily one of the weirdest tornadoes on record - let alone in 2002. This tornado casued 5 fatalities (the most for the year; 2 were indirect) & at least 122 injuries. It's also the costliest Mid-Atlantic twister, at $115 million (2002 USD). But thats not even close to all! The tornado swept well over a dozen buildings completely clean off their foundation & had the a preliminary rating of F5! Again this is in Southern Maryland... "Heavy F4" damage was produced in downtown La Plata & 4.5 inch hail was recorded! But it keeps getting crazier. A second F2 struck the same exact area within 5 minute of the F4... Between 7:02 and 7:07 pm, both tornadoes crossed through the heart of La Plata. This isn't the first time this has happened too. In 1994, the town was struck by two more tornadoes that only came 11 minutes apart. The first of them being rated F2, too. Not too mention that the town already had one of the deadliest school tornadoes; a high-end F3 to F4 that killed 17 and injured 65 others in November of 1926. But back to the one in 2002. A F4 on this side of the US is already rare enough, but this one also stayed on the ground for 90 minutes and had a 78 mile path... And to put the cherry on top of that, it was moving ~60 mph through downtown La Plata, with an incredibly fast average forward speed of 52 mph. This makes it one of the fastest violent tornadoes on record! The tornado also crossed several rivers and the entire Chesapeake Bay, with a second satellite tornado with it... And I can keep going, like how over half of the EAS systems failed and the tornado was already producing high-end damage unwarned! Needless to say, I would love a video covering this storm or at least a mention. It was quite a unique event, and it's rather forgotten unfortunately... Eitherway, I'm looking forward to your future content & I think you did a awesome job with this one.
If he mentioned every significant tornado this video would be like a day long. He has to cherry-pick the top 3-4 for each year when there are literal thousands to choose from.
@@chdreturnsHalf of your comments on this video (there are multiple) about how you stopped watching because he quote on quote "missed several notable tornadoes", I think you should make your own video about mentioning these if you're going to rip so hard on a creator who has a family and another full time job who uploaded an hour long, well-edited video. It's really interesting how this video was so unfathomable for you to watch yet you decided to leave multiple comments mentioning every one he missed.. neither does Swegle ever pretend he is a tornado expert, or anything of the sort, so I have absolutely no idea where you get the idea that he "doesn't know as much as he lets on". I'm not entirely even sure where that comes from. I'm excited to see your video mentioning every tornado you thought was worthy.
This is a great video. I feel like when compiling data and presenting it like this, it shows how much more common extremely violent tornadoes used to be. Strong F3s would be EF5s today and we haven't had an EF5 since 2013.
I've lived in Mississippi for 34 years. We usually get a few tornados every year but it seems like every 5-6 years, we get a SUPER bad one somewhere in the state. I've been within 5 miles of a tornado at least 10-12 times, and i was a mile and a half away from an F3 in 2014.
I’m just glad I don’t live in Kemper or Neshoba counties. Seems like they’re always getting strong ones. We’ve had 3 F0s go through my yard in 2017, 2018, and 2022 and we had an ef2 hit downtown (about 4 miles to the south) Moss Point, Ms about a year ago.
My great Aunt Caroline was the 6th fatality of the Sept 26th, 1959. I live on the same homestead in Sugar Bush in Waupaca County. She was killed after getting her 6 children into a ditch.
Good video, although you forgot about the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado from 1989 that killed at least 1,300 and is considered the deadliest tornado in history
There technically also was the February 2024 whirlwind in Bandung, Indonesia.. though its technical name is still being debated (tornado/puting beliung)
I live in Tulsa which is about an hour-ish south of Barnsdall and I was literally watching the hook echo on radar on the TV as it was happening and that thing was so well defined it was textbook. Prayers to Barnsdall as they continue to recover. Keep it up!
I watched Rolling Fork and Greenfield happen on weather streams, and those are two experiences I'll remember until my dying day. Watching Freddy McKinney rescue that family from the otherwise unremarkable one in Hawley, TX was something else, though.
28:15 I grew up in a farmhouse that was struck directly by the 1984 Barneveld tornado. Destroyed every single barn, but that farmhouse stayed put. The only surviving building on that hill. The Barneveld Watertown stands strong to this day (I drove by it 2 days ago. It's still holding up.) You can still see the path of destruction that occurred almost exactly 40 years ago. According to my grandpa, the winds were so strong that it lifted the watertower and managed to lodge a singular dollar bill underneith it, which you can still see part of to this day. Many people died that day. Many who worked in the local Cave of the Mounds were injured, and it has left a lasting effect on everyone in the area. From my grandpa, who stores newspapers he gets, I've recovered about 40 different newspaper clippings from the weeks after the tornado, and plan on making a deep dive into it at one point, as there is very few resources about the tornado out there. Thank you very much for mentioning Barneveld, love from Wisconsin ❤
I lived in West Middleton, Pine Bluff area. I was a small child but I remember my parents waking me up to take cover. That storm was remarkable. Worst storm I’ve ever seen, or felt as it were. It was the middle of the night. It felt like the most terrible things were inside it.
I would love any information you share! It's one of my top five tornadoes, not just because I live in WI, but because people said it was the highest frequency of lightning possible with a storm. It's nice your grandads clippings and stories haven't gone to waste
I got my early tornado knowledge from my 5th grade teacher in the 1962-63 school year. He was a Texas native but then living near Washington, DC, where tornadoes are rare. Still, his stories gave me nightmares for years to come. You mentioned an F5 in France on June 24, 1967. That was either the day he died or the next day. Maybe he was wreaking havoc on Earth from the hereafter. There was also a small tornado in Silver Spring, MD, the DC suburb where my teacher lived when he taught me, on June 23 or 24, 2017, the 50th anniversary of his death.
Fun Fact: The Alonsa 2018 EF4 of Manitoba, Canada was actually a very high end EF4 and actually slabbed an anchor bolted house. The only reason it got EF4 rather than EF5 was due to some structural quality of the homes it impacted (Manitoba is similar to the Deep South in that it is unfortunately home to a lot of poverty and poor home construction due to that) and I find it very interesting how Canada almost got an EF5 in the same year that the US did not receive any EF4s or EF5s.
I think this tornado of all tornadoes was the catalyst for specific research into Canadian tornadoes and since then the amount of tornadoes found in Canada has significantly increased. In this way this tornado can be considered one of the great tornadoes as it would greatly advance meteorology within the country of Canada
I'm surprised to see my home state of North Carolina make two spots on this list. The town i live in now has been hit by 2 EF1s in the last 5 years. Now you need to do the worst ones for every state.
the elkhorn nebraska tornado this year, its path was crazy, i dont believe it was the same tornado as the lincoln i80 tornado, i believe the elkhorn tornado started outside waterloo, the minden tornado on the same day was wild too, it was an interesting day for sure. also great video as always :)
Something that has always fascinated me about older tornado footage and photos is that as a kid, I grew up fascinated by tornadoes and absorbed everything I could get my hands on, and yet the entire concept of a tornado potentially being as wide or wider than it was tall (a "wedge") was completely off my radar. Somehow, I managed not to see _any_ video or photos of such a thing until right around when the movie _Twister_ was fixing to release in 1996. As far as I was concerned, such footage simply hadn't existed before the 90s. So it remains a perpetual revelation whenever I see examples of wedge tornadoes from 80s, 70s, even 60s films/photos. It was there all along. Rare, but there. It feels like I'm seeing something alien that shouldn't have existed.
I feel like 2023 was kinda glossed over a bit. the march 31st - April 1st outbreak was kinda wild as far as number of tornadoes, and I remember the large amount of hype created around the double high risks (unless im remembering wrong)
the march 31 was the single highest tornado outbreak of the decade, and the 3rd largest on record. Of the complete tornado outbreak of march 31 and april 1 I believe there was about 164 tornadoes, making it the 2nd largest tornado outbreak including all days of the outbreak (unless we're talking about tornado outbreak sequences then its not)
If they weren't so destructive, they would be quite impressive to look at. That Tuscaloosa Alabama tornado 2011 that looks scary and I was hundreds of miles away from it.
April 27th 2011 is still one of the scariest days of my life. And I took a direct hit from a high-end EF2 in 2018. April 27th was like experiencing a day of hell on earth.
Swegle, I remember the tornado from 11/28/88 greatly, because my local news was on that night nonstop covering it and it was a nocturnal tornado, but I never knew that it was an F4. Awesome content, brother.
I just stumbled on this channel and now I'm obsessed haha. I'm from nebraska and this tornado season has been insane, just had one recently that resulted in 220,000 losing power
I was coming back to Muncie, Indiana from a school-sponsored tour of IU - Bloomington during the 2002 long-track tornado. I remember seeing the trees whipping around on the side of the highway. My parents later told me the tornado followed the bus as we traveled I-69 from Indy back to Muncie. I took shelter at our high school once the bus unloaded. Very scary. I didn't know it had a tornado emergency attached to it until today
Been through a couple of tornadoes when growing up in Alabama, but the 1998 tornado was horrible. Adjacent to McDonalds Chapel is Edgewater, my childhood hometown. It and several communities suffered more than McDonalds Chapel during that storm. Thanks for the video and you presented it very well.
48:36 I vividly remember this. There was a couple more tornadoes to the northeast of rowlett. I’d say the most memorable image from that day is seeing a gas station called “Willard’s” in Copeville become rubble. I think 3 people died in that one building. This single tornado is what started my obsession with tornadoes. Without the December 26th, 2015 tornadoes, I wouldn’t be watching this video right now.
12:10 This might seem crazy, but the reason for this is actually because the chances of a tornado actually striking a home are so low. Most people in the Midwest will live there their whole lives without ever having an encounter with a tornado (I'm one of those people; I've lived in the midwest for all 29 years of my life so far and have never been directly affected by one, though I've been close enough to hear one), so demand for basements for that reason are quite low, especially since basements are a liability during a hurricane, and your likelihood of encountering a hurricane at some point in your life in the states bordering the gulf is pretty near 100%. The main reason for wanting to have a basement is actually for heating. Basements are easier to keep warm in the winter, saving energy. This is a giant boon in the northern midwest states, where it gets quite cold.
Wow. I had no idea about the Judsonia F4. It must have been that bad that nobody ever talked about it. My grandpa and his side of the family.was born and raised there and nobody ever mentioned it. I don’t think it was even in history classes.
It either completely destroyed or heavily damaged all but about two buildings in the main part of town. So many people were killed in Judsonia that they held a mass funeral for all the deceased who were members of the Baptist church and another mass funeral for all who were members of the Methodist church. Even then, there was a significant delay in being able to have those funerals because the cemetery was so full of debris that they couldn't dig graves.
i was in the joplin tornado. got down to a basement of my grandfathers house as the roof was ripping off. the city looked like a warzone after. I still live in the path of where it hit today not far from where my original place was destroyed.
51:14 This one passed within half a mile of my house on its way out of lebanon and towards Cookeville. There's STILL bits of insulation in my trees from my neighbors' houses.
You mentioned the regionality of basements. I grew up in Michigan, and thought basically all buildings had basements, or at least some sort of underground space that might not be a full basement. I thought they were just necessary for the stability of a building on soil. I was weirded out when I moved to a state that did not have basements. Why? At first I thought it might be a water table issue, but basements in all the houses I've lived in had sump pumps to keep them dry (and if it failed, the basement would gradually flood). It's not a cost thing either, since expensive homes also do not have basements. So, why no basements? They're super useful for utilities and stuff, not just as tornado shelters.
I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you the issue where I live is absolutely a water table issue. I live along the SE coast. Despite living several miles inland the elevation where I am is only 6.5ft above sea level. Living east of the Appalachian Mts means all the rivers flow downhill and enter the Atlantic nearby. Local flooding as a result of heavy rainfall (sometimes over 100 miles away) can be common as all that water makes it way downriver. Moderate to severe hurricanes can deliver storm surges in excess of 10 feet. Not only does that bury thousands of homes in water, but basements would absolutely be flooded. It's not unusual for heavy rainfall in addition to high tide to cause localized flooding, more flooded basements. Last, living SE of the Appalachian Mts prevents much of the weather that spawns tornadoes. So, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida....basements here are more trouble than they're worth and not really necessary. It isn't uncommon for homes here to have the entire first floor be a carport/garage/utility area with living spaces being floors 2+ for all the reasons above.
I also find it weird. I live in a river flood plain and have a basement. We have had the river literally flood and lap at out front steps and our sump kept up for the most part. I’ve lived in homes that sometimes had a little lake in them where everything was in water a few inches deep. I live in northern IN so not a crazy tornado area but we have literally turned down homes as options to purchase because of tornados. Even tho I’ve never been in one or seen one. I’d still rather have a wet basement than a closet any day.
In most of "Tornado alley" bedrock is found a foot or two down from the surface, and it can take a full crew two weeks with jackhammers to create one small home's basement. Very expensive to do so it rarely happens. Other places there and in "Dixie alley: the water table is so high at least part of the year that you'd need several sump pumps running constantly to keep a basement dry. You can fins several vids online showing concrete tornado shelters floating out of the ground because of high water tables so you'd turn houses into boats to put basements in.
@@P_RO_ Yeah, flooding around here is a seasonal, predictable event, not a once in a decade tragedy. Moderate rain and high tide can flood blocks of streets here because there's simply no where for the water to go when you're so close to sea level. You would likely experience flood events in your basement 6-12 times a year, if not more.
So, I did some more research on this, and one of the reasons that basements are the norm in the North is because you have to get below the frost line, which is several feet below the surface. There are obviously plenty of places in the North with a high water table, and that just means you've got a maintenance issue. It's normal to hear a neighbor say "well, my basement flooded again when we lost power..." I presume this is the origin of the "Michigan Basement" you'll see in older houses, where the basement is basically just a hole in the ground, and not made into a usable space since it's going to be subject to moisture and flooding anyway. If you're *not* facing the freezing issue, then it's not worth fighting with a high water table or bedrock just below the surface. Some locations also have expansive soil that make basements impractical or unstable. In California, basements are perceived as a seismic risk (although it seems like that's just a perception, I'm not sure it's an actual risk).
Took awhile to make this video and just fyi is slightly less polished than my usual videos. Im sure I pronounced several towns incorrectly haha. Also still working on the lighting and new studio. Trying to go for like a cozy weather bunker 80s basement vibe.. Anyway thanks for watching and be sure to check out some merch if you're interested!
Yoo 👋 so excited to see a new upload 🙂
Looking good so far! We appreciate that you keep working on your studio.
I absolutely love what you're doing with the studio!
It looks immaculate. Love the new studio vibe !
I like it
You’re my tornado dad. Happy Father’s Day.
I don’t even know who you are, but I agree with you.
Same
I got a lot of new siblings suddenly
What should we get him for Father’s Day
Lolololol 🌪
An hour of the most dangerous tornados over the years? Susan get my pants.
🤣👖
Can you have her bring me mine as well please
yess!
I still say this too lol it's classic 😂
What do you need pants for?? I'm currently not wearing any. That's the good thing about RUclips. Pants not required
My mom is a claims adjuster for an insurance company and was activated for "storm duty" to OK after 5/20/13. I remember seeing pictures of the devastation she had sent to me in the three weeks she was there and it was just absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. Something I will never forget and inspired me to become a meteorologist. I graduated this year with my bachelors in Atmospheric Science!
👍
♥
Love this!! Congrats on your graduation!’
Congratulations. My parents said I should have been one, but I didn't like physics or chemistry much.
Congrats to you. Enjoy your career. (Jan Griffiths).
This guy is hella underrated like he doesnt just show a video and thats it he actually puts his commentary and his thoughts on it, truly a hidden gem in a sea of mediocrity.
yeah bcuz theres no other channels that talk directly into the camera 😂
54:50 my dad was there. He was visiting his old high-school friend, and saw it less than half a mile away from him, and he still has a video of it.
My dad remembers the 1966 Topeka tornado, his dad went to town that day after to help with anything. He has lived in Kansas for 63 years and he has never seen a tornado with his own eyes
Future WBBM Anchorman Bill Kurtis said "For God's sake take cover!".
bro i'm terrified by tornados but watching videos about them somehow comforts me.
It might make you realize how little the chance of dying to one is. I’m the same why and I don’t know why. I’m personally not afraid of the death part anymore because of these videos, it’s more of loosing my entire life in a matter of minutes that I can’t get over
It doesn't calm me. Im mainly here for exposure therapy and bc sometimes niche things interest me
Thanks for highlighting Wisconsin and their propensity for unusually strong tornadoes given its locale! One interesting one that you mentioned was the 1981 West Bend tornado. It was a strong F4 that struck overnight when the storm was weakening, however the most noted feature was it is the strongest anticyclonic tornado on record! It started right in my childhood back yard too
The Plainfield f5 was unwarned. Nobody knew it was coming.
Yes, I had the same thought when he was surprised that there was no footage. It was unwarned and also rain wrapped so not really visible like the Joplin tornado.
All there was at that time of the tornado was a severe thunderstorm warning that mentioned strong winds and large hail. However, it also did mention that a tornado could form with little to no advance warning with that storm but this warning was issued after it hit Plainfield.
I survived this tornado. My dad is in the book helping recover bodies across the street. I lived on Gaylord, just south of Theodore in Crest Hill.
There were several indications of a tornado at the NWS office but they were hesitant to "cry wolf" about it until they were sure which only happened after the tornado entered town and someone called in that a tornado had hit. It was national NWS policy to not warn of a tornado unless it was confirmed, so it became known as the "Plainfield Syndrome" and brought about a national NWS policy change where they warn of all possible tornadoes even if they aren't confirmed. This has resulted in the opposite effect where so many warnings are given where no tornadoes are that people tend to ignore the NWS warnings now.
Future ABC News Correspondent Elizabeth Vargas & future NBC Nightly News Anchorman Lester Holt were there.
I'd personally say that the Daulatpur-Saturia, Bangladesh tornado was the worst tornado of 1989, as it is the deadliest tornado ever recorded. 1200 people lost their lives, while 13000 were injured. I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention it.
Loved the video. Keep up the amazing work.
Fr
I think he was just focusing on the U.S
Nevermind lol i just heard him say china
Like 24 of the 40 most deadliest tornados are all in Bangladesh and most of those are in the dhaka district
@@valeriag3528no he did not he mentioned australia, argentina and other countries
Born and raised in Grand Island (1993) and I grew up hearing so many stories about June 3rd, 1980! The F4 that tracked down South Locust Street completely leveled my great grandpa's auto body shop!
Same here, but I was 10 when it happened. Something I’ll never forget!
I remember that day. I lived in Plattsmouth at the time but recall watching the tv and how it seemed like it was just hovering over GI, trying to grind the city into dirt.
glad to see the EF4 tornado in Rowlett get some recognition. I've lived in Rowlett for most of my life(I used to live in Oak Cliff until I moved to Rowlett at age 4), and I was just at home when the tornado was crossing the lake and about to hit Rowlett. My grandma took me and my sister and took us to our moms to spend time with her after christmas. When we were in the car, I saw the tornado still in south Garland. My moms was in Duncanville, so after my grandma dropped us off, she had to drive all the way back. 2 days later when we went back to our Grandma's, she told us everything. Luckily, the tornado barely missed my house. But the edge of the tornado hit some stores a quarter a mile away from our house. Since it got close, there was still some damage. We had a damaged roof, leaks everywhere, and our fence was destroyed and had fallen. I still live in the same house to this day. Remembering the suffering the city had went through that day is hard. Every December 26th I am reminded of that day. But thank you so much for putting it in here!
I lived in east Dallas at the time, not too far from Garland. I remember how sad it was to see all the destroyed houses and apartments right after Christmas
I live right across the lake, and it got close enough for the pressure to drop (didn't check to see if we could hear it, since we were hiding in the closet). My mom's friend lived in the neighborhood that was directly hit, and their house was destroyed. The whole neighborhood looked like a bomb had gone off. It was a nightmare. When the sirens went off, we'd just sat down to eat, and we were literally about to bite into the food. I still remember the confusion, because why the heck were the sirens going off in december??
I live in far east Dallas, and it's still so strange seeing the lack of trees in some areas. I was pretty little, so I just remember feeling bad that people's Christmas presents were being destroyed while sitting in a toilet closet. Between Rowlett and Northern Dallas years later, I feel like people often forget how many destructive tornadoes DFW gets compared to other large cities.
I was cooped up in the Wylie Walmart until about 8 o’clock. I remember driving back to my house and whenever lightning flashed I’d see tornadoes.
That is the weirdest time ever for a tornado
Thank you, Swegle, for including the graphic on the percentage of basements. Basements here in Dixie alley, are rare because of the water table as well as cost prohibitive. Most are only partial, faux basements at that.
Where I live, rock is very close to the surface. If you want a basement, you have to blast.
We lost 17 in the tornado of 2021.
OMG! 56 minutes and 18 seconds of pure entertainment!?!?! Every time this dude drops its a banger.
I lost two close family friends and nearly a family member on the Whippoorwill. One of them was a good swimmer, however he got tangled in an awning and couldn't get out. They were on a church sponsored outing on that occasion. Simply to see the photos brings me to tears even after all this time.
😢😢😢😢😢rip 2 close fam friends of your family that lost their lives
My dad was 19 in the 1999 Moore Tornado. He was mowing a lawn with his older brother at a house in Moore when the lady of the house they were at told them to come inside for a minute. A few minutes later they were in the shelter with this lady and her 10 year old son. After the tornado, all their mowing stuff was gone and a store that sold gardening stuff donated to them.
I wasn't alive for the 2003 Moore tornado but one of my past teachers told me that he was in school when the tornado hit and it took out the gym. They were at a pep rally when it hit and they all gathered in the science and arts hallways, and it hit the school just after (Fun fact, it was one of high schools in Moore, which by this point, any school that was built in Moore by 2013 had been hit multiple times).
I was at a daycare at a church in Moore when the tornado hit, and I was 3. Somehow, I can vividly remember how it all went down. It was really freaky. I remember that my parents ended up picking me up about half an hour before the tornado hit. It ended up taking out most of the church and lots of a junior high school, some of a high school, and multiple elementary schools. My older friend was going to the junior high that was hit and she ended up having slight injuries from it. They had put all the kids in the hallway by the gym, but the tornado took out all of the gym, the west side of the school, and a few other areas. It totally demolished any of the neighborhoods nearby and destroyed 14 miles of Moore alone, and I think the total cost was over $2 million in 2013.
The El Reno tornado from 2013 was also an important one for my family (not saying the others weren't, obviously), because one of my mom's closest friends was a stormchaser that died in that tornado while covering it (he was not a member of the Twist X team, but was a stormchaser for a local station, and had a daughter, I think). She still is suffering from that, because the two were so close, however, I don't remember him very much.
And we have had a couple tornado threats in central Oklahoma this year also, but most of the damage has been towards the outskirts of the state, which is surprising, since Central Oklahoma always gets hit, but I think this year has been pretty chill for Oklahoma so far, if you don't think about the EF-3's.
Sorry for the paragraph, haha, and thanks Swegle for making so many videos about tornadoes. Some of the ones you cover are so interesting, and made me fall down a rabbit hole myself! :)
An obscure one for 1964, but significant for the time of year. On January 24th Harpersville, Alabama got hit by an unwarned, violent tornado. It hit a row of houses along Highway 280, doing heavy damage and killing ten. One house was picked up whole and thrown into another house, and a heavy ice chest was blown some distance from a third demolished house.. I don't know why, but I've always remembered that tornado, and the mental image of that house flying. Fantastic video, again!
Thanks for your contributions, always enjoy them. Gr from holland
The Flint Beecher tornado is probably the most prolific in my state of Michigan. Even the one north of Hudsonville was a very long tracked F5. But Flint Beecher was just plain scary imo. So many people tell their account of the storm & many say it had an ominous almost green glow along with a a giant black wall as it moved in. Glad I’m far enough north that violent tornadoes don’t usually drop near me, the strongest has been the Gaylord EF3 in 2022 & that tornado had 3 fatalities all from trailer homes.. absolutely love your videos.
My family moved to Topeka KS in the spring of 1967, and there was still plenty of evidence of the June 8, 1966 tornado. One of our favorite hamburger places was newly built right along the tornado's track through town, and a bunch of denuded trees were visible across the street. We lived in a mobile home park that was located on a high hill, but we were across the street from the closest tornado shelter, and while we lived there (1967-1969) a couple of weaker tornadoes touched down in the valley but we were safe.
Your research into all of these events is simply amazing. I greatly appreciate the effort that you put into all of your videos. They never disappoint. I hope your channel becomes HUGE. FYI, Xenia is pronounced zeen-ya.
Hi there - there was a really bad tornado in Maryland in 2002 in La Plata, an F4, that started out as an F5! It's one of the most Eastward tornadoes, second to one in Pennsylvania. Luv your channel btw.
Neither of those things are true. There have been hundreds of tornadoes further east than Maryland and Pennsylvania. This video even mentions several that occurred in Massachusetts for example. And the La Plata tornado was an F4, if it had "started as an F5", then it would be classified as an F5 tornado. That's how the Fujita scale works, it's based on the peak intensity/damage produced and not an average
An hour long Swegle video about tornados??? It must be early Christmas!!
Love your channel man!!!!!
Now "Subbed"
Excellent speaking voice, great research and video editing!
Keep doing what you are doing!
Patrick from Champaign County Illinois
I Love Watching This Guy’s Tornado Videos A lot and He’s Very Easygoing of Speaking
My great-grandmother and great-uncle died on the Wisconsin side of the April 3, 1956 outbreak in Berlin, WI. It's always interesting to hear about the other tornadoes that day, and it's so sad to think about how many families were affected like mine was.
I appreciate the effort you put into this video. No reason to be sorry for it not being as “polished” as you’d like, the overall quality is still fantastic. Thanks dude.
Dude, the tv in the background playing the weather channel stuff is chef's kiss... so awesome
Thank you for pounting out how alot of people in Louisiana and Mississippi don't have basements. I think alot of people forget how swampy it is here.
For 1965, the May 6 tornado outbreak around the Twin Cities area (MN) is notable. There were four F4 tornadoes, 13 killed and 683 injured. Advanced warning and one of the earliest uses of outdoor sirens to warn people saved many lives.
WCCO had the Klaxon Horn to alert the drowsiest of listeners.
27:52 Thank you for adding this one to the list. I was 7 years old in 1984, and it was a very scary event.
Some unsolicited trivia: Udall was so severely impacted that city hall business was conducted for a time in a hotel in Wichita. The city council conducted meetings to determine if the town could even be rebuilt at all. I can't recall which hotel it was.
Imagine city hall being a hotel lmao
It was probably the Allis hotel
@@cosmictraveler1146 There was no city hall or city services remaining. It was a good choice IMO.
It's truly a pleasure to hear you talk about tornados. You're entertaining and have a soothing voice.
My mom remembered the Oak Lawn tornado. Illinois still talks about Oak Lawn, Belvidere, and Plainfield to this day. There was also no warning of the Plainfield F5
WGN did sound a Tornado Warning and the NWS Office in Rosemont did issue and approve a Warning. But keep in mind, this was 1990. In ‘90, Tornado Emergency didn’t exist yet and Although Doppler Radar was very well rounded and effective, “Tornado Warning by Rotation” wasn’t in practice yet. Warnings only came if Funnel Clouds were spotted or if a spotter saw a Touchdown. With Plainfield, nobody could spot or see it. Radar indicated and there was a Hook Echo shown On WGN
@@plawson8577 Ah ok. I wasnt alive then and my info is second hand from a video I saw on that tornado.
My friends dad always talks about the Belvidere tornado. It passed within a block of his auto shop and sandblasted the paint off the cars in the lot
The EF3 that tore through Elkhorn was just about a mile west of my house. The house was thankfully spared we had no damage but my I do know some people who weren’t as lucky.
31:45 My dad is in the photo taken by the Huntsville Times walking down Airport Rd after the tornado. He left his apartment a mere 15 minutes before a 2x4 went clean through his living room window. Afterwards he walked less than a block to assist in whatever way he could.
My mom remembers the Cardington, OH tornado. They were driving home and passed through there within minutes of it being hit. She said she remembers how black the sky was and that her mom was speeding to get home. Another family members SIL was living in town and was home when it was hit. She had an apartment on the top floor of a building on the main strip of town and rode the tornado out in her bathtub.
Hearing the Niles-Wheatland tornado mentioned makes me so happy. I'm from that area (it happened on the exact day of my mom's HS grad party) and it has such a strong impact to this day on how we report on and respond to tornadoes. My grandpa was lucky they scheduled my mom's party for that day because he worked in Wheatland at the factory and had he been at work, it would've been horrible for my family.
Love your videos, man - keep the chill, educational vibes going!
Very nice! Could you do a video on tornado ghost towns sometime in the future. As someone who likes to research tornado damage over time, I think you'd be interested in them and maybe even visiting them yourself
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to go through each year and discuss these tornadoes. You definitely have a skill with the tornado info
I know this tornado wasn’t super deadly, but the November 2013 Washington, IL. tornado. I believe it was an EF4 and it did take 3 lives. I had a friend who lived on Gillman Road and his house was lifted off while he hunkered down under stairs in the basement with his two dogs.
It leveled a few subdivisions completely and the path it made is crazy to see from the air.
I lived in Washington for 26yrs and didn’t ever expect to see a destructive tornado in November of all months!
Keep doing what you’re doing man! 👌🏻
I live in Bartlesville! That is all I have heard since the tornado is that we are so lucky. A few blocks from my house, the Hampton Inn got hit and had whole wood planks speared into the side.
Happy first Father's Day as a dad, Jake! Great piece as always. Love love LOVE the addition of the monitors with the Weather Channel and Radar playing in the background, brilliant maneuver, dude! Excellent overview, and you mentioned some I've never looked into, so i'm off to do some more personal research, LOL!
My late grandma was witness to the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado! The house she lived in was spared but the houses nearby were leveled. I believe it killed 26 or 27...most at one intersection. When I was younger she recounted the buildings that used to be different than what they are now in Oak Lawn.
14:40 I’m from Oak Lawn. My band The Rangers wrote and released a song called “Winds of 67” about that tornado in specific. It was definitely a crazy event. Although before my time, in Oak Lawn it’s a huge piece of history. Whenever we play the song on stage, we always dedicate it to the 58 who lost their lives.
If you want to hear the song, It’s pretty much everywhere you stream music.
The Topeka F5 brought to fame one of my favorite narrators in history, Bill Kurtis!
Can we get a designated video about that tornado? The house that my husband & I own is 1-2 blocks west of the tornado path, near 29th & Gage; since it wasn't destroyed by the tornado, it’s one of the oldest in the neighborhood (it was built in 1959).
I really enjoyed this! Nice to see some of Wisconsin's monsters on the list. If you went back to the 1890s the New Richmond disaster would be on the list, but the more recent ones were nasty, too.
Thanks for the upload it came at a perfect time, I’m on bed rest after hydroplaning and going off a hill.
I’m fine, car is fine but I’m terrified of driving in the rain. I’m in the south, I’m 24 been driving in the heavy rain since 16 and I thought everybody who pulled over with flashers was just a baby. I’d pass them doing 80.
I did that today, I’m right lane and the rain goes from 7/10 to 10/10 I’m losing visibility but I see the car sliding to the left lane. I think it’s either the wind or I just swerved over on accident. I go to correct it, lose all control and I’m doing 70 sideways down a highway, off a cliff and into someone’s front yard. Missed their truck by like 5 feet and their house by a good 20. My grandparents were watching over me today because everyone kept saying “how did you not flip” the whole time I’m spinning out I think I’m going to die, be in the hospital and the car is gonna flip. I really thought I was dead. I have a new respect for rain, even if you drive a 2020 suv it’ll bite you if you play around.
Edit: thanks for the love everyone. I love speeding as much as anyone else. Do not play in the rain. Wet roads are dangerous. Wear your seatbelt, by all means have your fun in safe conditions but if the road is wet don’t be stupid drive slow. Someone I grew up with was crossing an intersection with his sister on their way to highschool one day. Both freshmen, it was storming like today and they got hit by a truck while crossing and died on impact. I was in middle school and I remember the teachers mourning, pretty much everyone just comforted eachother till it was time to leave.
Hydroplaning is no joke, glad you and the car were fine
Glad to hear you're alright! That definitely sounds terrifying! Even with modern SUVs, they can hydroplane at speeds as slow as 35mph.
@@tomastos9I’ve done it before in my first car and 04 Corolla because it had no traction control. Spinning out In a front wheel drive is like being blindfolded on a rollercoaster that can kill you.
@@ceeinfiniti1389thats what blows my mind, I was In a 2020 trailblazer and I was honestly cruising at 80 in heavy rain. It’s stupid but I’ve done it so much it felt normal. Next thing I know I’m in someone’s front yard. Cars are one of my main hobbies and I’ve been driving 8 years. This was the worst wreck I’ve had by my fault. The car isn’t totaled just some undercarriage damage but I should have flipped atleast 8 times. I went off a cliff so smooth their steering wheel airbag didn’t go off just the side ones and it was like a pillow. The nurse who checked me in to the hospital told me to say a prayer tonight. The nurse who examined me said he treated 10 people himself just today that had been in crashes. The cop I talk to and the tow truck driver were both baffled I didn’t flip it. I’m just glad to be alive
My biggest thought on this years 2024 season only having 3 ef4s really comes down to luck. We’ve had so many incredible and powerful tornados this year just thankfully most didn’t impact highly urban areas. Another great video mate!
Yup Wheatland F5 was something else to see the aftermath as a kid having just missed it getting back to Lake Milton with maybe 10 mins to spare before it hit Newton Falls.
This was before I was born, but my hometown experienced one of the F4s in 1990. It started near Bright, Indiana and ran for about 25 miles doing some terrible damage along the way.
The tornado that touched down in New Brunswick, Canada (in either last year or the year before) lives in my head rent free. It touched down just to destroy a farmer's barn and then dissipated. Savage, lol.
Just found your channel. I predicted the May 31, 1985 tornado of Niles Ohio. Kind of lol. Just missed our home as I watched from the back yard. Kids in basement & husband worked just 3 miles away. My dad was a private pilot & a weather freak. Taught me a lot as we flew & planned trips around weather. He also had the 1st helicopter service at Lake Tahoe in the late 60s. Just knew the atmosphere was so thick that day. Hard to breathe.
Begged my husband not to work afternoon shift that day. Tornado would be hitting. What I found out later was there were over 44 tornadoes that day. Originated out of Canada. Took out homes on my street.
Incredible but sad day.
Thanks for mentioning our little town. Now I brave Florida hurricanes & was in the 6.6 Sylmar quake in 1971. Family say I am a natural disaster waiting to happen.
my step brother and mom were victims in the cookeville 2020 tornado, the most horrifying two weeks of my life. My stepdad was torn apart and it ripped my family apart. Not a day goes by where i don’t have survivors guilt for that boy and his momma
Rest peacefully Harlan Marsh and Stephanie Fields 🙏
I’m so sorry for your loss. I know there’s not much I can say to bring you comfort, but I hope that time has eased the survivor’s guilt.
I cannot even begin to explain the excited screech I let out when I saw you uploaded this vid… THANK YOU SO MUCH SWEGLE
Almost 1 hour of video about tornadoes? Yes please
Excellent video. I stayed up past my bedtime to watch it. Lorian Hemingway (Ernest's granddaughter) wrote a book about the Candlestick Park tornado. She didn't live there at the time. The family moved a year before it happened. It's called, "A world turned over : a killer tornado and the lives it changed forever". It's a great read.
Woo I was excited for this video to come out!
Nice work Swegle!❤️
5:51 the way i stopped and actually had to pause the video and just say “..huh???” a solid three or for times-
i’m from southern holland and at least in my lifetime, tornadoes have been pretty rare so this is like
bonkers to me holy smokes
Happiest Father's Day Jake!! Thank you for making these videos!
PS I love the vibe you're going for with the background!!
I think we can all agree that Greenfield Iowa's May 21st tornado was the most insane tornado this year.
It broke the wind speed record that the Bridge Creek Moore Oklahoma tornado set back in 1999.
An hour long Swegle video? Its a good day
It is a GREAT day.
Been a while
Absolutely love the video! An hour of tornados through the decades?? Ill loose some sleep tonight to wstch in one sitting lol.
But I feel like @22:30 the 1975 Omaha F4 should be an honorable mention, as at the time it was the costliest tornado ever recorded to that point.
Awesome video!
I'm really surprised you didn't mention the La Plata, Maryland F4 in 2002...
I feel that this tornado was easily one of the weirdest tornadoes on record - let alone in 2002.
This tornado casued 5 fatalities (the most for the year; 2 were indirect) & at least 122 injuries. It's also the costliest Mid-Atlantic twister, at $115 million (2002 USD). But thats not even close to all!
The tornado swept well over a dozen buildings completely clean off their foundation & had the a preliminary rating of F5! Again this is in Southern Maryland...
"Heavy F4" damage was produced in downtown La Plata & 4.5 inch hail was recorded! But it keeps getting crazier.
A second F2 struck the same exact area within 5 minute of the F4... Between 7:02 and 7:07 pm, both tornadoes crossed through the heart of La Plata. This isn't the first time this has happened too. In 1994, the town was struck by two more tornadoes that only came 11 minutes apart. The first of them being rated F2, too.
Not too mention that the town already had one of the deadliest school tornadoes; a high-end F3 to F4 that killed 17 and injured 65 others in November of 1926.
But back to the one in 2002.
A F4 on this side of the US is already rare enough, but this one also stayed on the ground for 90 minutes and had a 78 mile path...
And to put the cherry on top of that, it was moving ~60 mph through downtown La Plata, with an incredibly fast average forward speed of 52 mph. This makes it one of the fastest violent tornadoes on record!
The tornado also crossed several rivers and the entire Chesapeake Bay, with a second satellite tornado with it... And I can keep going, like how over half of the EAS systems failed and the tornado was already producing high-end damage unwarned!
Needless to say, I would love a video covering this storm or at least a mention.
It was quite a unique event, and it's rather forgotten unfortunately...
Eitherway, I'm looking forward to your future content & I think you did a awesome job with this one.
So many significant ones not mentioned by Swegle, I'm beginning to think he doesn't know as much as he lets on.
If he mentioned every significant tornado this video would be like a day long. He has to cherry-pick the top 3-4 for each year when there are literal thousands to choose from.
@@chdreturnsHalf of your comments on this video (there are multiple) about how you stopped watching because he quote on quote "missed several notable tornadoes", I think you should make your own video about mentioning these if you're going to rip so hard on a creator who has a family and another full time job who uploaded an hour long, well-edited video. It's really interesting how this video was so unfathomable for you to watch yet you decided to leave multiple comments mentioning every one he missed.. neither does Swegle ever pretend he is a tornado expert, or anything of the sort, so I have absolutely no idea where you get the idea that he "doesn't know as much as he lets on". I'm not entirely even sure where that comes from. I'm excited to see your video mentioning every tornado you thought was worthy.
This is a great video. I feel like when compiling data and presenting it like this, it shows how much more common extremely violent tornadoes used to be. Strong F3s would be EF5s today and we haven't had an EF5 since 2013.
I've lived in Mississippi for 34 years. We usually get a few tornados every year but it seems like every 5-6 years, we get a SUPER bad one somewhere in the state. I've been within 5 miles of a tornado at least 10-12 times, and i was a mile and a half away from an F3 in 2014.
I’m just glad I don’t live in Kemper or Neshoba counties. Seems like they’re always getting strong ones. We’ve had 3 F0s go through my yard in 2017, 2018, and 2022 and we had an ef2 hit downtown (about 4 miles to the south) Moss Point, Ms about a year ago.
My great Aunt Caroline was the 6th fatality of the Sept 26th, 1959. I live on the same homestead in Sugar Bush in Waupaca County. She was killed after getting her 6 children into a ditch.
Good video, although you forgot about the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado from 1989 that killed at least 1,300 and is considered the deadliest tornado in history
I guess he was talking about the US?
@@Nolanj13 But he talked about tornadoes from other countries as well, including a different tornado from Bangladesh.
@@Bluestarlover1100good point
The guys stats are wrong ..the deadliest tornado this year was in South africa also @@Bluestarlover1100
There technically also was the February 2024 whirlwind in Bandung, Indonesia.. though its technical name is still being debated (tornado/puting beliung)
I live in Tulsa which is about an hour-ish south of Barnsdall and I was literally watching the hook echo on radar on the TV as it was happening and that thing was so well defined it was textbook. Prayers to Barnsdall as they continue to recover. Keep it up!
Babe wake up hour long Swegle Studios video just dropped
I was gonna comment that
I feel like I see you in every video
@@Watermelon-i8y I just checked and he only has one comment on this channel. I assume we've all just been seeing people commenting the same thing.
@@CamcorderHomeVideos Yes I have seen a person comment the same thing in a video on another channel
@@CamcorderHomeVideos Bots, that's why.
I watched Rolling Fork and Greenfield happen on weather streams, and those are two experiences I'll remember until my dying day. Watching Freddy McKinney rescue that family from the otherwise unremarkable one in Hawley, TX was something else, though.
28:15
I grew up in a farmhouse that was struck directly by the 1984 Barneveld tornado.
Destroyed every single barn, but that farmhouse stayed put. The only surviving building on that hill.
The Barneveld Watertown stands strong to this day (I drove by it 2 days ago. It's still holding up.)
You can still see the path of destruction that occurred almost exactly 40 years ago.
According to my grandpa, the winds were so strong that it lifted the watertower and managed to lodge a singular dollar bill underneith it, which you can still see part of to this day.
Many people died that day. Many who worked in the local Cave of the Mounds were injured, and it has left a lasting effect on everyone in the area.
From my grandpa, who stores newspapers he gets, I've recovered about 40 different newspaper clippings from the weeks after the tornado, and plan on making a deep dive into it at one point, as there is very few resources about the tornado out there.
Thank you very much for mentioning Barneveld, love from Wisconsin ❤
I lived in West Middleton, Pine Bluff area. I was a small child but I remember my parents waking me up to take cover. That storm was remarkable. Worst storm I’ve ever seen, or felt as it were. It was the middle of the night. It felt like the most terrible things were inside it.
I would love any information you share! It's one of my top five tornadoes, not just because I live in WI, but because people said it was the highest frequency of lightning possible with a storm.
It's nice your grandads clippings and stories haven't gone to waste
I got my early tornado knowledge from my 5th grade teacher in the 1962-63 school year. He was a Texas native but then living near Washington, DC, where tornadoes are rare. Still, his stories gave me nightmares for years to come. You mentioned an F5 in France on June 24, 1967. That was either the day he died or the next day. Maybe he was wreaking havoc on Earth from the hereafter. There was also a small tornado in Silver Spring, MD, the DC suburb where my teacher lived when he taught me, on June 23 or 24, 2017, the 50th anniversary of his death.
Fun Fact: The Alonsa 2018 EF4 of Manitoba, Canada was actually a very high end EF4 and actually slabbed an anchor bolted house. The only reason it got EF4 rather than EF5 was due to some structural quality of the homes it impacted (Manitoba is similar to the Deep South in that it is unfortunately home to a lot of poverty and poor home construction due to that) and I find it very interesting how Canada almost got an EF5 in the same year that the US did not receive any EF4s or EF5s.
I think this tornado of all tornadoes was the catalyst for specific research into Canadian tornadoes and since then the amount of tornadoes found in Canada has significantly increased. In this way this tornado can be considered one of the great tornadoes as it would greatly advance meteorology within the country of Canada
and also, the Scarth and Didsbury Tornadoes both had windspeeds in the EF5 range too.
I'm surprised to see my home state of North Carolina make two spots on this list. The town i live in now has been hit by 2 EF1s in the last 5 years. Now you need to do the worst ones for every state.
the elkhorn nebraska tornado this year, its path was crazy, i dont believe it was the same tornado as the lincoln i80 tornado, i believe the elkhorn tornado started outside waterloo, the minden tornado on the same day was wild too, it was an interesting day for sure. also great video as always :)
Hi
The Elkhorn Tornado clipped western Elkhorn, goes through some of the new houses out west, and even hit part of a rich suburb West of Bennington.
Something that has always fascinated me about older tornado footage and photos is that as a kid, I grew up fascinated by tornadoes and absorbed everything I could get my hands on, and yet the entire concept of a tornado potentially being as wide or wider than it was tall (a "wedge") was completely off my radar. Somehow, I managed not to see _any_ video or photos of such a thing until right around when the movie _Twister_ was fixing to release in 1996. As far as I was concerned, such footage simply hadn't existed before the 90s. So it remains a perpetual revelation whenever I see examples of wedge tornadoes from 80s, 70s, even 60s films/photos. It was there all along. Rare, but there. It feels like I'm seeing something alien that shouldn't have existed.
You are the Bill Nye of weather and tornado videos. Keep it up, chief!
I feel like 2023 was kinda glossed over a bit.
the march 31st - April 1st outbreak was kinda wild as far as number of tornadoes, and I remember the large amount of hype created around the double high risks (unless im remembering wrong)
Also on April 1st the Northeast was put under a rare Enchanted risk, I also think we also had a 10% hatched tornado risk as well.
@@meghanhause9435 who enchanted the enhanced risk? 🤔😆
the march 31 was the single highest tornado outbreak of the decade, and the 3rd largest on record. Of the complete tornado outbreak of march 31 and april 1 I believe there was about 164 tornadoes, making it the 2nd largest tornado outbreak including all days of the outbreak (unless we're talking about tornado outbreak sequences then its not)
love your channel, love the voiceover, the editing, the vibe, your background, EVERYTHING. amazing work and keep it up
If they weren't so destructive, they would be quite impressive to look at. That Tuscaloosa Alabama tornado 2011 that looks scary and I was hundreds of miles away from it.
I was in that tornado
April 27th 2011 is still one of the scariest days of my life. And I took a direct hit from a high-end EF2 in 2018. April 27th was like experiencing a day of hell on earth.
@@kaygee2121 glad you made it through
@@grapeshot Same, though I know people that didn't...and so many that were affected
Fascinating video and great work! it is inconceivable to me how you did not mention Lawrence/Linwood, Kansas EF4 or even DAYTON, Ohio for 2019.
No one got footage of the Plainfield, IL F5 because it was completely unwarned.
Swegle, I remember the tornado from 11/28/88 greatly, because my local news was on that night nonstop covering it and it was a nocturnal tornado, but I never knew that it was an F4. Awesome content, brother.
Your video ideas are on another level 😀
I just stumbled on this channel and now I'm obsessed haha. I'm from nebraska and this tornado season has been insane, just had one recently that resulted in 220,000 losing power
I love old tornado photos and videos.
I was coming back to Muncie, Indiana from a school-sponsored tour of IU - Bloomington during the 2002 long-track tornado. I remember seeing the trees whipping around on the side of the highway. My parents later told me the tornado followed the bus as we traveled I-69 from Indy back to Muncie. I took shelter at our high school once the bus unloaded. Very scary. I didn't know it had a tornado emergency attached to it until today
Even though I have been diagnosed with HIV it is a good day because swegle uploaded
Been through a couple of tornadoes when growing up in Alabama, but the 1998 tornado was horrible. Adjacent to McDonalds Chapel is Edgewater, my childhood hometown. It and several communities suffered more than McDonalds Chapel during that storm. Thanks for the video and you presented it very well.
An hour long swegle studios video? You're spoiling us!
48:36
I vividly remember this. There was a couple more tornadoes to the northeast of rowlett. I’d say the most memorable image from that day is seeing a gas station called “Willard’s” in Copeville become rubble. I think 3 people died in that one building.
This single tornado is what started my obsession with tornadoes. Without the December 26th, 2015 tornadoes, I wouldn’t be watching this video right now.
An almost hour banger from Swegle hell yuh
12:10 This might seem crazy, but the reason for this is actually because the chances of a tornado actually striking a home are so low. Most people in the Midwest will live there their whole lives without ever having an encounter with a tornado (I'm one of those people; I've lived in the midwest for all 29 years of my life so far and have never been directly affected by one, though I've been close enough to hear one), so demand for basements for that reason are quite low, especially since basements are a liability during a hurricane, and your likelihood of encountering a hurricane at some point in your life in the states bordering the gulf is pretty near 100%. The main reason for wanting to have a basement is actually for heating. Basements are easier to keep warm in the winter, saving energy. This is a giant boon in the northern midwest states, where it gets quite cold.
Wow. I had no idea about the Judsonia F4. It must have been that bad that nobody ever talked about it. My grandpa and his side of the family.was born and raised there and nobody ever mentioned it. I don’t think it was even in history classes.
It either completely destroyed or heavily damaged all but about two buildings in the main part of town. So many people were killed in Judsonia that they held a mass funeral for all the deceased who were members of the Baptist church and another mass funeral for all who were members of the Methodist church. Even then, there was a significant delay in being able to have those funerals because the cemetery was so full of debris that they couldn't dig graves.
i was in the joplin tornado. got down to a basement of my grandfathers house as the roof was ripping off. the city looked like a warzone after. I still live in the path of where it hit today not far from where my original place was destroyed.
Honorable mention for Sulphur, Oklahoma
51:14 This one passed within half a mile of my house on its way out of lebanon and towards Cookeville. There's STILL bits of insulation in my trees from my neighbors' houses.
You mentioned the regionality of basements. I grew up in Michigan, and thought basically all buildings had basements, or at least some sort of underground space that might not be a full basement. I thought they were just necessary for the stability of a building on soil. I was weirded out when I moved to a state that did not have basements.
Why? At first I thought it might be a water table issue, but basements in all the houses I've lived in had sump pumps to keep them dry (and if it failed, the basement would gradually flood). It's not a cost thing either, since expensive homes also do not have basements. So, why no basements? They're super useful for utilities and stuff, not just as tornado shelters.
I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you the issue where I live is absolutely a water table issue. I live along the SE coast. Despite living several miles inland the elevation where I am is only 6.5ft above sea level. Living east of the Appalachian Mts means all the rivers flow downhill and enter the Atlantic nearby. Local flooding as a result of heavy rainfall (sometimes over 100 miles away) can be common as all that water makes it way downriver. Moderate to severe hurricanes can deliver storm surges in excess of 10 feet. Not only does that bury thousands of homes in water, but basements would absolutely be flooded. It's not unusual for heavy rainfall in addition to high tide to cause localized flooding, more flooded basements. Last, living SE of the Appalachian Mts prevents much of the weather that spawns tornadoes. So, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida....basements here are more trouble than they're worth and not really necessary. It isn't uncommon for homes here to have the entire first floor be a carport/garage/utility area with living spaces being floors 2+ for all the reasons above.
I also find it weird. I live in a river flood plain and have a basement. We have had the river literally flood and lap at out front steps and our sump kept up for the most part. I’ve lived in homes that sometimes had a little lake in them where everything was in water a few inches deep. I live in northern IN so not a crazy tornado area but we have literally turned down homes as options to purchase because of tornados. Even tho I’ve never been in one or seen one. I’d still rather have a wet basement than a closet any day.
In most of "Tornado alley" bedrock is found a foot or two down from the surface, and it can take a full crew two weeks with jackhammers to create one small home's basement. Very expensive to do so it rarely happens. Other places there and in "Dixie alley: the water table is so high at least part of the year that you'd need several sump pumps running constantly to keep a basement dry. You can fins several vids online showing concrete tornado shelters floating out of the ground because of high water tables so you'd turn houses into boats to put basements in.
@@P_RO_ Yeah, flooding around here is a seasonal, predictable event, not a once in a decade tragedy. Moderate rain and high tide can flood blocks of streets here because there's simply no where for the water to go when you're so close to sea level. You would likely experience flood events in your basement 6-12 times a year, if not more.
So, I did some more research on this, and one of the reasons that basements are the norm in the North is because you have to get below the frost line, which is several feet below the surface. There are obviously plenty of places in the North with a high water table, and that just means you've got a maintenance issue. It's normal to hear a neighbor say "well, my basement flooded again when we lost power..." I presume this is the origin of the "Michigan Basement" you'll see in older houses, where the basement is basically just a hole in the ground, and not made into a usable space since it's going to be subject to moisture and flooding anyway.
If you're *not* facing the freezing issue, then it's not worth fighting with a high water table or bedrock just below the surface. Some locations also have expansive soil that make basements impractical or unstable. In California, basements are perceived as a seismic risk (although it seems like that's just a perception, I'm not sure it's an actual risk).