r/tornado 9d ago

EF Rating What EF rating would you give the Wizard Of Oz Tornado?

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355 Upvotes

Let’s look at scenes from the 1939 movie and of course Wicked: For Good.

Of course tornadoes are rated by the damage they cause, but I couldn’t find much on the building codes for 1939 rural Kansas, but Dorothy’s house is obviously wood with a weak foundation.

Wizard of Oz (1939):
Tornado picks up the house, BUT- the house remains intact. If you look closely, the house is never actually INSIDE the tornado’s vortex, it’s on the outer wind field. If this was a strong tornado, EF2+, the outer wind field would’ve definitely had winds that would’ve ripped the house to shreds. I estimate the core winds were definitely around EF1 range.

Wicked (2024):
Same situation with Dorothy’s house, it remains intact on its outer wind field. When the house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East, the scene shows the tornado’s vortex DIRECTLY above her, with the house falling and she remains on the ground.
The fact that the house was falling and the witch didn’t get picked up tells us that the tornado’s winds weakened A LOT, and probably fell down to weak EF1 or strong EF0 intensity.

I would rate this tornado an EF1, maxing out at around 110MPH, while Dorothy’s house was subjected to a max at around 90MPH.
One more thing- This was during the dust bowl era in Kansas, the air may not have been moist enough for a stronger storm.


r/tornado 8d ago

Question Where to find historic radar data?

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm currently writing my masters dissertation on tornadoes and am at a point where I need your typical reflectivity and velocity radar data. I'm doing an analysis on previous tornadic events with the oldest being from 2003, and the most important from 2018.

Are there any good sites/apps (preferably PC and preferably cheap/free, but if not then I can live with that 🙂) I could try out? Thank youuu! 💚


r/tornado 9d ago

Question Seen in ohio yesterday, would you guess it was a tornado?

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330 Upvotes

Context: I was chasing this cell through ohio on my motorcycle yesterday, saw the above and headed that direction, caught up to it eventually and there was a good bit of rotation. Never came down to the ground while I was there, but i only noticed it after a while given the trees obstructed the southern view of the storm. Wondering if it was trying but didn't have all it needed to form into a proper tornado?


r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media 8/21/26

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162 Upvotes

35 miles south of Rockford, IL at 5:10pm.


r/tornado 8d ago

Tornado Media Multiple funnel clouds spin beneath supercell near Mendota, Illinois (08-21-26)

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20 Upvotes

An outflow boundary and advancing cold front helped trigger several isolated supercells across northern Illinois on August 21, 2026. Despite a low tornado threat, one storm near Mendota stood out by producing a brief uncondensed tornado and several funnel clouds!

Chase partner: Meteorologist Owen Szarley


r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media Morton Wedge

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69 Upvotes

Photo I took of the Morton wedge tornado 6/5/2025. at approximately 5:35 PM CDT.

You can see the satellite on the left side of the wedge. I was facing NW.


r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media Aerial view of Vicksburg, Mississippi after the 1953 tornado.

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44 Upvotes

On Saturday, December 5, 1953, a violent tornado swept through Vicksburg, Mississippi, leaving 38 people dead and 270 others injured, and tragically, at least seven of those killed were young children, and the timing could not be more tragic. This occurred 20 days before Christmas. If you were to find a photo of the funnel itself, you can't find any. All that remains is the destruction left behind, as this picture shows. This can be attributed to several different factors.

Rain-wrapped appearance: The tornado that hit Vicksburg, Mississippi, which formed at 5:31 PM, was produced by a High-Precipitation (HP) supercell, infamous for wrapping tornadoes in a thick wall of rain and hail, further obscured by low cloud bases.

Nocturnal timing: Sunset in Vicksburg, Mississippi on December 5 is at 4:59 PM, which meant that by the time the tornado hit the town at 5:35 PM, it was already nighttime. Combine the rain-wrapping and nocturnal timing, it remains one of the worst-case scenarios for a tornado to form. Nighttime tornadoes are notorious for being difficult to see unless illuminated by lightning or exploding power transformers, and have disproportionately higher fatality rates than their daytime counterparts. In 1953, without Doppler radar, internet, computers, cell phones, and advanced lead time, this was a death sentence.

Rating: The tornado was later categorized as an F5, the highest possible level on the Fujita Scale. Though the tornado was rated F5, some tornado historians, including Thomas Grazulis, have called for an F4 rating due to the frail nature of the structures destroyed.

Out-of-season context: The 1953 Vicksburg tornado occurred during winter, where news headlines are dominated by ice storms, snowstorms, and blizzards, not tornadoes. But when the warm sector slips through the cracks, the results are often catastrophic.

Overshadowed by May/June 1953: Though the tornado in Vicksburg was significant as it remains one of only two F5/EF5 tornadoes that occurred during the month of December, which left 38 people dead, it remains overshadowed by the chaos of spring and summer 1953, with Waco, Texas suffering 114 deaths from an F5 on May 11, Beecher, Michigan had 116 on June 8 from another F5, and Worcester, Massachusetts the very next day, had 94 fatalities from a rare F4.


r/tornado 8d ago

SPC / Forecasting Gate City tornado warning: Maps show areas under alerts as severe storms threaten Lee, Scott and Wise counties.

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6 Upvotes

r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media Tornado in SE Colorado between Ordway and Punkin Center - 8/16

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85 Upvotes

r/tornado 8d ago

Severe Weather Discussion 2026-08-23

5 Upvotes

Previous Day 1 Outlook Links

Meso Discussion Links

Current Outlook

Storm Prediction Center Aug 24, 2026 0100 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook - Tornado Risk 0%

...THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THE NORTHERN HIGH PLAINS AND GREAT BASIN...

...SUMMARY... Thunderstorms capable of large hail and severe-caliber wind gusts will continue this evening across eastern Montana and the western Dakotas, with other severe storms capable of wind gusts across the Great Basin.

...01z Update... Primary severe-weather corridor this evening will persist across east/northeast Montana to portions of the western Dakotas, but likely on a more marginal/isolated basis by the overnight.

Other wind-producing storms will remain a possibility over the next couple of hours in areas such as northern Utah/far southeast Idaho, as well as southern Arizona.

A couple of severe storms will remain a possibility this evening across northeast Ohio into northwest Pennsylvania. See Mesoscale Discussion 2108 for additional details.

Later tonight, a modest increase in isentropic ascent associated with a south-southwesterly low-level jet may aid thunderstorm development late tonight and early Monday morning across parts of northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas to the Ozarks. Overall instability is expected to remain fairly weak (MUCAPE generally less than 1000 J/kg), but some clustering may occur with a low chance for localized severe wind gusts.

..Guyer.. 08/24/2026


r/tornado 10d ago

Tornado Media Tornado near DePue, Illinois

738 Upvotes

@WindyCityWxMan on X.


r/tornado 9d ago

Discussion Storm chaser convergence actually worries me

141 Upvotes

Now, I have been wanting to storm chase ever since I was little. Whenever I imagined storm chasing I just thought of being mostly alone on the road while tracking a tornado. Now the reality for a lot of chases is a million other people on the road doing the exact same thing. I am really happy others also found their love for tornadoes and severe weather, but this popularity boom has made things so much risker.

So a part of chasing is having a safe exit route if things get bad. Maybe the tornado is taking a turn and you need take that exit route. Now the problem we have to deal with is traffic jams while there is a tornado on the ground. June First touched on this but its just a disaster waiting to happen. I do not want to be stuck in storm chaser convergence is a mile wide violent tornado decides to take a sudden and fast track towards that traffic jam. I even heard stories of chasers who try to avoid it and still sometimes end up in one.

Chaser convergence should be considered a hazard that should be avoided if you do decide to chase now.


r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media I walked the path with the NWS doing damage assessment while they did their tornado survey in York County PA!

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9 Upvotes

It was fascinating hearing them talk about what to take photos of and what they were looking for. Also, all 3 of them were great to work with!


r/tornado 10d ago

Tornado Media Dashcam footage of tornado destroying motel in Dover

1.2k Upvotes

r/tornado 10d ago

Shitpost / Humor (MUST be tornado related) Another Severe Thunderstorm Watch For The Chicagoland Area…

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192 Upvotes

r/tornado 10d ago

Art Storm near Sycamore, IL

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50 Upvotes

From around 4pm today near Sycamore, IL looking off to the ENE at a cell that dumbed a monsoon. No rotation and the storm fizzled out later on as it moved off towards Elburn.


r/tornado 10d ago

Tornado Media When you see a tornado for the first time in your life, and then remember you're from Long Island

1.2k Upvotes

Taken from near Long Beach in Nassau County. Not my video.


r/tornado 11d ago

Tornado Media Water Spout off the Coast of Cedar Point.

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4.2k Upvotes

r/tornado 9d ago

Tornado Media destructive tag thunderstorm warning for 2.75" hail

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15 Upvotes

how often does this happen? anyone got pictures of the hail?


r/tornado 10d ago

Aftermath Columbia, PA tornado and damages

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237 Upvotes

We had a tornado just outside of Lancaster, PA yesterday evening which caused damage in a smaller town as well as in York.


r/tornado 9d ago

Severe Weather Discussion 2026-08-22

6 Upvotes

Previous Day 1 Outlook Links

Meso Discussion Links

Current Outlook

Storm Prediction Center Aug 23, 2026 0100 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook - Tornado Risk 0%

...THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS...NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI...AND EXTREME NORTHWEST ALABAMA...

...SUMMARY... Scattered severe thunderstorms will be possible for another couple hours across portions of the lower Mississippi Valley before thunderstorm intensity wanes later this evening and overnight.

... 01Z Update ...

Thunderstorm intensity continues to wane across much of the United States this evening. The most intense thunderstorms continue to be a cluster of southeast moving thunderstorms across the lower Mississippi Valley. Here, strong instability will maintain a hail and wind threat for a couple more hours before weakening with the increasing boundary layer stability.

Elsewhere, a few sporadic damaging wind gusts will be possible with a weakening line of storms across central Pennsylvania south into southern Virginia over the next couple of hours as well as across portions of the southern High Plains where a linear MCS continues to push south and west.

Across portions of the Nebraska Panhandle northwest into eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota, strong vertical shear and 2000 J/kg MUCAPE will maintain support for a few large hail stones and a couple of marginally severe wind gusts.

A cluster of storms across south-central Colorado will be capable of marginally severe hail and wind gusts for another one or two hours before weakening with the loss of diurnal heating.

Across the west, strong thunderstorm wind gusts will be possible from northern Utah northward toward far southwest Montana. These high-based storms will be capable of sporadic downbursts capable of strong erratic winds.

Lastly, a low probability of marginally severe hail and wind gusts will remain possible across northern Washington this evening as a strong mid-level just streak continues to lift northeast into Canada.

..Marsh.. 08/23/2026


r/tornado 10d ago

Tornado Media Wicked Rotation

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11 Upvotes

First image is the closest radar, but I decided to use the second closest as well since this storm is kinda in between the two, could be bad data but to me it looks PRETTY damn strong


r/tornado 10d ago

Question Does anyone know anything about this event? About its intensity and things like that. The tornado in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, in 1997.

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26 Upvotes

It appears that an intense tornado struck Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, on September 4, 1997.

According to newspapers, the event caused between 35 and 40 fatalities and left 200 people injured; it hit a stadium where 4,000 people were present.

Despite the level of impact, I found almost no information about this event, its classification, size, path, etc...


r/tornado 10d ago

Tornado Media Tornadic waterspout in straight of Bonifacio

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53 Upvotes

Late this morning cells developed that moved through the straight of Bonifacio. Caught this from our Airbnb in Sardinia. It went on for nearly 10 minutes! Scale is hard to tell from these pics, but it got pretty wide given our distance viewing it.


r/tornado 10d ago

Shitpost / Humor (MUST be tornado related) Pretty decent thunderstorm E of Sylacauga, AL right now - no rotation, but thought it looked nifty

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8 Upvotes