Strongest Tornado Ever Recorded Shreds Wind Turbines at Greenfield, Iowa | May 21st, 2024

SKYDRAMA.NET | On May 21st, 2024 an outbreak of tornadoes struck western Iowa, with several long-lived, damaging tornadoes occurring. Two tornadoes were on the ground at once near Carbon and Greenfield, Iowa with one of the tornadoes being rated an EF-4 as it destroyed wind turbines and part of the town of Greenfield. The tornado also exhibited increedible multiple vortex structure. The Doppler On Wheels, or DOW measured wind speeds of between 309 and 318 mph as the tornado impacted Greenfield, making this one of, if not the strongest tornado ever recorded.
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SKYDRAMA.NET
Chasing with Colin Davis, Wil Pritchard, and Alex Hall

[@garrettfornea1088]

Greenfield is one we will still be geeking out over twenty years from now.

[@carlitosdinkler5213]

Nope. It didn't do anything catastrophic enough to make it stand out.

[@Vari2682]

@@carlitosdinkler5213Brother what???? it was literally an ef4

[@mysunshineisturningintoabl2307]

​@@carlitosdinkler5213It litterally hit a town

[@carlitosdinkler5213]

@@mysunshineisturningintoabl2307 Still quite tame damage compared to the actual monster tornadoes, namely the 2011 outbreak ones.

[@sahebplays3589]

@@carlitosdinkler5213 ??? You don't know anything about tornadoes. This was devastating and how dare you devalue the impacts, the major damage and loss of life. As described even by Ryan Hall Y'all 'this is some of the worst damage I have ever seen behind there'

[@naderchasers]

For anyone wondering 5/3/99 is still considered stronger by most due to the greenfield data being less than a second in length and in a small subvortice, while Moore 99 was the entire tornado for lengths of 5-10 seconds.

[@sahebplays3589]

its not the entire tornado it was a 3s gust that I have analysed; it was incredible, but short lived. That ultimately does show that despite subvortex action they can persist for longer durations at once; what is also hypothesised is that windspeeds are greater towards the ground, and my suspect both of these tornadoes could have windspeeds of even the current values (Koshiba & Wurman 2013, 2023)

[@BinThereDumpThatShop]

I can’t argue strength when the rating for what’s stronger is based on industrial housing rather an actual living qualities that we live If foundations are swept and people are missing that’s “ potentially “ an F5

[@dannyllerenatv8635]

And even then, it's a -3 difference in windspeed between Greenfield and the May 3rd F5. The thing about May 3rd and the 2011 El-Reno Piedmont EF5s is that their worst damage indicators respect the windspeeds to a certain extent. Truth be told, any of the EF5 rated tornadoes *(yes folks, this includes Greensburg, Parkersburg, Newcastle-Moore, and Joplin. Sorry folks, the 4/27/2011 EF5s are not dramatically stronger than the other EF5 rated tornadoes, they're just not. It's not backed by damage analysis nor is it backed by the NWS who have seen them all up close. Sensationalism doesn't immediately equal facts. Even if they are stronger, it's by an inconceivable margin. The EF5 rating is essentially the Jarrell/May 3rd rating)* and several other non-EF5/F5 rated tornadoes could've had windspeeds above 300 mph as well. A few honorable mentions are three of the most forgotten F5s, which are the Niles-Wheatland OH/PA 1985, the 96 Oakfield F5, and the Lawrence county F5 of 98. Those were 4/27/2011 type tornadoes and everything they destroyed was incredibly well built, securely anchored to their foundations, and large.

[@sNorENaDo777]

That's pretty nerdy. Enjoy 2nd place

[@RealSouthCarolina]

Just goes to show that the EF scale needs to be updated. Because damage always trumps windspeed. Even if a tornado has windspeeds over 200 mph it doesn't mean it will be an EF5. This was a gnarly angry octopus tornado. Definitely the king of the '24 storm season.

[@DimensionaIGd]

Ef scale is getting updated so one day recorded wind speeds will actually count 🥶🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@WhateverClever-r2j]

The day when Wind v Wind Turbine was decided.

[@kristinnunez2702]

The last time I saw the DOW was in a PBS documentary about La Plata, Maryland. That was with Josh Wurman(?). Who is part of the DOW team now?

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

Everyone arguing about this vs bridge creek has forgotten about a certain F5 that moved at 70mph and pulled foundations out of the ground. Most likely the strongest tornado since records began. Maintained F5 strength for almost 70 miles.

[@hanspeterfake3130]

You made me curious - you mean the Hackleburg-Phil Campbell tornado?

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

@@hanspeterfake3130 No - however the H-PC tornado is right up there with it. I'm talking about Guin, AL of 1974.

[@WanderingRoe]

@@teenageapocalypseusa5368 As soon as you said foundations being pulled out of the ground, I thought of Guin. The kind of damage that monster did it is truly a wonder it’s not talked about more.

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

@@WanderingRoe One of the tornado channels I follow said they are going to be making a video about it soon. I'm really excited to see that - when you go down the rabbit-hole of what that tornado did you realize it was likely the most powerful storm of all time (It did in reality what the myths said about Smithville)

[@duanescott3091]

Rainsville is literally worse than them all. There was no true way to be safe😂. ripped a storm shelter out of the ground

[@defiantly_emily]

What a beast. Nice capture.

[@M_the_21]

One thing that we’re not realizing is that we might never be able to really truly understand the full power of tornadoes. We don’t even know that much about tornadoes as it is. When you think about it, it is kind of an ambitious thing to say, let’s find out the exact wind speed of a tornado. Let’s find out how quickly the winds were rotating in a column of air with multiple smaller little subvortices rapidly spinning around, disappearing and reappearing in less than a second. You see what I’m getting at here.

[@AndrewPritchard]

You’re definitely not wrong

[@MrWonny1986]

You’d think that wind turbine was diesel fired the way it burning.

[@AndrewPritchard]

No kidding. Apparently they've got lots of oil internally with some of their components so fire = not friend.

[@meglange3595]

Andrew, what year or years would you consider to be your top chase seasons? Seems like this one ranks pretty high? You've sure given us some pretty great footage from it. 😊

[@AndrewPritchard]

good question! 2024 is certainly up there near or at the top. There is some recency bias, but that recency also means I'm more experienced and have better cameras to document it all with. 2008 was a wild year, 2010 kept me pretty busy as well. Hard to think of a year with so many significant tornadoes all bunched together like 2024 though.

[@thelemonlimeninja2144]

@@AndrewPritchard 2011 was more devastating than every year you mentioned combined lol

[@AndrewPritchard]

@@thelemonlimeninja2144 the question was "my top chase seasons". 2011 had more devastation, but I had a mediocre storm chasing season personally. And also, no it wasn't. It was the most active, for sure, but "more than every year mentioned combined" is just you saying things.

[@thelemonlimeninja2144]

@@AndrewPritchard try again bud. Joplin alone had 150 deaths, plus el Reno f-5, plus four more f-5 and a slew of f-4 on the outbreak. That’s 6 ef-5 in a month time span, there hasn’t been a single ef-5 since 2013. So tell me, what metric are you using to say that because it seems painfully obvious you are wrong

[@AndrewPritchard]

@@thelemonlimeninja2144 "since 2013" and yet every year I listed was BEFORE 2013. SHE ASKED ABOUT MY CHASING. YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT ALL-AROUND SEVERE WEATHER. The 'METRIC' is in the first question - "what years were MY BEST for storm chasing" How are you going to define my best years for storm chasing? LORD. Enough is enough. Get the hell outta here calling me "bud" misunderstanding everyone around you with this jibberish.

[@VistasSrinagarun]

is this road from Twister the movie?

[@CMasta121]

Holy shit. I'm actually going to examine this.

[@mrtraumaboyy4098]

Monsters DO exist!! Wow!! Thank you for sharing!!!

[@RogerKaptunik]

Tornado destroys whole Oklahoma and the ISS. Rating: High EF4

[@AndrewPritchard]

Hahahah, truth. even when I watch videos of old F5 tornadoes now I can't help but chuckle and say, "sorry, best we can do is EF-4"

[@RockyTop85]

EF-5s have significant scarring in the ground, even ripping up asphalt. This was not an EF-5 where it counts

[@celeno31]

good video

[@beyondwx]

I’d love some more information on what gives us confidence in these numbers.

[@sahebplays3589]

sure: publish.illinois.edu/dowfacility-upgrade/files/2024/06/best-greenfield-windspeed-note-2024-0623bp2.pdf

[@sNorENaDo777]

I suggest going to Norman and speaking with someone in person

[@RockyTop85]

They are misleading

[@ATXtralife]

Check your anchor bolts, folks. Shame this couldn’t just look petty in a corn field… sorry Iowa 😞

[@AndrewPritchard]

It went off into the rain and I thought it had behaved itself. Then I heard about it moving into Greenfield :(

[@andersb6014]

Nope.. The strongest tornado ever touched down on earth is still the bridge-creek moore tornado at a speed with 302 mils pr. Hour, has been revalued to 321 miles pr. Hour in 2021 ..

[@A.D.R.J.Coleman]

Try again

[@CockroachTheFoul]

This one touched down last month or so and passed it in peak wind speed. This tornado produced the fastest wind speeds documented on earth.

[@thelemonlimeninja2144]

Ever, huh? You must be billions of years old and seem every tornado to ever happen to make that kind of statement!

[@CockroachTheFoul]

@thelemonlimeninja2144 he almost certainly meant "ever recorded"

[@sNorENaDo777]

Nada

[@ericspratt3164]

People butt hurt over whose tornado was stronger 😂😂😂 “I’m taking my anemometer and going home”! Stomps off in a rage.

[@AndrewPritchard]

Hahahah I knew the verbiage in my title would get folks raging, they do be like that! 😅

[@YourBoi-Ty]

​@@AndrewPritchard from a professional like yourself which tornado do you think should have the number one spot. I live in Greenfield, I'm confused why did they change the windspeed of the moore tornado just because a tornado broke the record, I think that it's suspicious that they chose now to change it instead of 2021 don't you think?

[@zabijca]

Since ground survey didn't find any damage like deep ground scouring, beyond low-end EF4, isn't that reading false?

[@wazoheat]

There are no reliable "ground scouring" damage indicators. That depends a lot on specific soil and vegetation properties that are impossible to reliably assign a wind speed to. Yes, a violent tornado *can* uproot soil and cause ground scouring, but lack of ground scouring is not evidence of a weak tornado.

[@ArchTeryx00]

The measurement was about 100 feet off the ground. Most DOW measurements are taken in the lower middle of the funnel.

[@featherweighthate]

DOW readings have nothing to do with the EF scale.

[@RockyTop85]

Thank you for calling this out. It was not an EF5

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@featherweighthate Never said different. those are true windspeed readings, but the EF scale is a *damage* scale, not a windspeed scale. It comes with *estimated* windspeeds, because before the DOW there was no way to measure the windspeeds in a tornado. A lot of people conflate EF ratings with actual windspeed, including a lot of people who should know better. Whether the EF scale itself is outdated and needs a serious update is a whole other debate, and from what I gather an intense one right now.

[@tonton.-]

Refuse to believe its stronger than Reno or Bridge Creek-Moore. Grew up in oklahoma and those tornadoes i loved constantly hearing and talking about. I get its the strongest or most powerful now but ill consider Moore the strongest for nostalgia.

[@MrNatureMan]

This one has the highest wind speed, but it was for a very short amount of time. Moore 99 had slightly lower winds for much longer, making it stronger

[@quickquick4066]

tornado what on monday we got Tornado. ran was and the tv sit and it stoped and the ran. tornado is a erorr

[@timmymoore6544]

Not the strongest its the third strongest. El reno was hitting close to 336 bridgewater was 321 greenfield 318

[@jasoncampbell5518]

Nice click bate ! The 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado in Oklahoma is considered the strongest tornado ever !

[@AndrewPritchard]

Ok!

[@RockyTop85]

This video is based on misleading information…

[@AndrewPritchard]

Dang it

[@whocares.20]

Look at that clean energy. Dirtying up the landscape...making it nice for the crops of soy to grow on.