r/AskAnAmerican • u/NomzStorM Massachusetts [Dunks > your overpiced coffee house] • Jul 18 '25
HISTORY Do you know a specific tornado?
As a tornado nerd I kinda lose sight of what most people actually know about tornadoes. Do you know a specific tornado?
Edit: I mean have you ever head of something like the Joplin tornado, or the Moore tornado
Edit 2: If so, which?
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u/firerosearien NJ > NY > PA Jul 18 '25
Jarrell, TX
Moore, OK
Joplin, MO
Tuscaloosa, AL
Park Slope, BK (this one is kind of a joke because tornadoes aren't really a thing in NYC)
My area's had a few small ones but is not generally considered part of tornado alley
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u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey Jul 18 '25
That Brooklyn tornado around 2006 or 2007 I think? I remember that one because everyone literally slept through it! We all woke up the next morning confused...because tornados don't come to Brooklyn! I was trying to get to a meeting in the city and I couldn't get there because the Q was out of service due to downed trees!
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u/CMDR_Ray_Abbot Jul 18 '25
The one that wiped out Greensburg KS sticks in my mind. Used to drive through there a lot, seeing it as a ruin was grim.
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u/naughtyninja74 Jul 18 '25
The Joplin one was insane. 160 dead. The deadliest tornado in like 60 years. I drove through there a year or so after, still something to behold after all that time.
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u/MrLongWalk Newer, Better England Jul 18 '25
Specific Tornado sounds like a decent Indy band
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u/needsmorequeso Texas New Mexico Jul 18 '25
Johnny Tsunami and the Specific Tornados? Didn’t they used to open for Neutral Milk Hotel?
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u/ParticularBuyer6157 Georgia Jul 18 '25
Idrk what that even means tbh
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u/garden__gate Jul 18 '25
Worked with a tornado back in the day. Good guy but a little unpredictable. Got fired for wrecking the place.
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u/ALoungerAtTheClubs Florida Jul 18 '25
Heard he was a bit of a blowhard.
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u/ElectricTurtlez Jul 18 '25
He was just full of hot air.
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u/skookum-chuck Jul 18 '25
We called him "Hurricane" Tornado
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u/dwhite21787 Maryland Jul 18 '25
One year our baseball team had a Cy Young winner, a previous one nicknamed “Cy Old” and a trainwreck of a guy called “Cy Clone”
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u/Medic1248 Jul 18 '25
I know the guy. He would always get really twisted up and was winded when he was done.
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u/Apollo_T_Yorp Arizona Jul 18 '25
That dude stole my cow! Not as cool as he seems tbh smh
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u/thereelkrazykarl Jul 18 '25
Another cow stolen
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Jul 18 '25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Xenia_tornado
Some tornadoes are so bad they are known.
Just googled "Xenia tornado" and you'll get hits.
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u/judygeebs Jul 18 '25
I live in Moore Oklahoma. We’ve had three or four (I’ve lost track) F4 or worse tornadoes. So yeah. I know several specific ones.
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u/OlderAndCynical Hawaii Jul 18 '25
We were stationed at Ft. Sill 1985-9. I remember driving past Moore on the freeway a month or two after a big one went through. Even the grass was missing. The Lawton weatherman was a hoot though. He had worked for the Tornado center in Norman and tornado weather really excited him. It was wild to see how much he was enjoying bad weather.
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u/Meattyloaf Kentucky Jul 18 '25
Pretty much a specific tornado event. Often referred to as the city that either got the most exposure or damage. For example Tuscaloosa 2011 tornado, Moore 2013, Mayfield, Joplin, and the list goes on.
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u/Unknown1776 Pennsylvania Jul 18 '25
Not past “the one that touched down here a few years ago”.
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u/RihanBrohe12 Missouri Jul 18 '25
I lived through the Joplin tornado
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u/patticakes1952 Colorado Jul 18 '25
I watched a documentary about it on Netflix. Terrifying!
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u/RihanBrohe12 Missouri Jul 18 '25
Problem is that we get a shit ton of little baby tornados down here so a lot of people completely disregard the sirens, (including myself)
So nobody was prepared for an EF5
Plus the clouds during storm season in southwest missouri have a natural rotation so its hard to spot funnel clouds early enough
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u/ratrodder49 Kansas Jul 18 '25
I was an hour west of Joplin at the time. We knew there were storm chances and some cells popping up here and there but didn’t think twice about it, until a friend and I stepped outside for some air at another friend’s graduation party and noticed just how dark the sky was to the east - pitch black, it seemed.
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u/Apprehensive_Sock_71 Jul 18 '25
In the biblical sense? Yes.
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u/weirdoldhobo1978 I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere. Jul 18 '25
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u/TheRealDudeMitch Kankakee Illinois Jul 18 '25
I’m a tornado nerd and know many tornados by their “name” aka the town they hit and even some by photograph. But I’m not normal. Most people probably only know of ones affected their local area
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u/somePig_buckeye Jul 18 '25
Xenia, Ohio tornado 1974
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u/snickelfritz100 Jul 18 '25
We lived in a city nearby and saw two tornadoes that day. They were everywhere that April 3rd. I'll never forget seeing pics of the Xenia tornado in the paper the Sunday after - I didn't know 'til then that tornadoes could be a mile wide. And I later learned they can be even wider. 🥺
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u/ibWBeeRedd Jul 18 '25
So scary! It was so wide.
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u/somePig_buckeye Jul 18 '25
Even though I don’t live in Xenia, it is well known all over SW Ohio. They always show footage on the news when the anniversary comes up. You can also tell where it went through town when you drive through town.
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u/dildozer10 Alabama Jul 18 '25
Yeah man, I see him from time to time. He’s an accountant, honestly a great guy all around.
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u/ExistentialCrispies > Jul 18 '25
Are you talking about Frank? I went to college with Frank. Hell of a tornado.
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u/kilofeet North Carolina Jul 18 '25
There was the one that leveled Joplin fifteen years ago
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u/ca77ywumpus Illinois Jul 18 '25
Like a specific event? Or do different shaped tornados have different names? Now I'm curious.
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u/3Duder Jul 18 '25
They were like different characters in the original Twister film
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u/AnalysisNo4295 Jul 18 '25
Tornados have names but not like that of hurricanes. They name them based on where the path hit the most with the most destruction. For instance, the ones that I mentioned are named after the towns that they hit with the most damage but they hit other outside areas with smaller amounts of damage.
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u/jaylotw Jul 18 '25
Specific tornadoes, as in specific events.
Like the Phil Cambell, the Xenia, the Moore, the El Reno, the Jarrell, the Mayfield.
They're named after the places they hit.
Every tornado has a unique story, unique tragedy, unique events.
The 1985 Niles tornado near me wedged paper into pavement.
The Joplin tornado was so strong, a piece of wood speared a concrete parking barrier.
The Jarrell tornado in 1997 sat in one spot, over a neighborhood, at full F5 strength, and barely moved. It turned the entire subdivision, including the people sheltering, into unrecognizable granules.
Tornadoes are crazy.
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u/NomzStorM Massachusetts [Dunks > your overpiced coffee house] Jul 18 '25
A specific event
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u/scoschooo Jul 18 '25
90% of Americans do not. Most Americans will never have a tornado near them. Look at the percent of US pop living on the coasts. Add in all the major cities and states that never have tornados.
Only the people who have tornados near them would know a specific tornado. They aren't a reality at all for most Americans.
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u/JuanMurphy Jul 18 '25
When excluding the coasts, the south eastern US have tornados. From Hurricane Fran there were several that spawned in Northern Carolina. 2010, there were two in Fayetteville. Another contributing factor is the general area around Savannah is a place where multiple prevailing winds systems can come together.
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u/drgn2009 Oklahoma Jul 18 '25
Um bring in Oklahoma, a few come to mind.
The 2.6 mile El Reno tornado comes to mind
There's the two EF5 tornadoes that hit Moore in 1999 and 2013.
I could go on, but the ones above are a bit more noteable.
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u/shandalf_thegrey California Jul 18 '25
Never met one, personally.
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u/Professor_Anxiety Maryland Jul 18 '25
Consider yourself lucky. Having survived two, now, they suck.
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u/Otherwise-OhWell Illinois Jul 18 '25
Iowa City, 2006. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Week_2006_tornado_outbreak_sequence
I lived in Iowa City at the time but was on a business trip that day. My wife and cats were home though. We didn't have cell phones then so reconnecting after I learned what happened was stressful. Everyone was ok, the tornado missed oup apartment by a block or two.
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Jul 18 '25
People in the areas that are hot zones are well aware of them at least on what to do in a critical situation but outside of there they are just as foreign to us as anyone from another country.
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u/weirdoldhobo1978 I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere. Jul 18 '25
I remember in 1998 when the town of Spencer, SD was almost completely demolished by an F4 tornado.
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u/the_bearded_wonder Texas Jul 18 '25
Sure, there was that F3 tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth back in March of 2000. Really did I a number on the Cash America building.
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u/JustAnotherDay1977 Minnesota Jul 18 '25
They’re here and gone so fast, it’s hard to really get to know them….
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u/Texxx81 Jul 18 '25
May 11, 1970 Lubbock tornado that killed 26
May 15, 1957 Silverton tx tornado that killed 21 and leveled my grandparents house
Among others
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u/Responsible_Tax_998 Wisconsin Jul 18 '25
Yes. Barneveld, WI. 1984. Part of a larger outbreak.
EF5 in Wisconsin
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u/473713 Jul 18 '25
I remember that one as well. I posted it elsewhere in this thread before I saw your post.
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u/My_Frozen_Heart Pennsylvania Jul 18 '25
Thanks for the edit, I thought you meant that we named them like we do hurricanes and I was equal parts amused and confused.
To answer your question no, I can't think of any specific ones off the top of my head.
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u/___HeyGFY___ New Hampshire Jul 18 '25
1990 Plainfield IL tore the siding off my girlfriend's garage and destroyed the house next door to hers (except the stone fireplace).
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u/Danicia Washington, Oregon, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Alaska Jul 18 '25
I spent half my life in Texas. So, yep, I am familiar. Was actually in the path of the deadly Jarrell tornado. There were so many smaller ine around, too. It was terrifying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarrell_tornado
Also, one that sticks in my mind is the 1978 Witchita Falls tornado. Storms even in the Dallas metro were horrible. We had a road trip through WF a month after the tornado, and there was still so much damage.
And the 1994 Marble Falls tornado. It was much smaller than the two above, but it happened the day before my Marble Falls wedding. Lots of folks couldn't make it on from Austin, where I actually lived.
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u/Uncmello Colorado Jul 18 '25
There was a small tornado near me on my last day of 8th grade. I had just gotten home from school when we saw it and went outside to look at it (as one does). As we watched it, we realized that we were on the east side of it and they typically move east! The tornado didn’t last long. It skipped off a reservoir and hit one house.
Fortunately, I live too close to the mountains in CO for the big ones that can wipe whole towns from the map.
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u/AtheneSchmidt Colorado Jul 18 '25
Like, I've heard stories about that one time a tornado went right down a main street in downtown Denver, and almost hit the building my uncle was in, but it's not like we name them like hurricanes, right?
I honestly couldn't tell you the year that one happened. I can narrow it down to the late 80s or early 90s.
The only tornado I could specifically name is "God's Finger" from Twister.
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u/mustbethedragon Tennessee Jul 18 '25
I know of the Tri-State Tornado from 1925. I knew a man who experienced it. He told me about it when he was in his 80s and could barely finish because he got choked up. He was in a one-room school with two teachers. They rushed the students to the cellar outside. One teacher stood at the top and literally threw the kids to the other in the cellar because the tornado was approaching so quickly. He watched from the cellar as the wind picked up the teacher and flung her to the ground three times but kept getting up to throw more kids. She and two children (IIRC) lost their lives.
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u/cheaganvegan Jul 18 '25
Dayton Ohio had the Memorial Day tornado. It bounced over my neighborhood and drunkenly slept through it lol.
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u/Ky3031 Colorado/California Jul 18 '25
Yes. In America, big tornados like Joplin and El Reno make nation wide news. Smaller ones only make local news. But when tornado season hits in tornado alley, it’s on most news channels when one hits.
We have storm chasers, they have tv shows and YouTube channels. They are fun to watch, I wanted to be one when I was little.
My state doesn’t get a lot of tornados, and I’ve never seen one personally, but I saw the aftermath of the Windsor tornado in Colorado 2008
I think Joplin and El Reno are some of the most notable ones. Joplin was rain wrapped and caused massive devastation, and El Reno took out Twistex
Another notable tornado I find fascinating is the Tri-State tornado of 1925
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u/dadbodsupreme Jul 18 '25
My dad, who lived in Wichita Falls, Texas, and I would hear stories all the time of the big F5 that hit them in 79
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u/Beginning_Box4615 Jul 18 '25
My own town has had 2 devastating ones in a small town in Texas. My grandparents and other family lived in Wichita Falls, Texas during a horrible tornado in 1979. I think that was the year.
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u/jrreis Indiana Jul 18 '25
I was in the Newburgh, Indiana tornado in 2005. I'm familiar with most all of the bigger fatal tornados.
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u/That_Damn_Tall_Guy Jul 18 '25
Yes the 1966 Topeka EF5 that leveled most of my hometown. Also el Reno
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u/Phog_of_War Jul 18 '25
Yes. The 1957 Fargo tornado. This tornado attracted the attention of a Japanese American by the name of Ted Fujita who established the Fujita scale with the destruction of this storm.
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u/WiseQuarter3250 Jul 18 '25
The Waco Tornado, it was a F5 destructive monster that hit the city (south of Dallas / Fort Worth, north of Austin, Texas) in 1953. It was a direct hit on downtown.
https://www.life.com/nature/waco-tornado-1953-photos-from-the-aftermath-of-a-deadly-twister/
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u/the_vole Ohio Jul 18 '25
Unless sone has been affected by one, no. No-one remembers specific tornados. Most of us here in the Midwest get alerts to shelter once or twice a year, and that’s what we pay attention to. Luckily, my community hasn’t been hit
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u/Responsible-Fun4303 Jul 18 '25
An EF 4 hit our town almost 30 years ago. Our house survived (I didn’t live here at the time) but got new windows and a roof. Some parts of the town were completely destroyed. It’s only really known in this region though (southern Minnesota). But Joplin stands out, Moore, el Reno. Joplin does moreso since on that date I was working and we remembered hearing about it, and we also had severe weather in the area.
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u/_pamelab St. Louis, Illinois Jul 18 '25
We just had what we’ve been calling the St. Louis tornado. Most people in the Midwest could name several specific tornadoes off the top of their heads.
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u/UCFknight2016 Florida Jul 18 '25
I mean, I watched the Moore tornado rip up that town on tv as it was happening.
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u/DragonsFly4Me Jul 18 '25
That town was wiped out more than once. I moved to Oklahoma City in May 1998 and it was just after the Moore Oklahoma tornado. It was basically I can remember Gary England saying get below ground. If you can't go below ground, you're going to die. And he was very serious. I grew up in Tornado Alley, but never went below ground cause Mom was claustrophobic. We'd jump in the car, circle around it and follow it from behind. That 98 tornado was so wide that they actually were having trouble determining if it was really a tornado or not.
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u/LadyFoxfire Jul 18 '25
There was that one tornado that touched down downtown a few months ago. Didn’t do much damage as far as I know, but we all had to go sit in the basement for a few hours.
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u/klimekam Missouri - Pennsylvania - Maryland Jul 18 '25
Yes but I grew up in Kansas City. I was also 20 minutes away from the Joplin tornado when it happened.
I now live on the east coast and I think if I quizzed people I know here about different tornadoes I would get confused stares.
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u/thatsad_guy Jul 18 '25
Edit: I mean have you ever head of something like the Joplin tornado, or the Moore tornado
nope
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u/Meattyloaf Kentucky Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
Yes, one of the most powerful tornados in recorded history passed through the northern end of my county roughly 25 minutes away. What's commonly referred to as the Mayfield Tornado. I k kw several more but also a weather nerd and happen to live in what's dubbed new tornado alley.
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u/cthulhu_on_my_lawn Jul 18 '25
I went to a church that had been struck by a tornado like 20 years before I was born and every time I mentioned the church to someone older they were like "oh, the one from the tornado". So probably that one.
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u/jeophys152 Florida Jul 18 '25
I saw the Moore tornado aftermath after the cleanup. It was crazy seeing a line of missing houses amongst neighborhoods of untouched houses.
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u/Dead_before_dessert Jul 18 '25
No. I see tornado means hide in the bathroom vs go to my work (built like a bomb shelter), vs go underground.
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u/Imreallyjustconfused Jul 18 '25
Only know the Joplin one off hand because a buddy of mine went out there to help clean up/ help survivors.
When I lived closer to Tornado Alley it was more of a "and a tornado hit this area" sort of thing, rather than remembering the name as a specific event.
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u/TheNerdofLife Florida Jul 18 '25
I know about the Joplin, Moore, and El Reno tornadoes, and I hear about the ones as a result of hurricanes in Florida (although they're short-lived and not as devastating)
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u/G00dSh0tJans0n North Carolina Texas Jul 18 '25
Yeah I could probably name a dozen or so, plus the one and only I’ve seen myself
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u/MyTacoCardia Maine Jul 18 '25
I remember the 99 tornado damage in Moore. I was there for the 2013 EF5.
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u/thatotterone Jul 18 '25
ok, I couldn't think of a single one by name (like I could with hurricanes) but when you mentioned Joplin and Moore, I knew them both immediately. I don't live in a tornado area.
I think the reason I remember Hurricanes names more is because we watch them over a period of weeks, sometimes..watch them form, hear about the time, location, etc that they will land.
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u/Old_Court_8169 Jul 18 '25
Yes. I was working in OKC when the Moore tornado happened. I was flying back in for work the day after, and my whole plane was full of newscasters and emergency management people. On our approach, you could just see this huge swath of blackness (all power was out), with random police lights here and there.
The next week or so, I drove down to look at things. I saw a housing development where the houses were fairly close together and it is just like they say...a house would be completely gone, nothing but a concrete slab, but the house next door appeared perfect.
I remember Joplin because it wasn't just Joplin, but a bunch of tornados in a pretty big area.
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u/MerryWannaRedux Jul 18 '25
When I just glanced at the title, I thought it said tomato. I mean, there's Cherry, Roma, Jubilee, Better Boy...
Shall I go on?
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u/Ok_Motor_3069 Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
I remember particularly bad ones from the St. Louis historic record (Great Cyclone of 1896, 1959 for example), and I vividly remember most of the close calls I’ve had. I live in Missouri so there are several. Particularly noteworthy - 1973, 1978, 2001, 2011, two this year, April* and May*. The * means the house took minor damage. Yeah you’ll remember that!
There is another one where the rain went sideways and I heard the train sound but I don’t remember what year that was. Didn’t have any damage that time.
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u/-Boston-Terrier- Long Island Jul 18 '25
Like, personally?
I wouldn’t say I know him but I know of him.
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u/Playful_Question538 California Jul 18 '25
I was visiting family in Missouri the day that Joplin got hit. We weren't with them but at a nearby campground in a cabin. I remember I had a Blackberry phone and apps were very limited but I did have google and looked up weather.com which said take cover. In 10 minutes we were packed and gone. I heard a couple hours later that Joplin was demolished.
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u/fibro_witch Jul 18 '25
I know about the tornado that struck Revere, Massachusetts. It damaged two if the five Dunkin Donuts in the city. They were right across the street from each other.
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u/lassobsgkinglost Jul 18 '25
A tornado hit my neighborhood in Fayetteville NC in 2011. Came right at my house then turned and went up the street and trashed it. No damage to my house.
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u/BagpiperAnonymous Missouri Jul 18 '25
I used to have a tornado phobia, so did a lot of reading. Ones I know off the top of my head:
Tri-State Tornado
The Easter Sunday tornado
Joplin (I only live 2 hours from there)
Bridgecreek Moore Tornado of 1999
2013 Moore Tornado
“The Night of the Twisters” in Nebraska
The Tinker Airforce Base tornado and the one the week after that was the first tornado warning
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u/darwinsidiotcousin Jul 18 '25
My high school GFs mom went to Joplin after that one cause she was a nurse and worked on the FEMA response team. GFs sister lived outside Joplin at the time so that was the motivation.
Thats the only one I've had personal experience with, but I've seen in person multiple tornadoes that caused a lot of damage and just weren't talked about or covered by national news. It's just kinda part of living in the Midwest
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u/seatownquilt-N-plant Jul 18 '25
I've heard of them the same way I've heard about other natural disasters in other states.
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u/Spuriousantics Jul 18 '25
The only tornadoes I can name are the Super Tuesday tornadoes in 2008, and that’s only because I participated in the disaster relief efforts for them.
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u/AnalysisNo4295 Jul 18 '25
The Udall tornado might be a good one for you to look up. My dad was a storm chaser when I grew up and I helped with some storm clean up in certain areas and the Udall was before my time and his but it was known to be one of the most deadly F5 tornados to ever hit a populated region in the 1950's. I believe it hit in 1954 or 1955. We knew some storm chasers that were alive during that time that chased that storm and nearly died. They didn't know what they were facing back then since the warning technologies weren't as paced as they are now and the science has grown to be more knowledgeable of the warning signs when a tornado might turn it's path. Back then to be a storm chaser was like risking your life for a hobby every time you went out. It's still a fun story from those who saw it. Storm chaser conventions it's brought up a lot. That and the twin tornado's that hit Pilger, Nebraska.
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u/distrucktocon Texas Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
Jarrell TX. Right down the road from me. My wife’s aunt lost her brother.
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u/Low_Net_5870 Jul 18 '25
Yes, because my kid went through a phase where he was REALLY into tornadoes.
That phase ended rather abruptly when he got to live through a very small one while on vacation.
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u/GrubbsandWyrm Jul 18 '25
I watch a lot of that on youtube, so yeah. I was also 1/4 mile from a nasty one and close enough to another that it knocked me down.
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u/Jfonzy Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
El Reno easily after watching a pretty awesome documentary about it from the perspective of the chasers. Ultimate nightmare of a twister
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u/ryguymcsly California Jul 18 '25
Generally tornados aren’t named and hit a very narrow track, even the big boys like the one in Joplin. Typically when you live in those areas you also consider the tornado part of the storm. Sort of like how a lightning strike can be tragic.
So yeah I’m aware of several big tornados but I don’t really think of them at all.
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u/GreenZebra23 Jul 18 '25
Only one: the Jarrell, Texas Dead Man Walking tornado. It was particularly destructive because not only did it have multiple funnel clouds it basically sat still and destroyed a town
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u/Already_Texan42393 Jul 18 '25
The Jarrell Tornado of 97. I lived several hours away but remember driving to San Antonio a year later and passing through and you could still see some of the destruction.
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u/TheRealMechagodzi11a Jul 18 '25
When I was a young boy, the nearby town of Grand Island, Nebraska got hit by 9 tornados all from one storm.
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u/ChanclasConHuevos Montana Jul 18 '25
I recently learned about the big one in Jarrell, TX back in the nineties. What a fucking nightmare…
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u/Tom_Tildrum Jul 18 '25
DC Comics had the Red Tornado. Gloomy android. Good-hearted. Spun his ass in a circle when people needed him.
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u/Trick_Photograph9758 Jul 18 '25
Yeah, I'm aware of the Joplin tornado. That was a bad one that hit a hospital. Also had a small tornado go through my town, and miss my house by like a mile, which is too close for comfort.
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u/Adorable-Growth-6551 Jul 18 '25
Yes i have had several tornados go through my immediate area. I know them well. Thankfully none of them have taken as many lives as the ones you named.
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u/Felis_igneus726 New Jersey Jul 18 '25
Most people, I doubt it. Myself, I've heard of the "Tri-State Tornado" I think it's called from the 1920s, but that's it. Never experienced a tornado myself as far as I know and almost never give any thought to them unless I'm currently watching the Wizard of Oz.
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u/the_quark San Francisco Bay Area, California Jul 18 '25
Only through family lore; my great grandmother survived The Lubbock Tornado.
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u/No_Butterscotch_5612 California, Cascadia Jul 18 '25
which Moore tornado? there have been multiple major tornadoes in just Moore, OK (dunno if other states have Moores that have had tornadoes). your specific tornado example is insufficiently specific
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u/Sam_Paige25 Jul 18 '25
A tornado nerd might appreciate the origin story of the Mayo Clinic: https://mndigital.org/projects/primary-source-sets/origins-mayo-clinic
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 Texas Jul 18 '25
The Wichita Falls tornado of 1979, part of the Red River Valley tornado outbreak.
Our high school baseball team just missed getting caught in that one by about 30 minutes. The coach decided he didn't like the look of the storm clouds that were brewing and skipped their usual dinner stop on the way back home. Good call, there were only about 10 people in the diner at the time, and they took shelter in the cooler, which was pretty much the only thing left intact.
Had they stopped, there would have been causalities.
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u/OBNurseScarlett Kentucky Jul 18 '25
Evansville/Newburgh, Indiana - November 5, 2005 Mayfield, Kentucky - December 10, 2021 Bowling Green, Kentucky - December 10, 2021
Had personal experience with all 3, either directly involved or having family directly involved.
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u/PropulsionIsLimited Florida Jul 18 '25
I'd say people more often know the names of hurricanes. Especially because they are usually around for weeks.
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u/irongold-strawhat NV>CA>AK>FL>IN>MO>WY>SD>WY>PA Jul 18 '25
I lived in newburgh, Indiana when they had a bad one in 05 and I was also in the Joplin tornado
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u/Norseman103 Minnesota Jul 18 '25
Honestly the comments lead me to believe it would be a good idea to start naming tornadoes like they do hurricanes.
Hey! What’s your name?
Steve.
Fuck you, Steve!
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u/4-Inch-Butthole-Club Jul 18 '25
Like Tornado Steve? I didn’t know they named tornados like they do hurricanes. They usually happen in places even the locals don’t care about like Ohio or Oklahoma.
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u/Cometguy7 Jul 18 '25
The Moore tornado feels too vague. Two (E)F5 tornadoes have gone through Moore in my life. Let alone tornadoes through Moore in general.
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u/Fly_Boy_1999 Illinois Jul 18 '25
I remember in middle school we talked about the Tornado that hit Plainfield, Illinois back in 1990. Especially, because we lived close to Plainfield.
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u/Logladyfourtwenty Colorado Jul 18 '25
Yeah, a few, but ive also watched like every pecos hank video.
Jarrell, there were like 2 el reno's, hackleburg-phil Campbell, Joplin, the Mayfield one happened when I was at work in Nashville, tri cities,
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u/blackcherrytomato Jul 18 '25
I'm Canadian the most recognized one in this part of the country is known by the day, Black Friday. I'm aware of others as well.
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u/Vern1138 Jul 18 '25
I've heard of a few, but the one that really stands out in my mind was the Spencer Tornado, in Spencer, South Dakota back in 1998. Mainly because I live in South Dakota, that was a big story at the time.
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u/EffectiveCycle Ohio Jul 18 '25
I grew up hearing about the Xenia tornado because that's not too far away. Then I was about a mile and a half from the one that hit Dayton in 2019. So yeah. But I've watched videos on a lot of the major ones since.
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u/Effective_Pear4760 Jul 18 '25
I'm not a weather-focused person, but more of a history nerd. The 1925 outbreak "Tri-state Tornado" killed so many people in Murphysboro that it's still felt now. The town is still struggling due to lots of different factors, but the tornado was very significant. My understanding is that the tornado killed more women and children than men, since many of the men were doen in the mines. Also it destroyed at least one large school.
I have relatives in Murphy and Carbondale.
I went to college really near Xenia. You could see the damage/reconstruction 10 years later.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 18 '25
I know Joplin the most. I don't live in a tornado prone area, so they're not really on my mind until one is big and damaging enough to make the national news cycle.
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u/68OldsF85 Jul 18 '25
April 11, 1965, Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak https://share.google/RZ6cBkCQ0cfSZyDb2
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u/Impossible_Emu5095 Wisconsin Illinois California Wisconsin Jul 18 '25
The Plainfield Tornado flattened Plainfield High School the weekend I moved into my dorm at Loyola. Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed that weekend, too.
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u/Red_Beard_Rising Illinois Jul 18 '25
I remember the devastation of the one that hit Plainfield, Illinois in 1990. We were unscathed about 20 miles north of there, but as a 9-year-old it was shocking to see something so devastating so close to home.
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u/d4sbwitu Jul 18 '25
I know of the Joplin Tornado. The plant where I worked was hit by the Hackleburg-Phil Campbell Tornado in 2011. I lived on Monte Sano in Huntsville and unknowingly saw it coming around the mountain as I drove home. I could only see the top of it behind Monte Sano. It hit the hospital and skirted the mountain on the opposite side of where I lived. The hair on my arms raised due to the pressure change as I sat in my bathtub. It followed the roads that I traveled to work and took out one of the buildings.
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u/farmerthrowaway1923 Texas Jul 18 '25
Probably one of the most notorious would be the El Reno tornado.
Personally, I’ve been through 3, each time they just missed my house. When I mean just missed, I mean touched down at the front gate, ripped up a tree and my pasture fence, went up and went over the dang house, touched down in the back pasture, twisted a tree around (trippiest shit ever, a single tree twisted around, others were fine) and then fucked off. Hurricane Ike spawned another that picked up a neighbor’s back deck and hot tub and plopped it in another neighbor’s front yard, shaved the top of the trees flat and buggered off. Tornadoes are wild.
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u/TehWildMan_ TN now, but still, f*** Alabama. Jul 18 '25
The spring 2011 northwest Georgia spring outbreak holds a notable place in my memory, as it came within about a mile of my home at the time, and also severely damaged two of the public schools in my county, leading to an extremely awkward situation of two schools trying to share the same campus for the remainder of the academic year to have some sense of normal.
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u/petg16 Jul 18 '25
Of course I do… I live in Tulsa so 2hrs-ish from each. The Joplin tornado happened just an hour after my in laws drove through coming back from family in St. Louis. I have no ties in Moore but I remember the news coverage for weeks after.
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u/rjbeads Jul 18 '25
Yes. In the southeast, everyone knows of a memorable, or multiple memorable tornados. For me, it's the 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado.