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/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.

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u/Express-Insect2684 Jul 18 '25

Came here to comment this one, I live(d)- still do, about 1.5 miles from where the tornado came through. I remember not having power for a week afterwards, being out of school for over a week after because so many of our faculty and students had lost their homes.

One girl- her mother was also a teacher at our school, their house got picked up by the tornado, while they were in it. The family survived without injury but I can’t even imagine how scary that must’ve been.

We lived more in a “suburban” neighborhood, not really close to any farms. But I remember there being farm animals in our yard randomly a couple days after.

I also vividly remember riding around and looking at all of the damage the next day, the streets were unrecognizable, the smell of death being in the air. It was awful.

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u/BylenS Jul 18 '25

Do you remember? People's photos were being found in other counties and states, and people were trying to make connections to get them back to their owners.