Tornado swatch.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by xilman

These were particularly vicious ones.

In a BBC story, a reporter on the scene pointed to debris, saying it had been inside a trailer home across the road. He also mentioned a car being picked up by the tornado, and found a kilometer (about 3/5 of a mile) away. Also a billboard being picked up, and found 30 miles away. The Sheriff talked about there being just slabs where houses had stood.

[Xyzzy]

Fire tornadoes: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/07/asia/...house-intl-hnk

[Dr Sardonicus]

The recent tornado outbreak in Tennessee had Il Duce visiting to survey the damage in Nashville. Nashville has a population of well over 650,000 and is the capital of the State of Tennessee. One of the tornadoes went through the downtown area.

So much for tornadoes not hitting the downtown areas of major cities. And this was a powerful tornado. According to National Weather Service:

Tornado #3 - Davidson/Wilson/Smith County EF-3 Tornado...

Rating: EF3
Estimated Peak Wind: 165 mph
Path Length /statute/: 60.13 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 800.0 yards
Fatalities: 5
Injuries: 220

Start Date: 03/03/2020
Start Time: 12:32 AM CST
Start Location: 7 NE Pegram / Davidson County / TN
Start Lat/Lon: 36.1735 / -86.958

End Date: 03/03/2020
End Time: 01:32 AM CST
End Location: 3 SE Gordonsville / Smith County / TN
End Lat/Lon: 36.1536 / -85.8905

Survey Summary:
A strong long-track tornado tracked across Davidson and Wilson
Counties and into Smith County early on March 3 resulting in 5
fatalities and 220 injuries. The tornado began in far western
Davidson County and rapidly intensified into EF-2 intensity as it
tracked across John C. Tune Airport and into the North Nashville
and Germantown areas. The tornado intensified further to EF-3
intensity as it tracked into East Nashville, with the most
significant damage occuring in and around the Five Points
neighborhood, where two fatalities occurred. EF-1 and EF-2 damage
continued across the Cumberland River before the tornado
strengthened again to EF-3 intensity in the Stanford Estates
subdivision in Donelson. EF-2 damage was observed across Hermitage
and the remainder of Davidson County.

The tornado strengthened to EF-3 intensity for a third time upon
entering Wilson County, with a 6-mile swath of EF-3 damage
observed near the Mt. Juliet area, where three more fatalities
occurred. EF-1 and EF-2 damage continued along a path that
paralleled and occasionally crossed Interstate 40 south-southeast
of Lebanon. Once the tornado moved into Smith County, it weakened
some but was still causing significant tree and powerline damage,
as well as damage to homes. Just south of Gordonsville, the
tornado caused a mobile home to flip, along with destroying
several barns and outbuildings. The tornado finally lifted just
south of I-40 near Highway 141/Lancaster Highway.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

In a BBC story, a reporter on the scene pointed to debris, saying it had been inside a trailer home across the road. He also mentioned a car being picked up by the tornado, and found a kilometer (about 3/5 of a mile) away. Also a billboard being picked up, and found 30 miles away. The Sheriff talked about there being just slabs where houses had stood.

Town of Dunn in Wisconsin, south of Madison WI, was hit long ago. One of my coworkers lived on the track. Fortunately his house was on the lee side of a hill and damage was minor compared to his upwind neighbors. It shifted his screen porch measurably but the structure was intact. ALL their clothing had to be removed from the home and cleaned to remove fiberglass from it. After the complete roadblock was lifted, we coworker volunteers spent several evenings after work removing from his lot debris that was formerly homes. A 30-cubic-yard dumpster was placed on the street at township cost and removed and replaced after it was filled. There were signs of drywall smacking the outside of his house and leaving a print of white powder. Batts of fiberglass hanging in what was left of the trees. Twisted-off pieces of roof truss, and panels of metal roofing from farm buildings, were seen in fields miles downwind.

The town set up a lost and found exchange at the town hall. Smaller objects (bibles, paper mail, etc. with identifying information) were found and returned from various locations, extending as far as near Milwaukee, 90 miles east. During one of the cleanup evenings, after depositing debris in the dumpster, returning uphill westward as the sun set, there was still visible aerosolized fiberglass wafting through the air days afterward. We had been breathing fiberglass for hours each cleanup day. On the drive in to his home, one could see various levels of damage, including a bare concrete pad where a home and garage had previously stood, and a house where only the lee side had entirely blown off, yet the stuffed animals and other usual contents were all still in place in the girl's upstairs bedroom in plain view from the road. The same storm twisted oaks off and stacked RVs on each other and removed a lot of overhead electrical distribution wire. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/18/u...st-states.html

In 2005 another tracked through several miles south of the earlier one, which can be read about at https://www.stoughtontornado.org/faq.php. There was a less serious one also in 2014. The township created a public shelter near the trailer park in time for the 2005 or 2014 event, and some employers had created or enhanced hardened areas in their buildings.

Madison WI itself (pop. ~200,000) had been hit on other occasions during that quarter century time span, with car lots within miles of my home then getting inventory stacked on one occasion that was only half an hour before the usual weekly emergency siren test, and on another the university research park losing multiple 150 year old massive oak trees and significant residential area damage to trees and structures.

[xilman]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57605651

This seems a particularly nasty one. It killed 5 people not too far from where I used to work.