Tornado Marks

August 24th, 2006 F3 tornado over southern Minnesota...photos by NWS.

More tornado marks...2004 vintage in Conway Springs, KS

Tornado track is the light colored area in the center of the photograph. View is to the northeast in Google Earth. I wanted to find some tornado-generated surficial marks similar to those historic photographs of the Scottsbluff, Nebraska (6/27/1955) tornado that I posted earlier. Some information and chase photos for the F3-F4 tornados on May 29, 2004 can be found here.

My goal was to use Google Earth to find similar marks with nothing other than the general location of the tornado to start with - sort of an exercise. A tornado can be a truly devastating force of nature and the question for me is how long after one can you still detect the signs on the earth's surface.

Note the circular marks...pretty interesting.


Note the damaged trees and marks on the plowed fields...

Stuck in the mud

An excavator used by a state contractor was buried by tons of dirt and debris after a hillside collapsed recently along I-890 near Michigan Avenue in Schenectady. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Link to the whole story...