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Greensburg: The First EF5 Tornado
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- On the night of May 4th, 2007, the town of Greensburg, KS would be subjected to the world's first EF5 tornado. This is the story of the survivors, the incredible supercell that produced it, and what happened after this monster tornado tore through this western Kansas town.
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#Tornado #Documentary #Kansas #Greensburg #Weather #STEM #WX #Filmmaking #stormchasing #Tornadoes
I understand some people are bent out of shape over the title. Greensburg was the first tornado rated a 5 on the new ENHANCED Fujita Scale, as explained in the back half of the video. There have been F5s before 2007, but not EF5s.
The old scale GREATLY overestimated wind speed estimates for each category. The EF Scale addressed that and then some, though it is obviously still not perfect. Remember, these scales are DAMAGE-BASED and are not 100% indicative of a tornado’s true wind speed. These scales only ESTIMATE peak strength based on damage alone. (Yes, it’s flawed, we all know)
Cheers,
Ethan of June First
Just silly to me. They could apply this new scale to the damage that was documented with pictures and descriptions of the damage of all those previous tornados.
There were several areas of the Jarrell tornado where entire sections of paved road and even some people slabs were ripped out of the ground. That is some insanely strong wind if it is ripping pavement and concrete out of the ground.
I never said Greensburg was the strongest tornado. Jarrell is an interesting case, a very atypical tornado setup. It’s slow motion contributed greatly to the incredible damage. It’s one I will cover in the future.
Moore Oklahoma was a pretty nasty one too.
The EF scale is equally flawed though. It doesn't take into account size but wind speed. It also does not account for speeds greater than the 200-mile lower limit for EF5s and we are seeing too many in the 250+ range or in the 1-mile-wide range. This makes the scale a poor representation of the actual power of any given tornado.
its not the accuracy that prompted my commenting. its that I knew what you meant when reading it. I also know that it was done by design for the click advantage of announcing anything as a "first". Certainly not at all rare on youtube, but definitely among the things about it that totally suck. Not as obnoxious as all caps trigger words but in the ball park.
There aren't many things more nightmarish than a 1.7 mile wide ef5 tornado moving slowly over a town at night
I feel like th only thing that really tops this is the 2.6 mile from may 31, 2013.
@@easybaked9454 you're not wrong there 😧
Nightmare fuel for sure!!!
Typhoon Tip tops both this and El Reno apparently
Especially when it just grinds on top of the town
As a truck driver traveling back and forth between California and the Midwest (where I live now), I would drive through Greensburg to monitor its progress. I watched it transform literally from a war zone to a modern rebuilt small town. This was literally a testament to their resilience.
Thank you for sharing that story with us
Yes, but the sad part is that big corporate usually takes advantage of the situation and starts to turn a once historic town into just another cookie-cutter view that makes it impossible to tell if you're in Kansas, California, Texas, or any other state, weather excluded. Another two odd things happen. First, a "cultural/arts center" pops up. Second, a sudden and at least two-fold switch from Republican to Democrat occurs. Why???
Truly epic, brother. Must have really been something to behold. Love the human spirit.
@@echo-channel77 well being that I lived in California at the time, believe me, I could tell the difference. 😂
@@echo-channel77It’s pretty obvious you’re not in California when the land is completely flat. The natural environment still plays a role, even if development is “cookie-cutter.”
I watched Greensburg get destroyed live on TV. It definitely had an impact on me as a high schooler interested in weather. Today, I’m writing a book about Greensburg’s destruction and recovery. It was the first tornado emergency issued in Kansas.
That's the worst event to occure, but it's cool that you are making a book. I hope you will complete it.
Awesome your writing a book. Can't wait to read it one day!
Omg you’re OLD!!!
How did you see this live on TV if it was at night and the town was destroyed? Were there camera crews around the town?
@@ruadhscottygirl2480 When you live in a tornado-prone state, you understand that local tv and radio stations (especially in the last 20-30 years), deploy a number of often volunteer weather spotters that follow and report on storms as they happen. This coverage is communicated to the public at large over live over-the-air tv and radio broadcasts (often interrupting viewers' favorite primetime tv shows to their chagrin and heartless complaints). This particular storm had several storm spotters tracking it with live video coverage and although it was after dark, frequent lightning served to semi-reveal the epic size of the tornado to some slight degree, but enough to give the viewer a good enough understanding that this was going to be a bad one. I too watched it live on TV. It was a bad and sorrowful night for all who witnessed it.
My sister was on a bus going from a track meet to back home. They arrived within 30 min after the tornado struck. Many of the students on the bus were cpr certified as many of them worked as life guards. They made sure to help give aid if needed. They gave away their flip flops and shoes to those who did not have any and then they went home. Very sad.
Went home to what? The homes are gone!
@@terrywade3696they never said they lived in Greenberg; clearly on their drive home, Greenberg was on the way,& they stopped to render aid.
Goes to show you that most people are good. We don't want to see others suffer.
It’s crazy to think El Reno is almost an entire mile wider than this tornado. Just imagine that…
El Reno, the famous "EF3"
@@abigaillilac1370What are u yapping about?!? I was In The tornado when I was little
@@RXD74986 What are you yapping about? It was powerful enough to be an EF5 but they rated it an EF3 because the damage scale is flawed.
The EF system doesn’t matter about destruction it matters about wind speed, and El-Reno wind speeds were 306-307
@@RXD74986 The EF scale is actually primarily a damage scale, not a wind speed scale. You should do more reading on it.
My brother is a meteorologist out of the Dodge City office and was the one, along with his team, that issued the Tornado Emergency that night. Very proud of the work him and his team did that night to warn Greensburg residents.
Mark my name is Christopher Unruh I still live in greensburg I am one of many survivors tell your brother thank you from the bottom of my heart he saved my life that night I appreciate all the work him and his team did to warn us that night I as well as other survivors are sooo grateful thank you and god bless
@@chrisunruh9944 I will let him know. Thank you.
The power of loud sounds. Jolt one awake, save their life.
Just in case there are some who were at first confused, as I was - this is not the first "F5" tornado. It is the first F5 tornado labeled as an "EF5" under the newly adopted (Feb. 2007) "Enhanced Fujita Scale", not mentioned until 7:58... The prior F5 rating began at an incredible 261mph! , while the EF scale rates EF5 beginning 200mph... quite a difference.
Exactly! People jumping to conclusions before finishing the video, haha.
@@junefirst im kinda curious now. being an arizonan, could a hurricane that picks up a massive sandstorm occur over the southwest, causing hurricane-force winds?
@@junefirst sorry, don't ha-ha them, you need to explain the difference up front unless you are more interested in clicks than informing. The video as a whole was very informative, don't negate that by trying to be tricky with the title.
@@junefirstyea people don’t understand. But there is more to that just wind speed. El Reno Oklahoma is often debated, the one that killed Tim and other storm chasers. Was 2.7 miles wide and well over 200mph winds. But did not really hit any structure so was classified as ef3. Locally Mike Morgan, David Payne and some NWS folks said “if this went through your neighborhood it’d be a tipping the scales last ef5 damage. The 2011 El Reno EF5 tornado was smaller and less intense but hit actual structure and rated ef5. Both would have been old F5s
@@theSparkyWatts A doppler on wheels did detect wind speeds of almost 300 mph in one of the el Reno tornado's subvortices.
That is completely frightening. A tornado the size of the whole town and it strikes at night!
On the exact circumference of the town
I spent all night in the basement that night in Great Bend, Kansas. It rained so hard water was shooting through the cracks in the foundation of my parents house. I have never seen a storm like that before or since. Driving through Greensburg 2 days later that place was indescribable.
Imagining being hit dead on by this thing, not knowing how large the tornado is. And you’re inside it for SEVERAL minutes. Aside from all the fear, there has to be some sort of hearing loss.
Considering how loud a tornado would be on top of you? Yea I can imagine some severe hearing damage
I remember driving through town a couple days after like it was yesterday. Never in your mind could you fathom that devastation.
We drove thru July 4 that year , devastating
I remember the grain elevator standing there a few days after the tornado.
Greensburg was such a devastating event. Glad they made a full recovery.
Really not when it comes Half of the population got cut and half because of that storm even if it didn't do as much Fatality
Not complaining
Though very impressive feat to swallow an entire town hole.
That is a pretty terrifying tornado.
It didn't really. Much of the population was unable to return due to the expense of rebuilding as a "green" community. There are still many lots left vacant. Prior to the tornado, there were 1266 people living there in 2007. In 2024, the population has dropped to about 700.
Not a full recovery.
@@Katmai_Bear_480 Almost every small town which gets hit by tornadoes like that ends up losing population from people moving away, I doubt their green initiatives played a very big role in that.
@@Drosera420 There's entire documentaries specifically about the situation and how many people weren't able to keep living there even if they wanted to.
As someone who lives relatively close to greensburg, the people older than me (I was born April 2nd of the same year) talk about that day as though hell decided to rip through the sky. A memory I have of this was a 30ish year old talking about how “it was so loud that you felt like you would go deaf”
I drove through Greensburg about a month ago while out on a chase waiting for storms to get going and the entire experience felt…uncanny. Like I’d stepped into the twilight zone. Like it’s ostensibly a normal small Kansas town like the one I grew up in, but looking closer everything just feels a little…off. Streets that should be filled with houses on every lot have only 3 or 4 along the whole stretch. Empty concrete slabs abound. Every home clearly a new build. Probably the strangest part was the trees. Maybe a handful of them along each block scattered and sparse, most of them short young ones. Lots of big parks that I had a feeling used to be whole neighborhoods. Like a shell of a normal town without the meat that makes it full. It definitely was an eye opening experience that put clearly into perspective the raw power and destruction these storms are capable of, and how many precautions need to be taken especially when chasing these monsters. And it highlighted the importance for me to keep in mind the massive impacts these things do to families and communities that lay in the path.
I live 20 minutes away from Greensburg. So it being like that is normal for me, I was born a month after the tornado. I'll turn 17 next month. This will definitely give me a different perspective on the town hearing your experience. I've never thought about how much different it was from before when the tornado hit.
Today is the anniversary of the event!
Yup
The "event?" The town was obliterated.
@@jasonholt4506he’s saying today is may 4th which it is look at the date
I wonder if that’s why the video was released on this day.
17 years ago today :(
This tornado🌪️grew to 1.7 miles wide, the exact width of the town.
That’s wide and I’m almost certain someone will manufacture a conspiracy around that, probably already have.
@@TitaniumTurbinewhat kind of “conspiracy theory”?
@@retroking2749that some doctor evil weather machine sized it to match the town...
the more mundane reality is that it was probably larger, but they at least knew it was as wide as the destruction footprint which was the whole town width of 1.7mi - so they went with that..
There were 13 churches in the town, And they were all destroyed. The lone liquor store was undamaged!
@@TitaniumTurbinelive 20 minutes away from Greensburg in a town named Bucklin. Have never heard any conspiracy theories from anyone who was in the tornado lol
Quite frightening that this had happened in the night, then moment later, everything is gone.
A monster for sure. One that rivals the Moore OK, Joplin MO and El Reno OK twisters.
The storm dropped 2 more tornadoes shortly after, each just as strong as OR stronger than the one that hit Greensburg, but neither hit anything.
That makes this storm truly one of a kind
3:42 one of the best tornado photos probably ever
It feels like a creature is hiding inside of it.
Hey Ethan! Today is that day 17 years later, and what is crazy is I have been studying the Hollister tornado because it resembled this tornado very similarly, and intensity and the fact that it was at night, but Greensburg is so interesting and I hope you could do a damage analysis full video maybe one day on this, also it once again is interesting, given the highest DI was 205 mph, when you calculate on radar up to 250 mph, and the fact that calculations have also proven that the Trousedale tornado was likely stronger than Greensburg tornado is scary for what this violent updraft could produce, given also mostly high CAPE, less shear (directional shear), it is fascinating, thanks once again @JuneFirst
When I was in high school we took a trip to help the people of greensburg clean up after the tornado. I was dumb founded when I saw the damage in person. Straw grass was impaled into tree trunks. I couldn’t believe how anybody survived. It was wild.
The weather inspectors called it “catastrophic with unusual phenomenon”. It ripped fire hydrants out of cement and obliterated houses that were bolted to the ground. It was extremely powerful.
I'm watching this on May 7th a few days past the anniversary. There's a huge line of storms from Oklahoma all the way to Minnesota tonight. With it the NOAA/NWS issued a rare high risk for tornadoes. I cant help but to think about all the people in the line of these storms, especially since its night time. I hope everyone stays safe. Your in my mind and prayers.
The recent Greenfield IA tornado was clocked at both 214 and at times over 300 mph, but it was labeled an EF4.
That was a good overview of what happened to the town and it's people. Thanks you for your work and time putting this together!
I was in Great Bend that night. I remember so many powerful storm systems being around us that night. We had to go into the storm shelter three separate times.
I have extended family that lived through this, traveled here before and after the tornado multiple times. You can literally see the end of the town easily from one side to the other. It was fascinating seeing the rate of rebuilding over the years and the new big well attraction is fantastic.
I just stumbled upon this video & today just happens to be the anniversary of it. The weather service noise comes on my tv every day at 3am. I have my tv at night & that sound _creeps me the fudge out!_
VERY good and informative video! And your narration was spot on-not overly dramatic, well-paced and literate. Very much enjoyed this.
My wife and I were sitting on our pickup tailgate that evening talking southwest of Greensburg as it was a very pleasant evening, watching the tornado and didn't realize until the next day what had taken place. We got into helping with cleanup the Monday afterward and were surprised that more people weren't killed. Amazing how much devastation. Some things defied explanation such as a friends house completely blown away and part of the basement collapsed but a Dodge pickup sitting exactly where he had parked it that evening with only a cracked windshield.
0:48 This sequence was really unnerving. Well edited, but scary as heck. Well done editor.
This is the best narration and whoever it is has a great voice and gave me chills listening to how bad it was for the people there. Prayers to all
oh wow i didnt realize that this tornado was on this day, anyways great video as usual and i would love if you covered the elie manitoba f5
Me too
17 years. I remember it like it was yesterday.
God bless the City of Greensburg.
Fun fact: The USA has far more tornados than any place on earth. The USA is also known for its mighty military force. The Judeo-Christian god of the bible...the one our country is under(one nation under god) is Yahweh....the god of storms and war. The same god of Deuteronomy 7:1-2 in which god commands the Jews to kill the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites...genocide.
Nice documentary (or whatever you want to call it). This is one of the best I have seen. Greensburg has REALLY has recovered.
Wow, I never knew Greenberg was almost hit two days in a row. Crazy!
I remember last year me and my dad were driving around and we somehow stumbled into greensburg and it is a very interesting place, on the main road everything is brand new and green, the grass is so green I’m almost positive they painted it. We decided to drive further into town and we saw more modern buildings but then we say the remnants of all the houses, it seemed like it was just miles of absolutely destroyed buildings. I asked my dad about it and he told me about the tornado, I just remember being in shock. In other news greensburg also has the biggest hand dug well, that’s really interesting. I recommend anyone to actually go to greensburg, it’s actually really neat and it’s incredible to see the leftovers damage.
I live 20 minutes from Greensburg. I was born a month after the tornado, so I don't know what the town was like before the tornado, but it is definitely interesting to think about.
This video is going viral! Congratulations! 🎉🎈
You did an amazing job on this! Your narration was next level! Very nice work
This is the best video I have seen on this topic other than Gabe Peña. Great video as usual! Also, the story with the McKinney’s is on a storm stories episode on TH-cam if anybody wants more information on that
Can't believe it's been 17 years and I haven't heard of it until recently. A major tornado hit in my home state on March 1, 2007 in Americus, GA. Would love a video dedicated to that event.
Lived near Greensburg, remember event though I was young. Remember the town before and after. I remember the sirens from the storm going off Barry being able to hear them as I lived in a farm house 14 miles north of town so only had rural sirens to listen for. The closes one being around 1-2 miles away. I know someone who got in their bathtub for the tornado warning and through a mattress over their head. They held on to the mattress tightly. When the event was over they got up, only to find themselves 1.5 blocks away from their home, in the middle of the street.
Also just want to say, Trousdale isn’t pronounce traus - dāl but like Truesdale. Or Trues - dāl. Either way, tornado killed the town, it has recovered some, but is nothing like in the past.
Thanks for the pronunciation of Trousdale!
This was a great video! Awesome visuals, good narration. Definitely subscribing!
I don't even remember hearing about this one D: RIP to all who were lost.
I think it would be different if it hit a bigger community. Greensburg is a small town. At the time when the tornado happened the population was about 1,500.
@@Sj430It was all over the news and President Bush did an entire tour. Plus the show about rebuilding. Seems pretty common knowledge to me.
I was in the KS National Guard back then and this was a drill weekend. We went straight out there late Sunday and stayed for weeks. Totally surreal how flat the whole west side of town was. And unbelievably how many people survived in totally destroyed houses and buildings.
What’s scary is that many of the people who died were in their basements taking shelter.
I really appreciated the citizens of Greensburg for allowing a film crew to bring their lives to the rest of us. That show was very enlightening and I enjoyed seeing the improvements that were made to help reduce future damage and destruction.
I drove through here a few days after this on my way to Denver. We had planned the route based off of Google maps and programmed the Garmin days before this happened and we forgot about the route going through there. It was something you cannot describe accurately. On one side of town there was a tractor dealership. On the other side of town, there was a ball of tangled up tractor wreckage.
This was the exact day and year I was born. My mom has told me stories about this tornado and how devastating it was for the town. How it was so strong that records were lodged in trees unbroken.
I remember watching the weather Channel the next day on May 5th of 2007 and I couldn't believe how big the tornado was and how much of Greensburg was destroyed and to this day in 2024 I still can't believe it
The Greensburg Tornado was a precursor to the Western Kentucky Tornado in 2021 especially the night video over Bremen, Ky.
Nice job guys. One of the more creepy tornadoes we’ve had in the last 20 years.
The tornado was a 1.7 mile wide nocturnal wedge.
As a first responder I have seen the immediate results of similar tornadoes up close and in person, and for that family to have found the young mother and her baby alive with only minor injuries after their home took a direct hit from an EF-5 is a miracle that can only happen with the blessing of God on that household.
It broke my heart when I heard about this back then. I lived in Greensburg back when I was in college at Dodge City.
Simply put this gives me shivers! Well done sir!
You know what else is creepy , today is also may 4th
Well done! I enjoy amateur documentaries like these a lot -- and by no means is the term "amateur" a marker of low-quality. You did an excellent job of explaining the forces behind the tornado, and the sense of building urgency and calamity on the human side of things.
Thanks!
Its crazy when you see an entire town blown apart man
Like a month ago there was a supercell spreading from Texas to Kansas there was a tornado is greensburg and my friends cousin was 4 month old and she flew out the house and was found dead it was a sad time for him and his family
I live out by dodge city and remember driving through there not too long after it happened. Was my first time seeing damage from a tornado and words will never be enough to explain the feeling of seeing a town wiped completely off the map. Drove through last month and didn’t even realize It was greensburg because it was rebuilt but damn. Will never forget
Narrator tells the story of what happened very well. Thank you.
My grandmother used to live in Greensburg, but moved a couple years before the tornado hit. She knows people that still live there. It had completely leveled houses and destroyed 95% of the town. The house she had lived in was in the 5%, though it was still missing half of its roof. Insane damage and destruction.
My grandma still gets jumpy when bad weather comes through and I don't blame her at all. The trees in Greensburg still look strange, even all these years later.
My aunt experienced this tornado first hand. The most interesting things were her Husbands truck ending up blocks down the road, her car was untouched. As they hid under the stair case in the basement, the playground Mary-go-round smashed into the basement as the tornado ripped their house apart.
I was fishing with some buddies at a popular local pond outside of the neighboring town, Haviland, on the night of the Greensburg tornado. I was a teenager, and our parents kept calling and texting us pleading us to get back to town and seek shelter. So we did. The sirens were going off when we got into town, so I thought we were super lucky to get back to town when we did. We soon found out it was the next town over. As I sat in my friend's basement, we listened to the radio (this was a bit before the days of smart phones). It seemed like every 2 minutes the radio newscasters would give a new estimate of how much of Greensburg had been destroyed. "We're hearing 20% of the city is gone!" ... "We're hearing 50% of the town is gone." (I rolled my eyes at that number.) "We're hearing 80% of the town is gone." I thought for sure those numbers were exaggerated, especially since it was at night, which I figured would make it kind of hard to tell. The next day when we went to help with the cleanup effort, I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought for sure they were embellishing the numbers, but if anything, they understated it.
Yesterday was 25 years since May 3, 1999 and today is 17 years since this event.
Not only that the first tornado was huge and catastrophic. The second monster grew even bigger. That's beyond belief!
Greensburg was catastrophic
You should make one of these about the joplin tornado and release it on may 22nd, the day it happened
I rode my motorcycle through greensburg last September. Was thinking about the tornado.
Visited Greensburg a few weeks ago. If you ever get a chance, stop by the Crazy Mule. Their food is excellent. You can see on a sidewalk outside that the concrete was poured in 2010. Very sobering.
this was the 1st EF-5 ever to be rated on the EF scale
Chapeau bas for well informative, well written, cinematic and to my most surprise - very bitesize - video essay. Instant sub with notification is going your way, not mentioning the well deserved thumbs up. I hope making this content is giving you a lot of joy and you are committed to do more, because I'd love to see more!
Thank you! I really appreciate it. I do love the process of making these, it’s extremely rewarding. Working on the next project now to have out for the end of the month :)
Cheers,
Ethan
I drove through Greensburg a few years after the tornado. There were signs of the green environmentalist shift and redevelopment, but the area still felt pretty devastated.
I live in Wichita east of Greensburg, we went to Colorado July 4 and drove through the tornado ravaged town 2 months later, devastating 😮 so many Tornadoes 🌪️ have destroyed many Kansas towns and cities
Udall being one of the worst
My sister lives in Wichita. I remember the Greensburg tornado well. I personally witnessed the extreme destruction caused by the first Andover, KS tornado.
I knew a young woman who was in the Andover tornado. They went to their basement and barely survived that. The twister sucked everything out of the basement after destroying their house. The only thing to survive was the dryer, and the clothes in the dryer. It seems that if possible, a reinforced area needs to exist in basements. There was one in colorado where the children ran to their grandparents house nextdoor rather than go to the basement. The house they lived in was ripped off the foundation and their dad's truck was dumped into the basement. Grandparents house was untouched.
Towns in Tornado Alley need massive underground shelters to aid those who don’t have underground shelters or basements. It would almost *have* to save lives.
Bridge Creek, Moore had a Tornado touch down in 1999 that evolved into an F5 with speeds that measured around 302mph, the fastest natural wind speeds ever recorded on earth, and it still holds that record to this day, correct me if I'm wrong.
Greensburg's Tornado... Crickey... My prayers and thoughts are with everyone from that day 😢
The 2013 Bridge Creek/Moore tornado actually matched that record, and the 2013 El Reno tornado unofficially surpassed the record.
The thing about the Greensburg tornado though is despite its somewhat slower windspeeds, it was TERRIFYINGLY violent.
Its not the size or windspeed that makes it stand out, it's the fact that it was an absolute monster, not quite equal too but still comparable to the Jerrel Texas tornado.
Tornadoes are incredible forces of nature. I live in Southeast Texas. Hurricanes and I stay to help every time. A tornado though, your screwed. Prayers to those dealing with the recent terrible ones.
I was flying into Oklahoma city's Will Rogers Airport from Atlanta GA that evening and could see the 72 000ft supercell from the plane 160 miles away!!
Ethan, you mentioned the updraft being separated from the tornado causing the left turn to the north. It appeared that several of the others took a left turn that night as well according to the path maps in the video. What causes the updraft to separate in that manner?
I remember seeing the damage of Greensburg when I was in 3rd grade when I was living in Lawton Oklahoma. I was called to do some kind of food drive to help the people. My entire class agreed and wanted to band together but ended up doing a penny drive cuz principal didnt like a food drive for some reason! The penny drive was a money drive donation to help fund the town for help and rebuilding houses.
It worked and I still have the letter from the Mayor of Greensburg thanking me and my school for starting a penny drive to help the town.
handling and delivering food can be a pain, money is a lot easier, and the people get what they really need.
@@alanm2842 I still wonder how the town is doing now. I know its been a decade or two but would love to visit personally.
Well a person can visit.they still have the huge well. Or if a visit is too much you could look on Google maps
The thing that is crazy for me is that I life 35 miles away from Greensburg. My mom remembered this tornado and remembered how horrible it was.
17 years ago today... Absolutely a Black Friday of Kansas.
Im from arizona but my dad is from northwestern kansas. We actually drove to greensburg in like 05ish cause it was just off our path, my parents wanted to go to an antique shop at an old church, solid brick building with stairs leading to the basement. When we went back, about 2 months after the tornado, the town was gone. Thats the best way i can put it. You could see 1 end to the other because every single building was flattened, mattresses in trees, etc. We tried to find that antique shop, the closest we found was a foundation with the stairs going to the basement in the right place, and a few similarly colored bricks nearby. Never did find out if that was the same building. Its what got me interested in tornadoes in the first place. The fact nature can literally pick up an entire town and shred it to pieces then dissapear, it was so crazy for my 10 year old brain to think about. Still is.
3 days after it happened, me and my grandpa flew over in his plane.
I will never forget what I saw that day.
Nothing, not a single thing in its path was left standing
From Ulysses kansas. I was a sophomore in high school. We were playing baseball in Pratt that day. On our way Home from Pratt the bus had to turn around. We were 5 miles outside of Greensburg when the tornado hit. Cops saved us.
17 years ago today absolutely unreal and insane 🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️
Wonderful storytelling. ♡
It was also possible the Trousdale tornado was even stronger than the Greensburg Tornado.
I’m in the same boat. The radar scans of Trousdale are unreal.
Seems there have been a few instances like that where a 2nd, larger tornado that was possibly stronger got overlooked because of a more high profile one that hit earlier.
May 3, 1999 Moore F5 vs Mulhall F4
Gary England looking at radar said it being 3 miles wide wasn't out of the question. Chasers on I-35 said they could only see the western edge of it illuminated by lightning, while the rest of it seemed to stretch on as far as they could see. There is some crazy radar data on it, but unfortunately no videos and only one photo.
March 24, 2023 Rolling Fork EF-4 vs Amory EF3
The radar scans of the Amory tornado are just insane, clearly larger and more intense than the tor that hit Rolling Fork but fortunately it didn't make a direct hit on the town to my knowledge.
@@sabishiihito It did hit parts of the town but it only did Ef3 damage, it could have easily been violent, the nws was trying hard to find violent damage even looking at trees. In the end it did get 165mph from damage to trees.
@@junefirst, Is there Another One Coming There Again?
This is the reason that growing up in NE Texas was kind of a two edged sword. On the one hand it was a nice area to grow up in and we had a good place to call home, but on the other hand we had quite a few close calls with tornados...and they all hit at night. Dealing with a tornado you can't see except when lightning flashes is beyond scary.
I have driven through Greensburg several times before and after.... it will never be the same
Dude wow, amazing video!
Get a NOAA Weather Radio with the "SAME" feature. It'll wake you in the dead of night if a severe tstorm/tornado watch or warning is issued for your county/counties nearby (you program it). EXTREMELY loud, at 85 decibels!
Lives in the Wichita area when this happened. Drive out to see it for myself 2 weeks after. I’ve never seen anything like it. Nature is so powerful. Couldn’t imagine that happening to me.
Nature loves to reminds us who’s in charge.
interestingly enough, using the same methods used to measure El Reno's monster, the Trousdale EF3 was actually 4.3 MILES wide..
What about may 3 1999 Mulhall? The may 3 '99 tornado nobody talks about because it has that really famous older sibling?
Imagine being in one of these monsters in a home without a basement. All you can do it listen and wait in darkness as certain death barrels towards you.
That would have been unfathomable if the EF-1 tornado hit Greensburg the night after the EF-5 wrecked the town. Tornadoes hitting a town back to back nights?
It wouldn't be the first time. During the 1974 Super Outbreak, Tanner, AL had an F5 side-swipe the southern edge of town. Those who were injured were evacuated to the center of town for treatment, only for the center of town to take a direct hit from another F5 thirty minutes later.
This stuff REALLY makes one wonder why so many people living in tornado country don't get tornado shelters at the very least. And if they get a house destroyed by a tornado most just rebuild another home that isn't proof against tornadoes. It costs about the same to rebuild as a tornado proof house as it does any other type of custom house. ..
0:42 that graphic gives me the chills. Haunting.
The EF scale is sooo much more anticipated over because of all of the damage increments. It’s really improved over the last 17 years. Especially with El Reno, over 2.5 miles wide and 200 mph winds. But only rated at EF-3 because of the damage that was reported. Especially it only basically being over farmland.
Prior to 2015 I had never heard of Greensburg or the tornado that hit it. I found out after driving through as a newly minted truck driver. The remaining trees are extremely battered and many driveways and foundations can be seen. Putting two and two together I figured it must have been a tornado, confirmed later when I looked it up after parking later that evening. Since then, I've parked overnight in the ruined neighborhood on the north side of 400.
Very tragic and I'm glad the town has tried to bounce back.
Absolutely hated being in Kansas and OK when severe weather threatened, those monsters are absolutely terrifying to me.