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2021 was a year that was defined by a plethora of significant weather events: From Hurricane Ida, to numerous heat waves and floods, to a few notable tornado outbreaks. HOWEVER, if you grabbed someone off the streets and asked them what event they remember, the response is nearly unanimous. The Mayfield Tornado, or as it is officially known as, the Western Kentucky Tornado. The Western Kentucky Tornado is a tornado that people will not stop talking about, either in public, or in my comments section, and yet, people focus so much on what happened in Mayfield, and ONLY MAYFIELD, that people forget that the Western Kentucky Tornado was…part of an actual outbreak of tornadoes. A total of 71 tornadoes, in fact. Everyone who has covered this outbreak only focuses on what happened in Mayfield, and it is a disservice to the outbreak’s reputation, as the Western Kentucky Tornado is only part of a bigger picture, that picture being one of the most infamous, deadliest, and destructive tornado outbreaks in recent memory. People know what happened with the Western Kentucky Tornado in Mayfield, but people don’t know WHAT it did to Cayce, Kentucky, they don’t know what happened in Cambridge Shores, they don’t know what happened in Barnsley, they don’t know what happened in Dawson Springs, or in Bremen, just Mayfield. Some people know about what happened in Bowling Green, Kentucky. But the other tornadoes that occurred, that hit Dresden, Tennessee; Monette, Arkansas; Pembroke, Kentucky; Defiance, Missouri; Edwardsville, Illinois; and a bunch of other towns and cities that were hit that people don’t often look through. SO TODAY, I am going to look through every EF3+ Tornado that occurred on December 10-11th, 2021, with help from a Lead Forecaster from the Storm Prediction Center, Richard Thompson, and the Warning Coordination Meteorologist from NWS Paducah, Christine Wielgos, and look further into what happened already in the year, the synoptic setup, the expectations of the outbreak, the outbreak itself, the aftermath, and the controversies surrounding the outbreak.
Welcome, to Nature’s Fury.
Special Thanks To:
Dr. John Knox from UGA, and Tim Coleman who unintentionally directed me to Richard Thompson.
CMR29 on Discord for getting me in contact with Christine Wielgos.
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I was In south haven Mississippi at the time and I was living in a rv, that night was one of the most scariest nights I had in my life. It didn't help that I do have a fear of tornadoes. Though I do find tornadoes interesting too.
I Wish you got that shlinerview
the defiance tornado had peak winds of 165 mph. not 150 mph. the edwardsville tornado had the 150 mph wind tag
the dresdon tornado, bowling green tornado, and saloma tornadoes all deserved at least a low end EF4 rating. especially BG and saloma.
I live in the St. Louis/St. Charles area and I remember being completely shocked how quickly this storm intensified. Luckily the area I live in had minor damage, but the Amazon warehouse was on the news for weeks after the tornado ripped through. My heart is with Kentucky, I can only imagine the pain and trauma those folks had to go through.
Thank you for taking the time to really pay attention to detail about this storm. It was so fascinating, yet devastating. I’m looking forward to more of your content!
I got goosebumps when you showed the radar when it was threading the needle from Anton to Bremen, KY. To say it almost took out my house is an understatement at that moment, it quite literally flattened the woods behind our small neighborhood.
CORRECTION REGARDING THE DEFIANCE, MO TORNADO:
Defiance, MO tornado had winds of 165mph, not 150mph, I misread the 165mph as 150 while researching and nobody caught notice of it until people started to point it out in the comments section.
Sorry about that.
I am part of a storm chasing team in Kentucky and my job as a radar technician was to alert our viewers and listeners on these storms we ran non stop from 4pm to 6am. You did a great job explaining the whole outbreak
I didn't see this till now I didn't know you dropped this! Great video!
I think May 20 in Moore is up there with Joplin and this one from recent history. Easily.
I specifically remember watching the tornado after about 45 minutes and thinking “I’m witnessing history here” but I had never in my lifetime seen storms like this in my state. I felt somewhat helpless knowing that supercell was in our path, but it ended up lifting well before our house and city.
My grandparents live in rural Mayfield (not the part that got hit, don't know if they could see it or not but I doubt it because of trees) and I never really noticed what was in the town until I saw what got leveled. Really showed how quick things can change overnight.
That night a community on the northern side of Augusta, Arkansas (almost halfway between Little Rock and Jonesboro on the map) was hit with an EF2 (iirc) and thankfully no fatalities but it damaged several homes and destroyed some farm structures. Many trees down as well. If it had happened just a mile further south they may have been on your list with the others in a town of ~2000 people. This was the night I discovered Ryan Hall, too. My area had been tornado warned but mostly just wind and rain, thankfully, though it did get hairy for a few minutes…
A tornado on my birthday smh
Something I’d like to mention:
Watching this on radar was horrifying, especially since I was in Joplin during the tornado, and still live there today. My favorite part of the recovery effort is how much love we showed to Mayfield following the tornado. A local food truck went to Mayfield following the tornado, and gave food away to everybody for free, just like the guy who lived 30 min from Mayfield. Also, the mayor of Joplin even REACHED OUT to the residents of Mayfield giving some tips and tricks on how to recover from a tornado of that magnitude
I observed that super cell during the day north east of Little Rock Arkansas. It was the most ominous storm I have seen it quite some time. That cloud had so much energy with the power of several Hiroshima thermal nuclear bombs I knew it was going to be an epic long lasting into the evening event!
this year Ophiem montana (or richland…. not sure what they are calling it) had an EF2
.
an EF2 in late july IIRC is pretty rare up here….. an EF2 in general is rare!
and this was a high end EF2 i personally think, looking at damage pics
.
id LOVE to see a montana tornado covered…… it would really help my forecasting and stuff like sounding analysis (as we dont get "tornado alley" type hodographs LOL)
REALLY appreciate the interviews with the professional forecasters!
I'm actually from one of the towns hit by the tornado, specifically Dawson Springs, and I actually lived in that 2-story apartment building that was destroyed that you mentioned. I protested my girlfriend wanting to go to my father's house (he had a basement) and I remember saying "If a tornado comes through this area it's going to have to be a big one" BOY was I right on that one… she eventually convinced me and we left the apartment about an hour and a half before the tornado destroyed everything. Doesn't happen often, but here I am admitting that she was right, and it probably saved my life lol. Anyways, I wanna say thank you for the mention as I've seen many coverings not even mention our town even though ~75% of it was destroyed. And the residents of our town had many struggles with FEMA, most of them got pretty much nothing and FEMA even refused to pay the electric and water bill for our community center they took over while they were in town doing who knows what. An example, my girlfriend's car was left at the apartment and was lifted and tossed about 200 feet across the parking lot and road, it was barely recognizable as her car when we found it, and FEMA told her that we would have to find a mechanic to come down to look at the car and verify it would not start. I can't add the photos here but if you could see them you would understand how ridiculous a claim it was. Then on top of all that, almost none of the money was given to families to find them houses and get their lives started again. Back home there are still hundreds of people living in camping cabins on the property of a state park nearby and have been there since the tornado. No I'm not complaining either, I'm grateful that anyone came out of their way to help us, I just feel as if certain aspects of the recovery could and should have been handled completely differently. Again, thanks for mentioning our small town, and great work!
Well done Vid. Did I hear right? People are still looking for FEMA ( our own GOVT.) relief funds? Ukraine gets 40 Billion every other week! How does that taste?
The interview with those in the front line working in the NWS was probably the most helpful and informative giving insight on the event of that night the part that got me was the fact the weather station lost power at a critical time when the Western Kentucky Tornado glad they where able to restore power and continue to monitor the tornado till it eventually die so props to those working in the NWS Office at Peduca!
I will always say how much luck I had that night, I live in Clarksville and watching the warnings go off the whole night and the next morning shows how close the town was to being hit and I’m so thankful that it didn’t hit us.
I remember the day after since living in ky that all the stations in Lexington didn’t go back to normal programming till the 12th I’ll never forget this day every
Another great video! I love how you interview these professionals in the field to get their perspective because it completes the puzzle for us laypeople out here in the outside world. It gives us a better understanding of the things that happen during events like this.
It really is odd how some people get upset about the rating. It's almost like they want an EF5 to happen! Personally, I think every consecutive year that goes by without one is something to celebrate. It would be even better if we had more years like 2018 where there aren't even EF4s! That year showed us it's possible, so that sounds like something to hope for IMO.
I live in Iowa, so we never had a tornado in this event, yet our weather was absolutely terrible. So many trees falling down and so many buildings damaged or completely destroyed was already bad enough, I can't imagine how a Tornado would've been. Thank you for covering this 💞 much love to my southern and other midwestern friends. I hope life is going well for you all now.
FINALLY, SOMEONE BIG RECOGNIZES THE TORNADO THAT GIT MY TOWN (newnan)
The reason people complain about the EF scale being so picky about category 5 is that everyone wants to have survived – or just talk about – the "big one." It's that simple.
YES finally you made a video of my town
I tracked the whole event without getting up, i was planning on chasing but i was broke so. glad i didnt go
I was going to Oklahoma City to see my niece's Christmas show at Oklahoma City University. When we were driving back from there back to Jackson, Tennessee and then back to home in Knoxville, Tennessee, I saw some of the tornadic damage… uprooted trees, etc., I hadn't seen anything like that since I lived in Arlington, Texas when I went through an EF5 event… I'll never forget that either!
I think you made a mistake. I'm from the Mayfield area. Pretty sure over 50 people here died.
This video quality is fantastic! It's so cool that you got those interviews and great radar scans. My only complaint is that you say that Joplin is the only recent tornado comparable to this one. I would definitely put the more recent Moore, OK, the Tuscaloosa, AL, and maybe the Hackleburg/Phil Campbell, AL tornadoes on that list.
Interesting that the first EF4 went over Reelfoot Lake, the epicenter of the strongest East Coast earthquake on record 😮
The "big tornado" getting all the headlines is really true of any tornado outbreak, even when there are other big tornadoes associated with it.
Think of all the places impacted by either the 1974 or 2011 super outbreaks and which storms do you think would come off the tops of people's heads first? I guarantee you most would pick Xenia and Tuscaloosa respectively.
subbed to your channel. just one thing….something I think that should not be said, is when Tubers talk about tornadoes or storms in general, they say "world history", or "the worst storm/tornado in earth's history." please, don't conflate a storm by using those phrases. say recorded american history please. keep up the great work.
interesting, I wont be the guy that points out what I interrupted and saw differently. But from what I watched it was decent.
i live in northern kentucky and i remember waking up and heading to school the morning after, everyone had blown up my phone talking abt the tornado. we all talked abt it at school that day, we were all pretty shook up. (the last time nky had a tornado was the year before and it only ranked an f2) but what really resonated with me was my pawpaw’s reaction. he was so concerned that morning (watching the news and eager to tell us more updates when we got home from work/school). he actually decided to go down to mayfield to help with the construction efforts (he was the pretty much the go to handy man in our area) but he contracted CJD and he wasn’t able to go down. he wanted to help the people of mayfield so bad. i think if he was alive now i’d watch this with him! he’d appreciate all of the hard work and fine details put into this video! love and miss you pawpaw ❤️ and all the love and support to those who were/are still affected by the tornado ❤️❤️
I live in louisville and I remember there being an alert that a tornado was on a ground in Albany louisville. And I was like where is that….that was the area of Louisville I lived in. So I was like well fuck it if I’m gonna die so be it.
Imo that shit was a F5
I refuse to believe this and the El Reno weren’t given EF5s tbh.
Say what you will, some tornadoes are just different.
How about the time a tropical depression wrecked the philippines 2018? Usman
I got hit by the Mayfield tornado. 🙁
if suggestions are okay with you, i'd HIGHLY suggest looking into both the Moore EF5s (1999 and 2013) and the El Reno EF3, (2013) widest tornado on earth.
I live in St. Louis, so I remember the Edwardsville tornado, because it went past us. Didn’t know that the one that hit our area was a EF 3 though.