Recently I was driving US 412 in northern Arkansas, and I happened to come across a section of forest that was strikingly "messed up." At first I thought it was a horribly executed logging operation, but I eventually figured out that it was a tornado scar. (https://maps.app.goo.gl/wV3YXXdxzAG95mkc6) That got me thinking about what other tornado scars I've driven through, which I've listed. For the purpose of this exercise, I would only count major tornadoes that happened only a few years before you drove past them where the damage was still evident. Here are the tornado paths that I've driven through:
- November 2022 Caviness-Powderly-Midcity TX EF4 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/wVds6fkUs8bnQHsD9)
- 2023 Black Hawk-Winona MS EF3 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y63UGxXBJHaxrWtf9)
- 2023 Rolling Fork MS EF4 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/AL9KKMEgrtRpyPD88)
- April 2024 Holdenville, OK EF3 (no imagery)
- 2024 Bellefonte-Pyatt, AR EF3 (https://maps.app.goo.gl/wV3YXXdxzAG95mkc6)
Interesting topic idea. Some that come to mind for me, mostly locally.
Way back probably in the mid 80's, I remember tornado damage along New York 5 in Glenville, near what was then the Smeaton House and is now a dog boarding and grooming business.
The 1998 Mechanicville, New York, tornado (https://www.news10.com/news/25th-anniversary-of-the-mechanicville-tornado/) was very evident for years along New York 67. I drove through many times during those years.
I've been through La Plata, Maryland, along US 301 a good number of times before and after the 2002 tornado (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_La_Plata_tornado) there. First time through after the tornado was shocking.
The 2011 Cranesville, New York, tornado (https://www.saratogian.com/2011/09/05/national-weather-service-confirms-tornado-that-caused-extensive-damage-in-montgomery-and-schenectady-counties/) featured a lot of tree damage clearly visible for several years along New York 5, which I drive regularly. I also drove through some less severe damage from the same storm pretty often along Touareuna Road (or maybe Greens Corners Rd).
Most recently, when we went up to Turin, New York, to see this year's eclipse at Snow Ridge, the damage from the previous summer's tornado (https://www.wwnytv.com/2023/08/14/snow-ridge-ski-resort-finds-more-tornado-damage-that-originally-thought/) was very evident along the road and especially on the mountain.
Not really a "tornado scar", but heading back home from Nebraska in late April or early May of this year, I saw two 18-wheelers in the I-80 median flipped on their sides by tornadoes the evening before, one near Omaha and the other near Council Bluffs IA.
Multiple parts of the Springfield-Sturbridge tornado in western Mass in June 2011. It crossed 91 and 84, and even paralleled parts of US 20 in Brimfield. The part that crossed 84 bent a sign gantry like a pretzel with the sign remaining attached to it. It still looks pretty gnarly 13 years later going through but it's recovering nicely.
Others I can think of that have recovered even more are in Northfield NH and Wendell MA. The Northfield one was short but an EF2 and wrecked a lot in its path in 2008 or 2009.
I passed through the path of the 2023 Rocky Mount, NC tornado on I-95 two and a half months later:
(https://i.imgur.com/yrNldaD.jpeg)
Quote from: SectorZ on December 17, 2024, 08:57:40 AMMultiple parts of the Springfield-Sturbridge tornado in western Mass in June 2011.
I forgot about that one. I drove US 20 from Westfield to Sturbridge later that summer and was amazed at the level of damage in some areas.
The worst tornado scar I've ever seen (and drove past) was shortly after the May 3, 1999 tornado struck the Oklahoma City metro. The location was where the tornado had crossed I-44 just South of Newcastle, near mile marker 104.5:
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2614453,-97.6382441,3a,75y,67.29h,74.99t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sBnayyn2jd65L-AChfZ1fJw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D15.013088293740438%26panoid%3DBnayyn2jd65L-AChfZ1fJw%26yaw%3D67.2929811371023!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
The tornado was a true F5, packing the highest wind speeds ever observed in a tornado (over 300mph). The tornado approached I-44 from the Southwest, moving through a wide open field. There was a wide reddish brown swath of freshly exposed earth running through that field. Pretty much all the vegetation and a couple layers of top soil were scoured from the ground where the tornado made contact.
Some trees nearby were fully uprooted while many others were severely mangled. The NW 16th bridge over I-44 was utterly sand-blasted with red clay. IIRC at least one person who tried hiding under that bridge was yanked out of there by the twister and killed.
One other thing that blew my mind: the concrete Jersey barrier running down the middle of I-44 had "bite marks" taken out of it North of the 16th St bridge. ODOT did a patch job on those barriers to repair the damage. White spots were visible for years. Those barrier segments have since been replaced.
The "tornado scar" from the Barneveld tornado (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_June_7%E2%80%938,_1984) was easily visible for at least a decade afterwards, and I drove through it multiple times.
I passed through the scar of the 2013 Washington, IL tornado (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Washington,_Illinois,_tornado) on I-39 less than 24 hours after it happened. There was a downed power pole on the side of the highway, so the right lane was closed, and grass and mud all over the place.
I've driven through the paths of the 2012 tornadoes in Morgan and Magoffin counties many times. The Morgan County tornado left a track across US 23 between Paintsville and Louisa as well.
I also remember the scars from the 1973 outbreak in Jett, Ky. (I-64 and US 60 outside Frankfort).
In 2013, I drove through Joplin, Mo., which was rebuilding from a devastating tornado. I also drove through a rebuilding community in 2010 on IA 9, but I can't remember the town's name.
This is barely anything, but I had places to be on Halloween, and it just so happened that the night before an EF0 hit my town on the south end. I think I drove right through or very, very close to a minor tornado scar. I was too focused on the downed trees everywhere else to notice a possible tornado scar.
I don't recall them officially confirming a tornado there this year, but there's a spot on I-90 east of Canajoharie that has a lot of downed trees that look as if a tornado blew through. Makes me wonder if they missed one or if one of the other tornadoes wandered there.
I've also seen the aftermath of the May 20, 2013 tornado that began in Newcastle, OK and then devastated Moore. The damage path from that one can be easily seen in overhead Google Earth imagery taken shortly after the tornado struck. Hints of the damage can still be seen over 10 years later.
I visited Joplin a couple years after it was hit by an EF-5 tornado in 2011. My girlfriend and I drove to a fitness center in town to work out (we were staying at Downstream Casino resort a few miles away). We were surprised by how much re-building they were still having to do 2 years later.
A few years back, an F3 traveled 12 miles thru Gloucester County, my home county. With that length thru a suburban area, dozens of roads I travel show the scars of that tornado.
Some scenes: (Before is when GSV wen thru in 2018/2019. After is 2022/2023)
Before: https://maps.app.goo.gl/wzrW3oC3Z5cyzgna9
After: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gcohbYFncKhgWJNw5
Before: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VRVB6wj8ujzQUKVVA
After: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vavx1nnnMF7dEXvv5
Before: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iXQH2gLj7X9nKYRE9
After: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Da3cwxGoY9jMrb9NA
Before: https://maps.app.goo.gl/y18aTs4bhEmaTrQv5
After: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ukm3FErPZr2EDixJ8
We lived just 15 miles from Henryville when they had an F-4 tornado rip through on 3/3/12. Drove through a couple days later. Was pretty shocking to see what it had done.
I've seen a few tornado scars in wooded areas, and typically loggers are quick to capitalize and monetize. So the evidence disappears quickly.
In 2014, around Thanksgiving, I drove through the path of the 2013 Moore, OK tornado (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Moore_tornado) where it crossed I-35. I don't remember noticing any damage, though - they'd rebuilt things in the intervening year and a half.
That's my closest to a tornado scar story.
The trace of a tornado is still visible east of I-94 in Minneapolis:
(https://i.imgur.com/SSjGHmi.png)
(https://www.weather.gov/images/mpx/May22-2011-DATmap3.png)
Forgot to mention above that I drove through Mayfield KY, about a year and a half after an F4 tornado tore through downtown in December 2021. By then, debris had been cleared from the local road network (including US 45), but the wide path of severe tornado damage or destruction was still obvious.
The nature of living in Oklahoma for so long is these tend to all kind of blur together except for the really bad ones—I definitely remember driving through the 2013 and 1999 Moore tornado zones when the damage was fresh.
In February 2023, a tornado hit a neighborhood in east Norman that we used to live in, so a few days later, when we were sure we wouldn't be too in the way, we went over to look at the damage. It turns out that one of the houses that we had toured when we were buying our first house had taken a direct hit and lost its roof. Later that year a different tornado hit my parents' neighborhood. My parents were unaffected, but four houses down from them a metal building had been blown to bits, most of which ended up in the tree across the road.
I remember coming across one on OK-76 in southern McClain County once but I don't remember when it was nor how recent it was when I saw it.
Didn't think I was going to have an answer to this thread.
But, either in 1979 or 1980, a tornado blew through northern Bloomington, Indiana and my family drove through the wreckage. One highlight was one destroyed house still had a dining table intact, complete with salt and pepper shakers still on it.
There was a tornado that blew through Granby, MA in the early 1990s, right across a farm property a family friend owned. Drove through that scar in his truck.
- Been through Rochelle - Fairdale IL tornado scar (https://www.weather.gov/lot/2015_04_09_tornadoes) multiple times. It's still noticeable on IL 72, (https://maps.app.goo.gl/cYz7mfXanpcS1XGw8) but not as much on I-39. Just realized it is also still noticeable at the IL 64/IL 251 intersection. (https://maps.app.goo.gl/1FRUZqAMrCKMGaxG9)
- On I-55 and IL 116 from the 2016 tornado that hit Pontiac, IL (https://www.weather.gov/lot/2016_06_22_tornadoes)
- The multiple scars from the tornadoes that keep crossing I-55 between Braidwood and Joliet (2013, (https://www.weather.gov/lot/2013_11_17_tornado_outbreak) 2015, (https://www.weather.gov/lot/2015_06_22_tornadoes) and 2024) (https://www.weather.gov/lot/2024_07_15_Derecho)
From looking at some of the National Weather Service event summary pages I see there's a lot more tornado scars crossing interstates I've probably been going through without noticing.
I've driven through the Rochelle/Fairdale scar many times on I-39. It's grown back enough but during the winter you can still easily spot the trees that were on the outer edge.
Most recent visible scar was the Burr Ridge/Indian Head Park/Hodgkins tornado from July 2022. Easy visible scars on the trees around the I-294/I-55 JCT.
The one that stands out for me was July 2011 driving through Joplin, Missouri. I can still picture it in my mind.