Tornadoes versus Hurricanes plus Leonbergers

Today, or rather yesterday, since it is past midnight, was a wild day here in Dallas. We had severe thunderstorms with strong winds ripping up trees around the neighborhood as well as our patio parasol and one of our small trees. There were large hails, lightning and thunder, flash floods, as well as a tornado. Luckily the tornado was not anywhere near us, but we lost power during a significant part of the day, just like more than 650,000 people here in Dallas. Oncor said it will take 8 days to restore power to everyone. Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is very afraid of bad weather, so he had a bad day. I am sure many other dogs had a bad day too.

A threatening supercell with lightning
A so called supercell but without a tornado. Stock Photo ID: 1768468151 by Laura Hedien.

When I talked about the weather with friends and family, I realized that many people do not know the difference between a tornado and a hurricane, so I thought I would explain. A hurricane is a big rotating storm system originating in the ocean that sometimes makes landfall and devastates our coasts. Hurricanes are big, thousands of square miles and even a million square miles. A hurricane has wind speeds of 74 miles per hour (mph) or higher. That’s 119 kilometers per hour or 33 meters per second. They are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and the northeast Pacific, and Typhoons in the northwest Pacific, and otherwise just cyclones.

Satellite photo of Mexico, southeastern United States and the Caribbean. A hurricane is approaching from the east.
Satellite photo of hurricane approaching Cuba and Florida. Stock Photo ID: 2202605185 by Emre Akkoyun.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cloud. They originate with thunderstorms, especially supercells, and are more of an inland phenomenon even though hurricanes can sometimes generate tornadoes. They are much smaller than hurricanes in area, almost always much smaller than a square mile, or just 10 or 30 meters across. The reason they can be as deadly as hurricanes is that they tend to have stronger winds and they appear and disappear quicker thus taking people by surprise. Tornadoes can happen anywhere, but they are more common in North America and especially in tornado-alley. Despite tornado alley’s small size, a quarter of all significant tornadoes in the world occurred there according to a study (1921 – 1995).

A large well-formed tornado over the plains.
A tornado. Stock Photo ID: 2369175167 by g images.com.

Below is a list of how hurricanes (Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) and tornadoes (original Fujita scale) are classified. The unit is miles per hour (mph). Also note that as the wind speed doubles the force quadruples, so an F5/261 mph Tornado has a force that is 2.8 times stronger than category five/155 mph hurricane.

  • Hurricane category one: Winds 74 to 95 mph. Tornado F1 : 73 to 112 mph
  • Hurricane category two: Winds 96 to 110 mph. Tornado F2 : 113 to 157 mph
  • Hurricane category three: Winds 111 to 130 mph. Tornado F3: 158 to 206 mph
  • Hurricane category four: Winds 131 to 155 mph. Tornado F4 : 207 to 260 mph
  • Hurricane category five: Winds greater than 155 mph. Tornado F5 : 261 to 318 mph
Tornado Alley is indicated in red, orange and yellow covering north Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and the corners of Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
Map showing Tornado Alley. It includes north Texas / Dallas. Stock Vector ID: 1719764089 by Adansijav Official.

The weather today reminded me about what happened on October 20, 2019. An EF3 Tornado ravaged our neighborhood, and it came close to our house, about 100 yards, and it damaged our house. Our chimney was smashed by a piece of concrete flying off a neighbor’s house, and our roof was damaged and needed to be replaced. In addition, our garage door was destroyed, and the wiring and pipes in the attic were destroyed, our fence was damaged, and my grill flew across the yard. The cost of the repairs was $50,000.00.

Bronco is laying on the ground facing the broken fence. He has a plastic bag around his bandage.
Bronco had just had a toe amputation. He did not blow down our fence.

However, we were lucky. Several of our neighbors’ houses were totally destroyed and my wife’s parents house was a lot more damaged than our house was. The wind from the Tornado lifted my 89-year-old father-in-law up in the air and he was hit by a broken marble table that injured his back. The school where our boys used to go, St. Marks School of Texas, was badly damaged and the walls of the gymnasium blew away.

A neighbor’s house with the roof ripped off.
A neighbor’s house the morning of October 21st, 2019.

I was sitting outside drinking a beer, a Yellow Rose, when my phone started making a loud sound. It was an alarm announcing a tornado warning and, in the distance, I could hear a faint tornado siren. At first, I thought it was nothing but when I saw the lightning approaching, I decided to go inside. Two minutes later a hailstorm made things very loud, the wind was strong, and the house shook, and then we heard a loud explosion. That was our chimney being smashed.

Debris on the street from a neighbor’s destroyed house.
Another neighbor’s house. This house was about 100 yards from our house. It took a direct hit from the tornado.

After the wind had died down a bit, I opened the door to the backyard, and what I saw shocked me. My gas grill had flown across the patio. There were bricks and pieces of concrete all over the patio and the lawn. There was a big sheet of metal lying on the patio. Big tree branches covered the lawn. There was debris everywhere. We had also lost power. It turns out that the EF3 tornado had gone through our neighborhood and passed within one hundred yards of our house.

This house is totally destroyed.
Another neighbor’s house (a bit further away from us).

My wife Claudia asked me to go check on her parents. I drove about 50-100 yards when a neighbor’s roof lying across the road stopped me. I turned around but this time I was stopped by a large pile of trees lying across the street. So, I started walking, but this time I was stopped by a group of firemen telling me that it was too dangerous to be outside. They told me to go back home, and I did.

My wife Claudia is walking among the debris in my in-laws house.
Inside Claudia’s parents’ house. This was the morning after. We are walking into their house to check on them (that’s my wife).

I can add that October of 2019 was a very difficult month for our Leonberger Bronco. He was getting old. He was twelve years old, and he had the first signs of geriatric-onset laryngeal paralysis polyneuropathy (or GOLPP), which made his breathing a bit labored and affected his gait. In addition, he had developed another case of squamous cell carcinoma, a toe-nail cancer, and this time on his right rear paw. We amputated his toe on October 3—the day he turned twelve years and three months old.

You can see our mini-Australian Shepherd inspecting Bronco’s bandage change. He is standing over the bandages and the solutions and Bronco’s paw.
We had to change Bronco’s bandages every now and then but Rollo, our mini–Australian Shepherd made sure we did it right.

The surgery went well, but after around ten days it was discovered that he had a large deep ulcerous sore on the same paw a few inches above the surgical scar. Fortunately, it was not cancerous, as we first thought, but we would have to treat this sore in addition to nursing him back from his amputation. Then on October 20 we were visited by the tornado. One week after the tornado Bronco had his first heart failure. So, something bad happened every week in October 2019. It was a dark time for Bronco. However, he took it very well, he kept his brave and positive outlook on life, and he was able to recover.

Below are a few more photos from that day.

Our Leonberger Bronco is in the background. Our pug Daisy is sitting on a chair in the kitchen.
Bronco and Daisy the evening before the big storm. None of us suspected what was about to happen.
The entire top of this house is gone.
This is the next-door neighbor of Claudia’s (my wife) parents.
The house is completely flattened. A large tree is destroyed. It has no branches.
Destroyed house in the neighborhood.
Crashed cars and destroyed stores.
View of the shopping center in our neighborhood.
The Gap store has its entire backside ripped off.
A store at a nearby shopping center
The yellow school bus is wrapped around a tree.
This was a school bus belonging to the school where my boys went.
Trees are ripped up, vehicles are crushed.
Streetview from the neighborhood.
Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd is on the left and Bronco our Leonberger is on the right. He is wearing a bandage on his back leg.
Bronco and Rollo a few days after the Tornado.
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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

95 thoughts on “Tornadoes versus Hurricanes plus Leonbergers”

      1. Oh wow, poor chimney, Thomas! It’s the most vulnerable thing in the house. The 1989 earthquake in Los Angeles, most of the house at least lost the chimneys. You must have a high instance premium. Take care.

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    2. Thank you so much Miriam. Yes the chimney did not have a chance with a concrete block smashing into it. The chimney was all over the roof and all over the yard. The earthquake in Los Angeles 1989 was a horrible one. Our home insurance went up by 50% this year but I think that is because of of higher risk from flooding from heavier downpours during thunderstorms, but maybe wind too. I read on NextDoor that some people are forced to sell their house because they can no longer pay the higher insurance premiums. Take care you too.

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    1. We were just discussing that. The tornado yesterday was nowhere close to us but the winds from the thunderstorm itself were hurricane strength. We were hiding in my son’s closet when my daughter suggested, “how about a getting a tornado shelter”. The important things is to stay away from windows and not to be outside. With tornadoes it is the flying debris that’s most dangerous. We had some minor damage this time, trees and our parasol. We’ll see if the insurance cover any of it.

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    2. The tornado did not hit us directly, it was about 100 meters away, maybe a bit less, but it caused significant damage to our house. Our chimney was smashed, we needed a new roof, a new fence, a new garage door, my grill was destroyed, and some wiring and pipes in the attic were broken. The estimated cost was $50,000.00 and our insurance company paid all of it. They would not pay damage to trees. The lady in the blue house that was destroyed (see photo above) was given enough money to build a new house, but she had to haggle with the insurance company. They wanted to repair the house but she said you can’t repair that. We were talking about her insurance problems. It took about a year but then she got a brand new house and she is very happy. So in summary, in general the insurance in Texas will cover these kinds of events, but you have to have insurance and a good one, and you may have to haggle.

      About the tornado shelter. They sell them at the local hardware store (big metallic cylinders) but they are expensive and will take up part of your house or yard. Dallas gets a tornado maybe every 5-10 years and much less than 1% of Dallas is destroyed, so the risk is low. On the other hand if your neighborhood is hit it can be the difference between life and death. It is a difficult question.

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    1. Thank you so much Darlene. The tornado yesterday was nowhere close to us but the winds from the thunderstorm itself were hurricane strength. It does not surprise me that Alberta has tornadoes. Most of the US and southern Canada do. They are also spreading and becoming more common in areas not close to tornado alley.

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  5. That must have been so scary, and it’s awful what happened to the neighborhood where you are that time. There have been so many bad storms this year already, too. Pictures do tell the story, don’t they. … Your information is excellent! 🙂

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  7. Those photos are something else! Video cameras everywhere means things get documented that never did before and the footage I’ve seen of some of the storms this year has been incredible. I think I would be a nervous wreck during storm season if I lived in a tornado-prone area (and so would our dog Lulu). I’ve never experienced a tornado myself, but, weirdly, I dreamed about them on a fairly regular basis, back when I used to dream a lot.

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    1. I had dreams of tornadoes too. I was dreaming that a tornado lifted a cabin where Bronco and I were hiding. A lot of dogs are afraid of bad weather, especially our Rollo and I guess Lulu, but Bronco was never afraid.

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  8. I am glad you are okay, Thomas. It is terrifying to me what damage these storms can do. We don’t deal with tornados where we live, just fires and an earthquake or two. Mother nature’s power is still beyond our control. Stay safe.

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    1. Well I think I would worry more about California wildfires and earthquakes. The wildfires you get are just horrible. I’ll take tornadoes instead, except out in West Texas they’ve had some horrific wildfires lately. Hopefully, they won’t come to Dallas.

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  10. Isn’t it crazy how it can be so destructive yet leave pictures up on the wall at the same time. I remembering living through some tornadoes when I was a child. They are quite scary.

    I love the picture about how Bronco did not blow down the wall.😂

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    1. Thank you so much Kymber. I guess if you have good wall hangers your pictures will stay up. But it is a good observation. I had not thought about that the pictures in Claudia’s parents house were still up. The wind came into the house and was so strong that it lifted my father-in-law as he was holding on to the door frame.

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  11. Interesting to learn more about hurricanes vs tornadoes. I”m grateful to live in an area that rarely experiences such destructive weather. Sounds like you escaped serious damage this time around, thank goodness! Not so fortunate in 2019, including Bronco’s health issues. That must have been terribly rough on you and your family. 🥺 I hope poor Rollo has calmed down now. Our Dalmatian used to panic in thunderstorms also. She would tremble, hyper-ventilate and cling to me. I felt so bad for her, but no amount of reassurance helped.

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    1. Yes October 2019 was a tough month between Bronco’s multiple severe health issues and the tornado. I am sorry to hear your Dalmatian was so afraid of thunderstorms. Our Rollo is the same way. I feel sorry them too. All you can do is comfort them.

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      1. We were in Port Aransas and had five hours of Cat 4 winds and surge. Our house was built to the new hurricane specs so we were lucky it was still there minus some siding totaled roof, and water damage.

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  13. How awful to have such a severe thunderstorm, Thomas. You must have lost power. Poor Rollo to get scared by it. What would you do if it took 8 days to restore the power? I hope to hear an update from you.

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    1. Yes we lost power for several hours a couple of times during the day yesterday, but today is fine. However, I went out driving today and it is chaos on the roads. There are a lot of trees in the roads and many of the traffic lights don’t work. Luckily I am retired so I can just stay home and watch TV or read books.

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      1. Yes, it’s lucky that you’re retired, Thomas! I remember going back to work shortly after the earthquake. In fact, on the day of the earthquake, I dropped off my baby daughter (it was 1987) and went to school. Parents continued to drop off kids at school. I guess they had to report to work also. Teachers and staff stayed until all the students were picked up.

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    2. Wow you had to go to work right after an earthquake, that is harsh. When the tornado hit our neighborhood in october 2019 I was still working. However, I could not get out of the neighborhood so my company accepted that I did not come in to work for a few days. Was that the earthquake close to Los Angeles in 1987? If so I think I remember it.

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  15. You sure had a lot thrown at you at once, Thomas. It is rather amazing how some homes can be destroyed while others in close proximity go virtually untouched. I used to live in North and South Dakota growing up. I remember all of the homes had basements there, and several times we gathered there listening to reports of tornadoes in the area that had touched down. While I’ve seen the funnel clouds, I can’t say I’ve actually experienced a tornado.

    We have earthquakes regularly in California, and visitors often say that those scare them more than tornadoes or hurricanes, though all can be quite destructive. A concrete bridge collapsed in one our larger quakes. Last year, we had a doozy. Every room in the house had things fall down and the clean-up took quite a while. It happened during the middle of the night. We didn’t realize the extent of the quake until the next morning.

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    1. Basements are great for hiding from tornadoes. Unfortunately basements are very rare in Texas. In our case you could see where the tornado had been. It left a trail of total destruction about 30-50 yards wide. You could even see where the tornado had switched side of the road like a drunken elephant crashing into houses first on one side and then switching side further down the road. It followed orchid lane for about a mile, then crossing over Forest Glade and hitting Royal Lane and then following Royal Lane for half a mile, then turning north following I-75 for a mile. It was creating a path. Outside the trail there was also damage but not total destruction. That’s where we were. I guess that was the tornadoes small size. If it had been much wider it would have looked different. Yes it was a really tough month for poor Bronco.

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    2. Yes I agree with the your visitors. I’d rather have a risk for tornadoes than earthquakes and wildfires. In fact we were worried for our daughter who lived in California for a while.

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  17. Thank you for this post, Thomas. You’ve illuminated the horror and explained it well. I’ve only had to run to a shelter once — years ago in Indiana. But the experience was terrifying. It’s heartbreaking to see the damage and its impact on four-legged loved ones. I’m so sorry for all of you. Big hugs…

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  18. Definitely a tough month for Bronco and your family. It must be a bit scary/difficult living in a place with so many natural disasters. And I appreciate your explanation because I knew hurricane and tornados were different but didn’t know what made them different.

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    1. Thank you so much Pooja. Tornadoes are common here, but that is pretty much it. We don’t have hurricanes but Houston, also Texas but by the coast, have a big problem with hurricanes. In many places around the world there are wild fires and those scare me, as well as earthquakes, but we don’t have any of that, so I’ll take a tornado or two.

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  19. I must check on my friends in Flowermound to make sure they are okay… The 2019 damage is devestating and I hope your father-in-law recovered fully from his injuries, it must have been terrifying. We were lucky in our time in Texas in the 80s to only have a couple of hurricane warnings thatn didn’t impact us too much. I hope the power is on for the majority of people by now.

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    1. I think they should be OK. The tornado on Tuesday was nowhere near flowermound and tornaodes further north weren’t close either, but you should of course still check on them. Yes the 2019 tornado hit us pretty bad. My father-in-law recovered well. Everyone was telling him to go to the hospital but he refused, but he recovered anyway. Now he is 93 years old and still in good health. However, at 89 he could still do about 100 push ups. He was in very good health for his age, like somone who was 60. There are still people on Nextdoors complaining about not having power but we have power. We only lost it for less than one day. Thank you so much for checking in on us.

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  20. Pingback: Smorgasbord Blogger Weekly – June 2nd 2024 – #Bookreviews Harmony Kent and Olga Nunez Miret, #LifeLessons Beetley Pete, #Flashfiction Sadje, #Whatsapp Janet Gogerty, #Tornadoes Thomas Wikman | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

  22. We don’t tend to hear the personal stories of the people affected here. I hope you and your family don’t have to go through something like that again. Thanks for sharing this, Thomas.

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    1. Thank you so much Olga. On Tuesday we were nervous that it would happen again but it was nowhere close to us. One advantage of tornadoes is that they cover a small area. I think I’ll take that over California’s wild fires and earthquakes.

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  23. Tornadoes are definitely scary. We get them very occasionally where I am, far to the west of you, but it’s been a several years since one has formed near Las Cruces.

    That 2019 storm did a lot of damage. I remember my mom telling a story about a scary night when a tornado touched down near her home in Cleburne, Texas. My brothers were both quite young, so it would have been around 1954 or 55. She was home alone with them while my dad was at work and could see the tornado in the distance and hear the wind and hail. Fortunately, it didn’t get too close to them, but it was a memory that stuck with her.

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    1. I can certainly understand how that would be a memory that stuck with her. Cleburne seems to be hit by tornadoes a lot. There was a bad one in Cleburne in 2013. I never saw the tornado that passed by us in 2019 because I did not look outside. I didn’t know it was there. It was probably better that way because I would have been so curious I would maybe have opened the door, which might have ended bad.

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  24. oh man Thomas, your captures and stories are terrifying but it sounds like you take it as it comes. Awww poor pup dogs but they don’t look any worse for wear for it… we all would be whaling for years. 💗

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    2. It is funny how different dogs are. Our German Shepherd was terrified of thunderstorms, like Rollo, but our Leonberger Bronco did not mind them at all. Once when I was out walking him lightning struck the ground maybe 100 yards away, and it was a very loud boom, and I jumped and I was pretty shocked. Bronco just looked up and then continued sniffing as if nothing had happened. He certainly was not deaf. He could hear a cheese wrapper open 100 feet away.

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  25. October 2019 looks devastating, Thomas. We get glimpses of the destruction from tornadoes on television, but it’s not the same as a first hand account from someone who lived through it. The images from your neighborhood are intense. I’m sorry to hear about your father-in-law’s injuries. I hope he’s recovered. I’m lucky to live in an area that doesn’t experience hurricanes or tornadoes, yet. We just have to be on guard for forest fires. Seems like we’re all troubled by the increasing danger of the weather.

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    1. Thank you Diane. Yes my father-in-law recovered well. Now he is 93 years, 94 in three months. He is healthy for his age. He is still driving, walking long distances and running, doing push-ups, swimming, traveling like if he is 60. He was even stronger and healthier when he was 89 so I think that’s why he handled it so well. I should say California’s wildfires are a lot more worrisome than tornadoes. I would be afraid if I lived in California.

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      1. Wow. Your father-in-law sounds bionic! Are you sure they didn’t re-engineer his muscles and bones? Lol. Good for him! Fires are scary where there aren’t any roads and firefighters have to rely on water dumps from helicopters and planes. Fortunately, I’m in timber country and dirt roads zigzag through the woods everywhere.

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    2. Yes he is an unusual 93 year old. I am pretty certain he will be a centenarian. Yes the wild fires in California are pretty scary. It is good you have a lot of dirt roads where you live, but still. I hope you stay safe.

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    1. Thank you so much tidalscribe. It happened so quickly I did not get scared. It was some very loud noises for less than a minute and we heard our chimney explode. I was thinking that thunderstorm certainly took the cake. There must have been a lightning strike. Then when I looked outside afterwards to find out what happened, I saw the devastation, and it was like Wow!

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  28. what a harrowing experience, Thomas! so very glad you & yours weren’t harmed – my heart goes out to you all, including the spirit of dear Bronco – our furry family help get us through…

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    1. Thank you so much Luisa. Yes our tornado was an unpleasant surprise. There are typically more than a thousand tornadoes in the US every year and Texas is the state that gets most of them. I am glad the post was of some help.

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  30. What a disastrous tornado, which ‘lifted my 89-year-old father-in-law up in the air and he was hit by a broken marble table that injured his back’! Sorry to see the pictures of damages, and also to know about Bronco.

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    1. Yes that was terrible and then he refused to go to the hospital. He was in very good shape for a 89 year old. That’s why he was OK. Now as a 93 year old he still does push ups, lift weights, swims, runs, drives, and travel. I think he will become a 100.

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