Tornado Aftermath

[Steve Robinson]

Early evening on Father's Day a rare tornado tore the roof off of the Metra Park arena in Billings while leaving the rest of the park untouched. The twister also heavily damaged several small businesses and the accompanying torrential rain caused flooding throughout town. There was no loss of life but had the storm hit on Saturday it would have been a different story as the arena was packed for an Indoor Football League playoff game. 3 image panorama taken with a Pentax K20D, DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, 1/500 @ f/7.1, ISO 100. As always C&C is welcome and appreciated.

Steve Robinson: Father's Day Tornado Aftermath​

Larger image.

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Far, far, far too wide and distant a shot to document the damage. It just looks like a real estate image with nothing apparently amiss. I'm guessing that the "damage" is to the building at the far left?! Why in the world did you feel you needed to assemble a panorama consisting of a mostly normal scene?

 

[Andrew Stannard]

Hi,

Agree with Ken with regards to the overall image - have to admit that I had to look around the image for a while before I noticed the roof (although only woke up 20mins ago, so that's probably part of it!). Would like to see a closer in view of the damaged building.

It's surprising how localized the damage is - is this common, or would you normally expect a wide track of destruction? We don't get many tornado problems in the UK!


Regards,

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Andrew,
Actually, Montana rarely experiences tornadoes!

Here in the American Midwest they're pretty common and, yes, their damage patterns can be as wierd as this. Most of their damage is actually caused by flying debris. But touchdown-type damage, as this appears to be, can be almost surgical. It's common to see situations where one building is left virtually unscathed while its immediate neighbors no longer exist.

Once you recognize the damaged building in Steve's image you can see how wacky tornadoes can be.

 

[Steve Robinson]

Thanks Ken and Andrew for your thoughts. Obviously I wanted to show the damaged arena next to the undamaged buildings next door. I should have included a shot of just the arena to show the extent of the damage. So here is just the arena. As always I appreciate your C&C.

Steve Robinson: Metra Park Arena Tornado Damage​

 

[Andrew Stannard]

Thanks for posting the extra shot - they work much better as a pair.

Now we can see both the damage caused by the fury of the tornado, as well as the wider context. So lucky that there was no loss of life.

Ken - thanks for the info. My 'knowledge' of tornadoes comes mainly from the film 'Twister' - which I'm guessing sits somewhere below wikipedia in terms of accuracy!

 

[Ruben Alfu]

Steve Robinson: Metra Park Arena Tornado Damage​

Hello Steve,

Do you have any info about the stone balls on the grass? They look like those found in Costa Rica.

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Now we're talkin' damage! Actually, it looks like the twister may have passed overhead, but mostly the building's face and structure. These long-span flat roofs are generally pretty light and the roofing peels off the joists pretty easily. Not a cheap problem but it looks like the building was largely spared destruction.

Hello Steve,

Do you have any info about the stone balls on the grass? They look like those found in Costa Rica.

Those aren't stone balls, Ruben. The birds in Montana are really, really large.

 

[John Angulat]

Those aren't stone balls, Ruben. The birds in Montana are really, really large.

LOL! All this time I thought they were left-over hailstones...really, really big hailstones!

Nice shot Steve, a storm like that is something I'd never want to experience in real life.
Glad there was no loss of life.

 

[Ruben Alfu]

Those aren't stone balls, Ruben. The birds in Montana are really, really large.

At least someone should give them credit for their aim!

 

[Steve Robinson]

Although it looks like only the roof was damaged the truth is most of the steel structure was mangled beyond repair and a lot of steel fell on to the seats below. It's going to be awhile before we have another game there.

Actually the large boulders are Montana wind speed indicators. If the rocks aren't moving it's not windy and if they are it is!