#IT IS NOT A DEAD MAN WALKING JUST BECAUSE IT HAS MULTIPLE VORTICES

[theicarusconstellation]

STOP CALLING EVERY TORNADO WITH MULTIPLE VORTICES A DEAD MAN WALKING BEFORE I START THROWING THINGS😭😭😭😭

[cracks-and-chaos]

More specifically, the term comes from a 1999 documentary about the Jarrell tornado that premiered on TLC, which states,

"An ancient Native American legend speaks of the dead man walking: if you see him in a tornado you are about to die. The townsfolk of Jarrell can now see the arms and legs of a multi-vortex tornado approaching. The dead man has just walked into Jarrel."

Now, whether or not it is actually a Native American legend has been debated, but the dead man walking part stuck. And there could be a kernel of truth in there given how many multi-vortex tornadoes the US gets.

A few more examples:

Cullman 2011 EF4

Joplin 2011 EF5

The Joplin tornado was super scary. Not only was it a multi-vortex tornado, it also caused a deadly fungal outbreak among the survivors.

And of course, the infamous

El Reno 2013 EF3

The only reason this tornado is an EF3 is because the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale uses damage to buildings to determine wind speed and severity and this occurred in a rural area. In actuality, this tornado was nearly 3 miles wide and had wind speads near 300 mph. It killed or injured many seasoned storm chasers/meteorologists. It was one large tornado with multiple smaller vortices spinning around inside of it with much higher wind speeds. This thing broke records.

For more info on the Jarrell tornado and the history of the famous dead man walking photo that was taken of it, I highly recommend these videos:

1999 TLC Doc

History of the Photo

More detailed (but approachable) info

The two creators also have other great videos on tornadoes.

What are dead man walking tornadoes? :O

it’s a multi-vortex tornado. i dont remember the tribe it originates from (i think it was cherokee), but there’s a native american legend…? saying? that goes “if you see a man in a tornado, you are about to die.”

the most infamous shot of a dead man walking tornado hit jarrell, texas in 1997

it did so much damage to the town it caused the scale that tornados are measured by, the fijita scale, undergo revisions, and it made anchoring buildings in the tornado alley region pretty much mandatory. (it took the entire town off the map. only those who had taken shelter outside of the town or in underground bunkers survived.)

two more examples of dead man walking tornadoes looking like a person are a tornado from 2011 that hit cullman, alabama

and a tornado from 1975 that hit xenia, ohio

[cracks-and-chaos]

Specifically, the term comes from a 1999 documentary (linked below) about the Jarrell, TX F5 tornado that premiered on TLC, which states,

"An ancient Native American legend speaks of the dead man walking: if you see him in a tornado you are about to die. The townsfolk of Jarrell can now see the arms and legs of a multi-vortex tornado approaching. The dead man has just walked into Jarrel."

It's all very dramatic in that disaster documentary kind of way. I'm not Native American so I can't speak to it being a legend. However, the term seems to have stuck in the weather community as a way to describe violent multi-vortex tornadoes (to the point that some seem to use that and multi-vortex interchangeably). They have a specific structure that does look like legs and sometimes arms as well. I've listed a few examples as well as some links to sources:

Cullman 2011 EF4

Joplin 2011 EF5

The Joplin tornado was super scary. Not only was it a multi-vortex tornado, it also caused a deadly fungal outbreak among the survivors.

And of course, the infamous

El Reno 2013 EF3

The only reason this tornado is an EF3 is because the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale uses damage to buildings to determine wind speed and severity and this occurred in a rural area. In actuality, this tornado was nearly 3 miles wide and had wind speads near 300 mph. It killed or injured many seasoned storm chasers/meteorologists. It was one large tornado with multiple smaller vortices spinning around inside of it with much higher wind speeds. This thing broke records.

For more info on the Jarrell tornado and the history of the famous "dead man walking" photo that was taken of it, I highly recommend these videos:

1999 TLC Doc

History of the Photo (note that this creator seems to have fallen for the Native American legend thing, but the information on the tornado and the photo itself is accurate)

More detailed (but approachable) info

The two creators also have other great videos on tornadoes.

What are dead man walking tornadoes? :O

it’s a multi-vortex tornado. i dont remember the tribe it originates from (i think it was cherokee), but there’s a native american legend…? saying? that goes “if you see a man in a tornado, you are about to die.”

the most infamous shot of a dead man walking tornado hit jarrell, texas in 1997

it did so much damage to the town it caused the scale that tornados are measured by, the fijita scale, undergo revisions, and it made anchoring buildings in the tornado alley region pretty much mandatory. (it took the entire town off the map. only those who had taken shelter outside of the town or in underground bunkers survived.)

two more examples of dead man walking tornadoes looking like a person are a tornado from 2011 that hit cullman, alabama

and a tornado from 1975 that hit xenia, ohio

[cyanide-latte]

Ooooh I hope you don't mind me jumping on your post here OP, but I'm from Xenia, Ohio and I am always delighted to see anyone reference THE tornado, as I take a particular interest in this piece of local history!

A couple of things to start with: 1, I'm personally too young to have actually lived through this tornado, but my toddler mother and grandmother did! 2, slight error in your post on the year but that's perfectly okay! A lot of people think the tornado took place in '75 (it seems to be a pretty common misconception, so no harm done,) but it was actually April 3rd 1974! And 3, while I'm also fairly sure the rumor about this term originating from Native American legend isn't entirely accurate, I will posit at the end of my thoughts where else it may come from.

I'm unsure as to the accuracy of the photo included and whether or not that was our particular tornado, but video footage of it exists! It was originally shot on 8mm film by 16-y.o. Bruce Boyd, who got frighteningly close to the vortices, and the audio you hear in that link I included came from a tape recording by Boyd's neighbor, Mr. Brokeshoulder, who fled to shelter but left the tape recorder running. (His recording and Boyd's video footage were later paired together to eerie effect.) If you watch the video you'll see multiple "arms" and "legs" of the different vortices of this particular Dead Man Walking forming and reforming. Older residents who lived through the tornado, including my grandmother, have said before that it looked like the grasping claws of devils and gods reaching for each other.

Understand, Xenia is notorious for being a tornado magnet. People aren't entirely joking when they call it "its own miniature Tornado Alley", and I believe it was the Shawnee who named Xenia "the valley of the devil winds". But for a lot of locals around here, the '74 Dead Man Walking is THE tornado that defines the city's history. It had a mile-wide path that leveled most of downtown completely and destroyed and damaged much else besides. There were over 30 deaths, and thousands more injuries, many of which took well over a week to treat. Greene Memorial Hospital had staff rotating in several shifts over that time just to treat tornado victims, with many nurses, doctors, emergency staff and others tapping in to relieve one another to take 3-hour sleep breaks, and many of the patients they treated talked about what they saw or had additional photos to develop that they brought with them. (While this documentation may not be commonly found or easily accessible on the internet, there's archival documents for this tornado in GMH, including some of the old photos of our Dead Man Walking because of its monumentous impact on local history and even the history of the hospital itself!) It was one of the only two tornados to ever be given an F-6 rating on the old Fujita scale, however temporarily.

Again, not sure the attribution of "Dead Man Walking" tornado to Native American legend is correct, but I do suspect it may come from various parts of the Appalachian regions? Don't hold me to that, I'm basing it on a hunch, as my grandmother's family (yes, same grandmother who lived through the '74 tornado and saw it) has old Appalachian roots, as I've been learning over the past couple of years, and that part of the family has talked about Dead Man Walking tornadoes for several generations. (And just given a lot of Appalachian folklore and beliefs, even what little I've learned so far, that feels like it would track.) So maybe that's where it comes from?

Anyway thank you for making this post, because BOY are Dead Man Walking tornadoes just damn terrifying but also I appreciate getting to see anyone on the internet mention this particular piece of local history!

What are dead man walking tornadoes? :O

it’s a multi-vortex tornado. i dont remember the tribe it originates from (i think it was cherokee), but there’s a native american legend…? saying? that goes “if you see a man in a tornado, you are about to die.”

the most infamous shot of a dead man walking tornado hit jarrell, texas in 1997

it did so much damage to the town it caused the scale that tornados are measured by, the fijita scale, undergo revisions, and it made anchoring buildings in the tornado alley region pretty much mandatory. (it took the entire town off the map. only those who had taken shelter outside of the town or in underground bunkers survived.)

two more examples of dead man walking tornadoes looking like a person are a tornado from 2011 that hit cullman, alabama

and a tornado from 1975 that hit xenia, ohio

edit: it has been brought to my attention that the native american “legend” part of this post was a rumor spread by a documentary.

i have been asked to remove it, but i believe in letting my errors stand because i’m not perfect. i make mistakes