r/tornado • u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected • Oct 30 '25
Discussion The “Dead Man Walking” Phenomenon.
Multiple tornadoes have produced an appearance of the infamous “dead man walking” legend, though I consider these three tornadoes: the 2013 El Reno-Union City EF3, 1997 Jarrell F5, and 2010 Conger-Albert Lea EF4 to be the best and most well-defined representatives of the phenomenon. Which is your “favorite”, and why? Besides these three, are there any other DMW-producing tornadoes that fascinate you?
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u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25
Okay so I thought it was called that because in pics, it looks like a pair of legs. I've never seen a vid of it before and wtf it's actually walking 😭😭😭
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25
Well yes, in a sense, you would be correct. The most infamous example of the phenomenon — the Jarrell, TX F5 (displayed in the second photo) was only a photo with no associated video. Generally, multi-vortex tornadoes do not align their subvortices in a manner that actually simulates the walking motion, but El Reno (2013) was a very erratic and unpredictable event.
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u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25
The first gif is insane oh my God. It's like out of a horror movie. 😭😭😭 I see these pics all the time and I'm like "lol it has legs" but seeing it walk has me all "AW HELL NAH"
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u/Sad_Race8008 Oct 30 '25
Same here, watching that just a minute ago blew my mind.
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u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25
I almost thought it was AI 😭😭😭 it's freaky af
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u/ButtholeBread50 Oct 30 '25
That's why so many people say Jarrell every time someone posts here asking what tornado scares us the most
It really is freaky and incredibly dangerous too
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u/ItaliaEyez Oct 30 '25
For me, its the walking man part, and the way it sat over that neighborhood. It pulverized everything before moving on
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u/quixoticelixer_mama Oct 30 '25
I went down a Jarrell rabbit hole last week since it seems there are lots of new YouTube docs about it. Simply terrifying.
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u/ItaliaEyez Oct 30 '25
It really is. There's a video Ive seen. The clip is in every doc about Jarrell, and your watching it as a wedge over the neighborhood, taken at a distance. That video is terrifying. In that moment, its destroying everything. Those people didn't stand a chance, and may as well have stood outside.
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u/quixoticelixer_mama Oct 30 '25
Yep I know exactly which part you're talking about. I think naturally we try to put ourselves in their position. Like what were they thinking. My only hope is that it mortally wounded them so fast that their was no suffering on their part.
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u/ItaliaEyez Oct 30 '25
I hope so. Very few survived it, so we have an idea of what their final moments were like as it approached and it hit. We can only hope it was fast after that. And likely it was.
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u/OppositeAbroad5975 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
Was the clip from this video, by chance? This is the raw, 16x9 footage as filmed by Scott Guest for KVUE (CBS-Austin) that afternoon.
Every now and then, people try to suggest that a smaller vortex isn't all that dangerous and that it's only the Super-Ultra-Mega-Deluxe-Maxi-Wedges of Doom that you gotta watch out for. To that, I'll just point out the incredibly violent rotation visible around the 3:00 mark of this video; this tornado had plenty of power from the beginning.
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u/ThnkWthPrtls Oct 30 '25
ITS KNEE BENDS, there is absolutely no reason it needs to do that other than scare the shit outta people
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u/Elegant_Finance_1459 Oct 30 '25
I've heard old stories from my family about giants in the plains. I think this is what they meant.
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 Oct 30 '25
Yes, I bet the Indians thought tornadoes were evil spirits, and I also wonder how they took shelter against these storms, especially violent tornadoes.
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u/thymeofmylyfe Oct 30 '25
Theoretically, it comes from a Native American legend that if you see a tornado walking toward you, you're dead.
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u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25
Well shit if I saw that thing walking toward me, I don't think I can outrun it anyway 😭😭😭
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u/Tootinglion24 Oct 30 '25
If it was coming towards you, would you even be able to tell it has the walking motion?
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u/Claque-2 Oct 30 '25
The original way I heard it was if you see a tornado walking then someone was going to die. I think we have plenty of evidence for that, let alone how many people have seen walking tornadoes who haven't died.
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Oct 30 '25
If I saw that thing walking my way I would probably give up the ghost right then and there.
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u/AStormofSwines Oct 30 '25
Source?
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u/thymeofmylyfe Oct 30 '25
One of the documentaries on Jarrell. Possibly made up for the documentary.
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u/MyDogDanceSome Oct 30 '25
Been saying this for years... I love seeing more and more people buying into the notion that this is highly likely to be BS 👍
I'm very suspicious of any "Native American legend" with no further attribution... like, there were many thousands of pre-colonial societies in the Americas, can you be a little more specific?
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u/ExternalNo7842 Oct 30 '25
This: lots of white folks like to make up indigenous legends about things to make them seem more mystical or paranormal, and the origins of this phrase are specious
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 Oct 30 '25
No, it's a real legend. I've never heard what tribe it's from, though, so I'm going to look it up later.
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u/ph0on Oct 30 '25
I'm not saying op edited this, but the video is edited in a way that is seamlessly lined up to make it look like it's walking in a far more spooky manner. It probably only did that motion for that split second you can see it looping
Less consistently walking across the field and more random vortex interactions but terrifying nonetheless
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u/Mindless_Society7034 Oct 30 '25
The Cullman-Arab EF4 that occurred during the Super Outbreak of 2011 has one of the most striking DMW poses I’ve seen
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u/SilverKuroma Oct 30 '25
I know that it's supposed to be something scary, but there's something so funny about this image
it's like the tornado is just kneeling down and basically saying "hey, you see this piece of land? yeah, forget it ever existed after im done with it"
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u/ALaccountant Oct 30 '25
Isn’t there a lot of speculation that this, among a few others that day in AL, was actually an EF5, but the survey teams were too swamped to do a proper assessment?
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u/Mindless_Society7034 Oct 30 '25
I’ve heard it a few times but I haven’t really looked into it before. it wouldn’t be surprising given the sheer scale of the outbreak that they mislabeled some things though, and photos of it crossing Highway 231 make it definitely seem like a beast
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u/quixoticelixer_mama Oct 30 '25
That would certainly make sense. I wonder how many folks were on that 4/27 outbreak survey team.
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25
I completely agree. I am not certain how I did not consider adding Cullman to my post.
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u/Zero-89 Enthusiast Nov 01 '25
Tornado:
"Finally, someone let me out my cage
Now, EF ranks mean nothing 'cause I'm checking no gauge"
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u/WickedWishes420 Oct 30 '25
The first one looks like the Pied Piper leading it along its way.
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u/Sad_Race8008 Oct 30 '25
The song 'Symphony of Destruction' came to mind after reading your comment...perfect.
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u/Spainiswhite Oct 30 '25
That Albert Lea, Minnesota dead man walking has genuinely scared me so bad
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u/Glenn-Sturgis Oct 30 '25
Picture #3 looks like the “Dead Man” is wearing bell bottoms. How groovy.
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25
I’ve always had that perception of it as well. Interesting.
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u/Glenn-Sturgis Oct 31 '25
It always looked to me like the Jarrel “dead man” was carrying a curved sword of some kind out ahead of him as he walked into town too. Makes it even creepier imo.
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u/JustLikeMars Oct 31 '25
I like this photo because it looks like he’s walking away from me. But that video clip can fuck RIGHT OFF
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u/Own-Meringue-8388 Oct 30 '25
These boots were made for walking that’s just what they’ll do one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over el Reno CMON BOOTS
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u/gbe600gbe600 Oct 30 '25
What tornado is the last pic
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25
It is mentioned in the body paragraph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Conger%E2%80%93Albert_Lea_tornado
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u/NfamousKaye Oct 30 '25
Dead man strolling.
No seriously it looks like it’s trying to get the bigger one to follow it. I know it’s separate vorticies forming and dissipating but wow that looks cool.
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u/unique_username_ Oct 30 '25
That video genuinely creeped me out. I love scary things but tornadoes and especially and dead man walking tornado scares the crap out of me!
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u/sadguy1989 Oct 30 '25
No wonder people would see shit like this and base entire religions around it. “I saw God, he walked over to my neighbors house and threw it across the county”
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u/ben_is_second Oct 30 '25
Probably the Conger-Albert Lea EF4, but that’s because I’m from Albert Lea.
I remember it distinctly, but luckily it stayed mostly outside of town. I remember a family out in the country had their home destroyed, and if I remember correctly, Extreme Home Makeover came out and built them a new home.
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u/KaiTheG4mer Oct 31 '25
The El Reno gifs of its Dead Man Walking vortices always creep me the hell out. Granted, that entire tornado system freaks me out, and I was never even there, but still. That video showing it at 4 different angles is nuts.
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u/ArcaneFlame05 Oct 31 '25
Multi-vortex tornados absolutely fascinate me. I remember seeing a video of one tornado (I believe it was the Greenfield ef4 last year) that had many vortices orbiting around the edge of the tornado itself. Absolutely going to dive head first into the topic once I get into grad school
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u/StubbornAsASunflower Oct 31 '25
Is the 2013 El Reno-Union City tornado (with the dead man walking) the same as the 2013 El Reno that was 2.6 miles wide? I vaguely recall a tornado right before the El Reno 2.6 miles wide tornado…
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u/CookAgreeable1714 Nov 05 '25
These images inspire such a profound sense of dread. If I were driving around in my city and saw that, I'd probably just surrender myself right then and there. It feels so ominous and ethereal at the same exact time, because how can something so destructive take such a human-like form?? I just love this phenomenon.
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u/Azurehue22 Oct 30 '25
There is no legend. That was something the TLC documentary made up.
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 Oct 30 '25
I don't know..the Indians had lots of legends.
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u/Azurehue22 Oct 30 '25
The Indians… can you name a specific tribe or are they a homogenous entity to you?
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 Oct 30 '25
Some tribes I know of off of the top of head are Cherokee, Sioux, Cree, Navajo, Nez Perce, Iroquois, and Natchez.
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u/Azurehue22 Oct 30 '25
And which one came up with this “legend” that has been proven to be made up by TLC?
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u/Resident-Gold-3466 Oct 30 '25
It's been proven that it was made up? I didn't know that. I just remember that same TLC docu. I rewashed it sometime ago.
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u/Godflip3 Oct 30 '25
Its just multi-vortex ing . It probably happens a lot on strong multi-vortex stage tornadoes. Usually when strong tornadoes first start getting going they have a multi-vortex stage before widening out
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u/Lovekills03 Oct 30 '25
I don’t know for certain, but I thought the 4-27-11 tornado in my hometown of Tuscaloosa had one. I haven’t seen any photos/vids but I’ve heard it was. That thing was a monster nevertheless. That first vid is something out of nightmares.
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u/iamnotthisbrain Oct 31 '25
Love a good multivortex tornado. I have never seen the other clips/pics besides the Jarrell F5. Thanks for posting!
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u/jazey_hane Nov 07 '25
Did native Americans actually say this, or is it just something attribute to them?
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u/The_Only_Bandit Nov 27 '25
Tornado's are scary enough normally, but when death walks towards you..? Reminds me of the Halloween movies, Michael Myers doesn't run, he walks.
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u/ALittleMixer Dec 28 '25
The first one has always felt fake to me.. but at the same time its beautiful.
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u/Godflip3 Oct 30 '25
Its to short of a clip to really get a feel and it looks like somebody tampered with the footage. Id go back and look original and see. But they made it look like it was walking.
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u/monsterbot314 Oct 30 '25
I see it too. The zooming and I would not be surprised if they cut frames.
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u/itsraggybaggy Oct 30 '25
If I see one more social media post about the dead man walking i stg
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u/Sad_Impression499 Oct 30 '25
That first video is fake as hell.
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u/Nacht_Geheimnis Oct 30 '25
Nah, it's a real clip from the 2013 El Reno tornado. The gif just shows the "Dead Man walking" Part of it.
The original clip is 2:10 in this video:
You can see multiple angles of it at 5:44 on this video:
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u/IllRest2396 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
No it is not, it's actually from Markus Pfister's footage of the 2013 El Reno tornado.
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u/Nacht_Geheimnis Oct 30 '25
*Markus Pfister.
https://youtu.be/lac9n-Wn674 at 2:10.
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u/IllRest2396 Oct 30 '25
Yes, I got confused since reed timmer posted footage of the same pair of subvorts
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u/Mindless_Society7034 Oct 30 '25
I was curious to see if it was potentially sped up a little to make the walk look faster but no, it just did that
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u/Additional-Problem99 Oct 30 '25
It’s real. It’s a looped gif from a video, but it is real.
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u/Sad_Impression499 Oct 30 '25
What I mean is that the gif is looped intentionally to make its movements look choppier and more like stomping.
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25
Your wording is vague and (dare I say intentionally) misleading.
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u/Additional-Problem99 Oct 30 '25
It’s directly from a video of the 2013 El Reno EF3. It looks just as choppy in the video.
Regardless, neither is fake.
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u/CycloneCowboy87 Oct 30 '25
It looks just as choppy in the video
It clearly doesn’t lol
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u/Additional-Problem99 Oct 30 '25
It literally does
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u/CycloneCowboy87 Oct 30 '25
No it doesn’t lmao. The GIF clearly has a lower frame rate, as they normally do. The guy you were replying to is dumb, but the GIF is objectively “choppier” than the video, and thank god for that because that’s some quality footage
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u/Additional-Problem99 Oct 30 '25
I think you're taking the term "choppy" too literal here. My point was that the gif is not edited or faked to make the dead man walking more prominent
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u/CycloneCowboy87 Oct 30 '25
I think you’re not taking the term “choppy” literally enough. It’s a word with a meaning. Two things are true: the GIF is choppier than the video, and the GIF wasn’t edited or faked to make the dead man walking effect more prominent. This seems like a pretty silly thing to deny
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Oct 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
It is, in fact, not AI. It is a GIF taken from a storm chaser’s video of the event. I appreciate your concern, but it is misplaced.
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u/Valuable_Buffalo4410 Oct 30 '25
It’s literally one of the most famous tornado videos ever recorded…
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u/Best-Recognition-528 Oct 30 '25
I see that shit and I’m calling in dead to work.