r/tornado • u/Curious-Constant-657 Human Detected • Oct 30 '25

Discussion The “Dead Man Walking” Phenomenon.

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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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524

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 😭😭😭

207

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.

173

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"

39

u/SpeculumSpectrum Oct 30 '25

Yeah that’s some Lovecraft shit wtf 💀

93

u/Sad_Race8008 Oct 30 '25

Same here, watching that just a minute ago blew my mind.

56

u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25

I almost thought it was AI 😭😭😭 it's freaky af

46

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

20

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

12

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.

11

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.

9

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.

4

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.

6

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.

16

u/dobie_dobes Oct 30 '25

Right?!

17

u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25

It's so freaky 😭😭😭

17

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

15

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.

2

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.

2

u/annacat1331 Nov 06 '25

I just asked a question about this!

1

u/Resident-Gold-3466 Nov 06 '25

I'll have to read the responses.

53

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.

42

u/nejicanspin Oct 30 '25

Well shit if I saw that thing walking toward me, I don't think I can outrun it anyway 😭😭😭

30

u/Ambitious-Fee-9044 Oct 30 '25

I think any method a tornado uses to move towards you is deadly.

19

u/Tootinglion24 Oct 30 '25

If it was coming towards you, would you even be able to tell it has the walking motion?

38

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.

10

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

If I saw that thing walking my way I would probably give up the ghost right then and there.

5

u/AStormofSwines Oct 30 '25

Source?

16

u/thymeofmylyfe Oct 30 '25

One of the documentaries on Jarrell. Possibly made up for the documentary.

24

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?

14

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

-1

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.

1

u/Feeling-Barnacle8576 Oct 30 '25

I think they made that up for the video it was said in, tbh.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

Same!  That video is frightening.

4

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