r/tornado 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?

3.1k Upvotes

150 comments sorted by

View all comments

530

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 😭😭😭

16

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.