On my previous post, most people but Stratton and Bakersfield Valley at the bottom of their list, but I'll try to change your mind with this post.

1. Stratton - McCook, NE F4, 6/15/1990

This tornado doesn't have much media, as it was in rural Nebraska. u/Nebraska716 was hit by the southern bit of it (it hit only like 5 people fyi), and has documented a lot of it. A lot of what's known about the tornado is from him.

Why do I consider this a contender for the strongest ever?

First of, it did the worst car damage ever documented. Anyone familiar with this tornado knows what it did to cars. Vehicles hit by this tornado were mangled into a steel mess as shown in the pictures.

What is a little lesser known is that it hit a van, and the owner needed to find proof of its existence for insurance, and they found it 7 miles of its origin point. All that remained was it's firewall. Also from u/Nebraska716, on the cored property, the owners could not find pieces of vehicles for insurance purposes. I have also seen a picture where the remains of a car were a few small steel fragments, but I can't find it.

Next, the tornado did hit a 2 story home and trenched it. The entire home was gone, cleaned of debris. The plumbing was pulled out of the ground and tore the wall off of a safe.

Lastly, the tornado seemed to pelt everything with mud. There is a myth that the tornado got the mud from crossing a lake, but it never did. This proves the tornado was scouring the ground and lifting mud into the sky. Trees (I believe mesquite) were shredded beyond belief.

Thankfully this tornado didn't directly hit a town, because the town would've been erased from the map.

The same thing applies for the next tornado:

2. Bakersfield Valley, TX F4, 6/1/1990

This tornado straight up has no known images, and was neglected by the NWS due to its location.

Many people, including me, consider this a top 5 strongest tornado ever, and for good reason.

Why do I consider this tornado a contender for the strongest ever? Here's everything the tornado did:

\- Shattered a few hundred foot long concrete strip in an irrigation ditch

\- Did the worst mesquite tree damage of all time (beating out Bridge-Creek Moore 1999, Moore 2013,...)

\- Had the widest ground scouring path ever

And what it did next is one of if not the most impressive tornado DI ever. It pushed 3 180,000 oil tankers 600 ft up a 40 degree incline slope. This is just insane and would requite 333-416 mph winds. The oil tankers were unanchored from their foundation, and the foundation was cracked. I've heard people say this tornado has been exaggerated and that the mesquite trees were dead, but surveyors noted many granulated mesquite trees (not all could be dead), and there is no proof the oil tankers never went that far. I have seen images of erased homes claimed to be from this tornado, but it's not confirmed so I never put it on here.

last 2 images here if ur curious: [https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1ljmy5h/my\_lukewarm\_take\_of\_the\_day\_the\_1990\_bakersfield/](https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1ljmy5h/my_lukewarm_take_of_the_day_the_1990_bakersfield/)

The tornado thankfully never cored any houses at peak strength. You can picture what would've happened if it did.

Two lesser documented tornadoes that could've been the strongest ever.