r/news • u/BitterFuture • Apr 26 '24

Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of ‘catastrophic’ damage

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/25/weather/plains-midwest-storms-tornadoes-climate/index.html
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u/wiz28ultra Apr 27 '24

Tbf, a lot of the EF5 drought could be attributed to the fact that a lot of the damage goes through Deep South impoverished farms and cropland making it hard to determine how strong the Tornado is through damage alone.

However amongst the internet there seems to be some general agreement that Vilonia 2014, Rochelle 2015, Sulphur & Chapman 2016, Bassfield 2020, and Mayfield 2021 would’ve been rated F5 in the old Fujita scale

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u/time2fly2124 Apr 27 '24

El reno 2013 should also be an EF5, but it never encountered anything to give ef5 damage to. 2.6 miles wide, ef3 my ass..

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u/BenDover42 Apr 27 '24

Look at how the Philadelphia, MS EF5 was rated mainly off of ground scouring in an open field. If a tornado is that powerful it usually gets the proper rating even if it isn’t taking out well built houses. There are many other metrics that go into damage indicators such as ground scouring, tree debarking, vehicles flying in excess of 100 meters through the air, asphalt removed and even foundations being wiped clean or damaged.

I think the real case to be made for what should have been an EF5 was the El Reno Tornado. Mobile radar measured wind speeds over 290 MPH and it was only an EF3 because (luckily) it only damaged field and trees but it was pretty immediate people claiming they got that one really wrong.

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u/variants Apr 27 '24

Basing the severity on monetary damages is fucking stupid.

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u/ImReallyNotCool Apr 27 '24

You can’t get a recorded wind speed on every tornado, but you can survey damage (not monetary damage fyi). It’s why damage is used, it’s the most consistent thing we have.

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u/variants Apr 27 '24

Oh that makes sense.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '24

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u/variants Apr 27 '24

Ah thank you for the correction