HurricaneJosh

Well... I'm sure it matters a little to wx nerds. I know it matters to me. Like, I'm curious to know what they find and how they rate it. It was obviously a big event.

No, but it's plenty of time for the average, able-bodied citizen to take cover, or for a teacher to bring children into the stairwells (or wherever they bring them). Maybe because I'm from earthquake country, where we get zero warning-- catastrophes happen in the blink of an eye, like a bomb going off-- fifteen minutes just seems like a generous amount of time for making decisions and taking action.

JoMo, in one of his last posts, mentioned the sirens had gone off. Also, in the now-famous video from the convenience store, you can overhear people talking about a warning before the tornado hits the building. My impression was that they didn't actually see the funnel coming-- it was large and rather foggy-looking-- but were taking cover due to the warning. I could be wrong, but that's my impression. They had some warning for sure.

Well of course. I would assume they're in there today.

Re: the EF5 thing... People sometimes seem quick to call an EF5 when they see a neighborhood flattened, but of course so much depends on the quality of the construction, etc. As most people here know, a house can get "swept away"-- leaving a bare foundation-- by something much less than an EF5 if it's not properly attached to the foundation. One other thing: when you see a wide, aerial shot of Moore, OK, or Greensburg, KS, you're not really looking at EF5 damage-- you're looking at EF3-EF4 damage, within which are a couple of isolated instances of EF5 damage. So, seeing these flattened neighborhoods in Joplin doesn't immediately say EF5 to me-- it says an obviously violent tornado went through, and it could have been an EF5. Let's see if they can find some specific evidence of it. It seems pretty clear that this was at least an EF4.

Wow-- there are some really awesome moments late in the clip as they almost get to the periphery of the tornado circulation. I met Jeff in Mexico when I was chasing Hurricane Jimena. (He chases hurricanes now and then.) He's known as a pretty daring, aggressive sort of chaser, if I remember correctly. Like, he really goes for it.

Ugh, that is just not right. Those poor people must be traumatized already.

JoMo's posts from yesterday, up until the storm hit. The good news is that they had warning-- he heard sirens: Note: The timestamps are Pacific time, so add 2 hours for local (Central) time. JoMO, I hope all is OK for you!

It may end up being an EF5, but I don't think it would be based on this sort of evidence. Lesser tornadoes can really toss vehicles, which are relatively light for their size.

Yeah. I'm not denying it was an EF5-- I just haven't seen personally seen evidence of that. I would say it was most certainly at least an EF4, as per my comments above-- I've seen a few photos that look like hearty proof.

Hmmm. Can you share the images that look EF5 to you? Curious to see!

That's a great point-- that these other "warning-era" urban tornadoes didn't kill anywhere near as many people as these 2011 events. I didn't even think of that. Re: the hospital... It's beaten up, but the actual structure looks to be intact, based on the images I've seen.

2011 is having a very "1953" feel to it-- with multiple incidents of violent tornadoes hitting decent-sized cities and extracting large death tolls.

Reuters has that figure as well. So it's the deadliest single American tornado since Udall, KS, in 1955? We already hit that milestone this year, didn't we?

So, what's the expectation Re: intensity-- EF4? A few of the damage pics have an EF4 look to them, with the homes really flattened and the trees stripped completely down to sticks. It definitely looks worse than EF3 to me in some places.

Yeah, I noticed that-- a very high number of fatalities for the size of the area affected. Yeah, maybe it's a mistake or something-- or, like you suggested, maybe this part of the survey covers only one part of the track. I just find it hard to imagine that a discrete event with a track length that short generated winds over 200 mph. That would just be too weird!

Not sure-- I was just reading from the survey report. Perhaps I misunderstood?

Interesting that the Smithville EF5 was relatively localized for such an intense event-- the path length was less than 3 mi, and it only damaged a few dozen homes. It must have spun up and wound down really fast-- like a microcane that bombs out and then totally falls apart.

Wow-- really cool. Thanks for posting this.

OK, gotcha. I was having a hard time believing that was one continuous surface circulation-- but, hey, it's been an extraordinary event. Why would I be surprised by anything at this point? I can't wait to read the survey report on that one (or those ones)-- and to see some detailed damage maps.

Re: Northridge, a lot of energy was sent N, but some of the pockets of max (Level IX) shaking occurred in Sherman Oaks and Santa Monica-- two densely-populated parts of the metroplex-- and most of the city had very heavy (Level XII-XIII) shaking. Sorry to go OT... Back on topic... Did I hear correctly that the Tuscaloosa tornado started in MS, crossed AL, and moved into GA without lifting? If so, wow.

I'm amazed at the hostility toward a suggestion of simple building standards. In CA it is simply an expectation-- and guess what? When our metroplex of 8 million had a direct hit by a quake that produced whopping Level IX shaking right in the city, only 75 people died-- out of 8 million. Strict CA building codes saved thousands of lives.