Memphis Weather

Likely the radar imagery from Portugal is what pushed this to classification. It would probably have been declared a STS in post season analysis had they not named it today.

This won't be Alpha either!

Regarding Onalaska....

SUMMARY...SUMMARY BASED ON RECENT RADAR AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA, A STRONG TO INTENSE TORNADO WITH POTENTIAL PEAK WINDS OF 130 TO 165 MPH (EF2-EF3) IS LIKELY ONGOING. DISCUSSION...DISCUSSION RECENT RADAR SIGNATURES FROM KGRK AS OF 2250Z REVEAL AN INTENSE SUPERCELL CHARACTERIZED BY A 0.5 DEGREE ROTATIONAL VELOCITY OF AT LEAST 70 KT. A TORNADIC DEBRIS SIGNATURE HAS ALSO BEEN NOTED ON RECENT RADAR SCANS. THESE SIGNATURES ARE OCCURRING IN AN ENVIRONMENT CHARACTERIZED BY STP BETWEEN 5 AND 6. PREVIOUS SIGNATURES WITHIN SIMILAR ENVIRONMENTS PRODUCED TORNADO-DAMAGE-ESTIMATED WIND SPEEDS FROM 130 TO 165 MPH AND CONFIDENCE IS HIGH FOR A STRONG TO INTENSE TORNADO. A LONGER-TRACK TORNADO IS ONGOING AND MAY CONTINUE BASED ON THE ROTATIONAL VELOCITY DURATION AND THE STORM MOVING WITHIN A FAVORABLE DOWNSTREAM ENVIRONMENT.

Looks like that one has roped out at least for the moment

Violent motion on this one. Sub vortices evident.

News 9 Live stream

Tornado continues to get larger

Fairly large cone on News 9 now

This is still the lead cell

Anything less than full devastation in Soso or any of the other small communities that have already been hit would be a miracle. The debris fallout on Correlation Coefficient is unlike anything I've seen before....

Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks for the info! I have to say...its the best NWS assessment I've seen. Great coverage of the societal aspect. I'm interested now to see what the eventual changes will be...how a "impact-based" system is implemented. At the least...as CT Rain says...appears the Tornado Emergency is going to become a separate product...but appears even bigger changes will eventually come.

Fastest turnaround I've ever seen for a NWS assessment...4/27 report isn't even out yet. Many big statements in this one. Quotes that the warning system (and outdoor sirens) "have lost a degree of credibility"...and proposes a framework for basically a new warning system all-together. Another major proposal...implementing a new 88D VCP that allows for one-minute 0.5* slices...

Thanks for some great clarification there! Seems that perhaps the 225-250 estimate is still valid then. Either way...no matter the exact speeds...its just a tragic and heartbreaking sight...and the stories of you...JoMo and others continue to be incredible. The fact remains as you say that this is the deadliest tornado of the modern era and that's the most important thing to remember in terms of historical perspective.

First off...I agree..."low-end" EF5 is not a good term to use...though I understand why it does get used. EF5 is EF5 by that point...but the implication is probably something between 200 and 210mph. My main question is...why did the Springfield WFO MIC go on-air for a live interview to a TV station and explicitly state that they estimate the strongest winds at 225-250mph if that either wasn't true...or they just didn't have enough confidence to go with such a number yet. I would not have been expecting an MIC especially to throw out a number like that unless they were pretty sure of it (even if it never appeared on official statements)...so I think that's why it got reported so much that day when the interview aired. Even TWC was quoting that interview several times. If it wasn't that strong...that doesn't bother me in the end...I do trust what all the teams have been doing on the ground there...which I can't imagine being tasked to do...but I would like to know how an MIC let that slip if it wasn't true or just wasn't credible to that point of the survey.