***Official 2024 Weather Thread***
- Thread starter wxman1
- Start date
The rating is really only important for historical/statistical purposes. I am not a huge fan of the EF scale. Yes, NWS personnel are trained and can bring in other experts to help, but they are not civil/construction engineers. So depending on availability, an inexperienced survey crew might not have a very accurate rating. But mostly, the severity or strength of the tornado is tied to what it hits. And oftentimes it is nothing but open fields/dirt. Or it's a 220 mph monster but only hits poorly constructed buildings thus stays EF3 or EF4 when in reality, it may have been an EF5 had it hit the rare structure that qualifies as well-built.
I think many tornadoes are underrated in intensity because of it.
I think many tornadoes are underrated in intensity because of it.
Which is why is important to remember that the EF-scale is not a wind-measurement scale.
The rating is on the damage, and not the tornado itself, directly speaking at least.
As far as using radar for ratings go, radar winds aloft are not that well correlated to what is happening at the surface. Severe Thunderstorm Warning verifications are all the further you have to look on that point.
Even the DOW measurement from Greenfield that set the internet on fire was still 144 feet in the air, and it was parked right outside of town! Then it's what fraction of 1% of all tornadoes have a DOW right on top of them?
Radar is sampling such an infinitesimally small percentage of tornadoes at anything close to approximating surface wind speed that it would add a whole new mess and layer of inconsistency to everything, so it's not a magic wand either.
Per that, it was less than a half mile from us, but that is a generalized, hand drawn image. I saw a video from my hygienist today and it shows the view from her house toward a treeline; the tornado was just on the far side of the trees. Using Google earth, at the point it was 0.45 miles from our front door, and passed to the east of us (but I'm not sure exactly how far over).
Basically, I think we dodged a bullet.
Edit: thank you for tracking that down for me!
The tornado started across the street from our house in Johnston. We were very fortunate we only lost a tree and fences. I was stupidly monitoring the weather from my deck when it touched down. I thought I was smarter than the weather, but it turns out you can’t track the potential path of a tornado when it first drops down a football field away from you.
Just heard the state insurance commissioner on the news talking about insurers leaving the state because the weather events the last couple years made it unprofitable to remain here. He also stated that some companies were giving discounts to those who's structures met certain criteria, which I was alluding could happen. They'd be protected from lawsuits if it were stated in your policy what standards need to be met and what premiums would be for different compliance to their standards would be offered. The rating of an actual tornado would be immaterial but the damage done by an event would be reflected by the building code parameters at certain premium levels thus accomplishing the same end. We all know that discounted premiums is a polite way to say you are all going to pay but we'll charge less if you are more bulletproof than the next guy.
The Elie, Manitoba tornado was never wide yet was still rated an F5.
2007 Elie tornado - Wikipedia
Yeah, an F1 can completely level a town.
Once your house is leveled does it matter if it’s in 1,000 pieces or a 1,000,000? Of course not.
Where would it be profitable to be these days? Weather events are happening everywhere. Between tornados, floods, fires, and hurricanes if an insurance company wants to avoid them their client base will be quite small.
My best friend lives near you. They lost a bunch of trees and some fencing as well. They have some minor roof damage.
They talked about how this was a rare 15% tornado threat for a week before this happened and people are still out driving around for whatever reason.
You turn on the news and they are begging people to head to their shelter and then it flips over to the traffic cam and people are out getting groceries instead.
How were the lines at the grocery store?
How the hell would I know? I take my kids and head to the basement so we all survive instead of suddenly needing to go outside in the middle of an F4.
I also stop for cops when they ask me to instead of running people over and then getting a bunch of charges.
So I'm sitting pretty good actually, no cars swept away in tornadoes and nobody injured when I'm asked to stop.
I also stop for cops when they ask me to instead of running people over and then getting a bunch of charges.
So I'm sitting pretty good actually, no cars swept away in tornadoes and nobody injured when I'm asked to stop.
You triggered guys can dumb my posts in secrecy all you want, but answer a simple question. Why are people out when the news is frantically begging people to take shelter and they are reiterating how dangerous the situation is?
I'm sorry but there's no valid excuse for anybody unless you are Reed Timmer.
I'm sorry but there's no valid excuse for anybody unless you are Reed Timmer.
It's not that you're wrong, it's that you're being an a**hole.
