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Severe Threat May 15-16, 2025

Wow. Again, my jaw was nearly on the floor last night watching the Somerset/London tornado. As someone who grew up in Eastern KY, you just rarely see tornadic supercells like that in this area, not to mention one EF3+. The last time we had a tornado of that magnitude in that region would probably be the Super Outbreak of 74 when multiple F4s and F3s hit Wayne, Pulaski, Knox, and Rockcastle counties.

One thing I do want to add, don’t necessarily be surprised if there is some rating controversy on this one. Jackson is extremely inexperienced and understaffed. I don’t think they have ever had to survey any kind of storm of this magnitude, the 3/2/2012 storms hit more sparsely populated areas than this one. Hopefully another WFO helps assist and consult. This isn’t me ripping them, it’s just very rare but not unprecedented for tornados of that magnitude in this area.
 
I have some good news. I called the hotel my mom and I are staying in Columbus, Indiana tonight on our way to Michigan and the manager on duty says everything is fine at the hotel and it’s safe to stay there tonight. I caught a report from one of the stations in Indianapolis and it looks like the tornado lifted right before it got to Columbus.
 
ColdFront said:
Wow. Again, my jaw was nearly on the floor last night watching the Somerset/London tornado. As someone who grew up in Eastern KY, you just rarely see tornadic supercells like that in this area, not to mention one EF3+. The last time we had a tornado of that magnitude in that region would probably be the Super Outbreak of 74 when multiple F4s and F3s hit Wayne, Pulaski, Knox, and Rockcastle counties.

One thing I do want to add, don’t necessarily be surprised if there is some rating controversy on this one. Jackson is extremely inexperienced and understaffed. I don’t think they have ever had to survey any kind of storm of this magnitude, the 3/2/2012 storms hit more sparsely populated areas than this one. Hopefully another WFO helps assist and consult. This isn’t me ripping them, it’s just very rare but not unprecedented for tornados of that magnitude in this area.
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I'll bet NWS Paducah or NWS Nashville help out with them.
 
We’ll have to wait and see, and don’t shoot the messenger here, but I could see them honing in on the CMU foundations in London for a lower than expected rating. Regardless, clearly a violent tornado. Contextual evidence makes that very evident here, and the rating should NOT hinge on the foundation type as sole determining factor in this case. Fingers crossed they play this the right way and make a good call, but unfortunately the Jackson, KY office is not very experienced with tornadoes of this caliber, and lack of experience can lead to overly tentative, second-guessing, low-confidence surveying. We shall see..
 
Taylor Campbell said:
A terrible and typical mistake by the warning coordinator at NWS BMX of not issuing a severe thunderstorm warning for Randolph county, AL. At least NWS Peachtree City will get it right for their area.
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Yeah that's really bad. I measured a 67 mph wind gust on velocity and no warning. You know you messed up when another WFO issues a downstream STW for a "strong thunderstorm."

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One quick note on my sparsely populated comment about the 3/2/12 tornados. Yes, I know one of the tornados hit West Liberty, but the entire county that West Liberty is in has 13,000 people. The city of Somerset has 12,000 people with 65,000 in the county.
 
buckeye05 said:
We’ll have to wait and see, and don’t shoot the messenger here, but I could see them honing in on the CMU foundations in London for a lower than expected rating. Regardless, clearly a violent tornado. Contextual evidence makes that very evident here, and the rating should NOT hinge on the foundation type as sole determining factor in this case. Fingers crossed they play this the right way and make a good call, but unfortunately the Jackson, KY office is not very experienced with tornadoes of this caliber, and lack of experience can lead to overly tentative, second-guessing, low-confidence surveying. We shall see..
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Agreed. I’ve actually driven past those homes in the drone video off of I75 countless times, and as you noted, plenty of CMU foundations.

One area that does have very large home types are some of the more relative affluent areas between Somerset and London. However, those homes are spread across large acre properties and not tightly packed like a subdivision so it’s entirely probable the tornado missed them.
 
ColdFront said:
Agreed. I’ve actually driven past those homes in the drone video off of I75 countless times, and as you noted, plenty of CMU foundations.

One area that does have very large home types are some of the more relative affluent areas between Somerset and London. However, those homes are spread across large acre properties and not tightly packed like a subdivision so it’s entirely probable the tornado missed them.
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Yeah, that’s what I am worried about. I looked at maps and there are some sparsely spread out houses and they looked relatively large.
 
So, I was asleep during the madness - and the bullsh*t - last night, because I didn't have much sleep the night before. With my health, I have to have sleep. But I received numerous messages last night about the political nonsense in a thread dedicated to an - at the time ONGOING - tornado outbreak. I am not wasting my time going through the thread deleting messages or giving warnings because there's no point. Some members here don't listen to me - yet they do other mods and admins - and think they can say whatever they want without consequence, and quite frankly, I don't have the time, energy or desire to deal with it anymore. I think I will be talking to Wes about finding someone else to do this and go back to just being a member.
 
MichelleH said:
So, I was asleep during the madness - and the bullsh*t - last night, because I didn't have much sleep the night before. With my health, I have to have sleep. But I received numerous messages last night about the political nonsense in a thread dedicated to an - at the time ONGOING - tornado outbreak. I am not wasting my time going through the thread deleting messages or giving warnings because there's no point. Some members here don't listen to me - yet they do other mods and admins - and think they can say whatever they want without consequence, and quite frankly, I don't have the time, energy or desire to deal with it anymore. I think I will be talking to Wes about finding someone else to do this and go back to just being a member.
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I thought the discussion was in very poor taste because it was in the middle of the tornado. I will say Michelle, you’re the only mod that’s consistently present and makes an attempt to at least moderate the site, which I do appreciate. The other mods are rarely ever on here or actively moderate the threads. Like the site was broken for a week and it was crickets from them. I do think there needs to be a discussion about additional mods being brought on board that can be more present. Political discussion can have its place and time, but last night Was not that time.
 
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