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Severe Weather Threat May 17-19, 2025

Western_KS_Wx said:
Earlier this morning I went and photographed some incredible damage to vegetation along this road 3 miles south of Grinnell, Kansas. The tornado left virtually not a blade of grass standing in the ditch on either side of the road, and in some locations scoured the ground to where there was just dirt behind. The centerline of the tornado was made remarkably visible as well in the soil as it crossed the road. I also noticed an old corn field to the south had essentially all dead corn stalks removed and several sizeable gouges in the soil from intense vortices. Some of these cornstalks were speared into the side of the ditch like lawndarts. This was the most intense scouring I was able to find along the path.
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Just out of curiosity, have you surveyed the first two tors near Greensburg yet? I saw almost zero info about these two, the only damage I can get likely from this post.
 
The most violent tornado of the day was no doubt the Plevna tornado, that thing was high end without a doubt. Whether it produced damage further W of Plevna to prove it, I'm not sure yet.
 
Western_KS_Wx said:
Earlier this morning I went and photographed some incredible damage to vegetation along this road 3 miles south of Grinnell, Kansas. The tornado left virtually not a blade of grass standing in the ditch on either side of the road, and in some locations scoured the ground to where there was just dirt behind. The centerline of the tornado was made remarkably visible as well in the soil as it crossed the road. I also noticed an old corn field to the south had essentially all dead corn stalks removed and several sizeable gouges in the soil from intense vortices. Some of these cornstalks were speared into the side of the ditch like lawndarts. This was the most intense scouring I was able to find along the path.
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This is some of the more impressive ground scouring I’ve seen photographed.
 
One of the most confusing DIs of this whole outbreak sequence has to be the cars in Bloomington, IN. Looks like they got tossed and demolished, but most of the nearby houses only suffered minor roof damage. The worst roof damage is next to the worst damaged cars though. So the tornado must've been razor thin in this location.

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The most controversial aspect of this EF2 rating isn't even the cars. Toward the end of the tornadoes path as it entered some foothills and valleys it rapidly intensified. It absolutely mangled trees, scoured the ground, and swept away a home. The home was described in the DAT as "All walls collapsed, but there was poor anchoring and debris loading".

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If there's one thing I HATE most about current survey practices, it's the use of incorrect DIs to access lower wind speeds. If you have to use the lower bound, that's absolutely fine, but don't log inaccurate, falsified data on purpose! As poorly built/anchored as that home may have been, it's GONE. And the contextual damage surrounding it is very impressive. "All walls collapsed" doesn't even remotely describe the actual damage that occurred here. Meanwhile, even mobile homes that are tossed fair distances are classified as EF3 DIs. Yet, this was rated EF2.
 
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Another EF3 in Morganville, Kentucky uprooted corn crops and scoured the ground at the beginning and end of its path. In the middle it basically completely slabbed two homes. Both were once again classified as "all walls collapsed".

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In my opinion the contextual tree damage justifies an upgrade to EF4
 
New video from some of the SW KS tors on May 18th, I'd say that's one of the more impressive damage I've seen from that cell, hardwoods debarked with one completely debarked, possible ground scouring, houses swept clean to slab, not sure which tor is but def that's some really high-end damage
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tornado examiner said:
Oh and…first news updates for Grinnel…
140mph EF3 for that one…according to a news site.
Uuuuhhhmmmm…
I’m gonna wait on that. But, the…prelim EF2 rating is starting to make more sense.
So…nws goodland may be hyper conservative as well…especially since they said they’re finishing surveys today.

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Well, at least it's good for helping to fill my NWS sh0tlist.

What do you think @TH2002 and @buckeye05?
 
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